i've always submitted that miles' supposed gambles in 07 were not gambles. go for it 5 times vs UF on 4th and short. sure, use a jacob hester if you have one. after hester left, the "gambling" went down. that 07 playbook was opened up for a 5th yr senior QB. what's the difference now? miles takes calcualted risks when he has the cards. when he doesn't, he won't. that's not gambling, that's dare i say, smart.
Your entire predicate is that Miles changed? And supporter of Miles or not, that lays all the blame of this team on him. The proper question is what has changed in our team? Then you can more accurately spread the blame between the coaches and the players. Neither function in a void. Miles would look better if RP had played and he had not tried the dual DCs. His defense looked better last year but his QB situation has been incredibly subpar. Part of that is due to circumstance, part to player, and part to coaching. But you can't look at the Ol Ms game last year and not blame Miles. You just can't. Our WRs were lazy the last two years as a result of a coach Miles evaluated and hired. So Miles shares blame in calls and development. But you also must look at every other thing that went badly at the same time. In retrospect, it looked like a car wreck. This year it appears that most every issue on the team is resolved with the exception of QB. Until that is rectified, Miles will get no credit for fixing anything. And we will continue to see the same thread, cleverly reworded, pop up again, and again, and again. There are no new answers, just the same questions.
Since I am probably considered a sunshine pumper, I will answer - no. Where have you read this? The play calling and game plan are clearly handcuffed because of our QB. Have you ever seen a game? This team won 9 last year with the same QB play, no running game, and no defensive line, so the answer is yes, this team will win 9+ games. Care to illuminate us on your thoughts about the actual thread topic? Or do you just want to bitch about Miles and the team?
Gary Crowton's offenses are proven to regress over time. It's because he is not a good teacher and developer. Coachin' em up isn't exactly Miles strong suit either, he's more of a motivational coach. Which is why I think he brought in Gonzales.
08 lost starting QB and 2nd string QB lost best coach on staff 09 QB problems and new staff Ole Miss ending 10 QB problems and better staff I expect better things this year
I think teams take risks when they have confidence. Chavis and Miles take risks with this defensive unit. Crowton and Miles haven't taken risks since Flynn graduated. If confidence is low, the risk is less attractive.
This. If you remember the 07 season, one of the things Miles said often was that there was never a play called that there was uncertainty about. All of the chances they took, they took because the coaching staff had confidence in the team's ability to pull it off, and the team had that same confidence. As much as everyone would like to think he is, Miles is not a stupid man.
Exactly. We went for it on 4th down an awful lot in 2007. All the Bammers and Barners were crying that Les took foolish risks was just incredibly"lucky". If they paid attention they would know that team was 81% on 4th down conversions, #1 in the country. A coach would be a fool not to take advantage of that kind of a 4th-down team. It was a calculated risk and at 81%, not much of one. Luck had nothing to do with it. It was smart coaching. In 2008, LSU was #87 in 4th down conversions making 38% of them. Did Les take foolish risks then. Nope.
