I was talking to a guy this morning who is a member of the Gridiron Club. We were talking about the whole Miles situation and who might replace him and lots of stuff like that. I mentioned "Why didn't Miles replace JJ with Jarrett Lee in the second half of the BCSNC. He said that Lee had skipped a class and that Miles hates skipping class as much as he hates fumbles. He said skipping class is the fastest way to get in Miles permanent doghouse. Still, it's hard to believe Miles would knowingly look like an idiot in front of millions of viewers just to make a point to JL. I would have said, "Jarrett, have you learned your lesson? Will you ever skip another class? Now put on your helmet and start warming up." It's not like Lee beat up his girlfriend or was a thief or anything. Who among us has never skipped a class?
yeah cuz we know les usually makes timely changes based on offensive success or not. lets just blame studrawa instead and pretend it wasnt les.
So I guess it's ok that JJ was stoned out his head (and part of the first 1/2). That's a good enough reason not to put JL in. (source a player during that time frame that may or may not have been forced to sit the bench)
It wasn't just one class. After Bama game that year Miles received progress reports on all players and discovered that Lee only attended 2 or 3 classes all semester. When confronted Lee acted like he didn't have to go to class because his girlfriend broke up with him. It was so bad academic wise that Lee didn't graduate and spent most of bowl preparation in intersession courses which lead to us losing a scholarship for the next class and having to offer a greyshirt (can't think of his name but ended up committing to Auburn instead I believe). Lee wasn't available for the NC game because of the doghouse.
Well, why didn't Miles come out after the game and say, "listen, for reasons I cannot go into, Jarrett Lee wasn't available for the game. Period. So, for those of you second guessing why we didn't make a change in the second half, Jarrett Lee was not an option." I mean, if he at least addressed the elephant in the room, so many of us would not have been as frustrated. It looked to most of us that there was "no want" to win. Like we threw in the towel. A weird second half, really. It looked like he just gave up. Most of us have the attitude that you play to win until the final :01 ticks off of the clock, and he never, to my knowledge, ever came out and addressed any of that to help the healing of those of us this invested in LSU football.
I'm pretty sure we all would have liked to have known, but one of Les' endearing qualities is not throwing players under the bus. Les killed his own reputation, largely, in that game that night. Now, I don't think Lee would have been successful in the game, regardless, because our OL was getting abused like they were the new guys on the cell block in Angola. However, by not throwing Lee under the bus AND by not putting him into the game to fail, that mediocre QB has gone down in LSU lore as a hero.
Well, I think you can address the elephant in the room without throwing anyone under the bus. One can be exclusive of the other. He never addressed anything really. Very disappointed withe loss, and how he handled everything after the loss --> explanation of the game, improving the offense in a meaningful way going forward, elevating the fire and grit to get back to the NC game with a different outcome in mind, etc. I didn't see any of that.
