Les Miles is one of a kind

Coach Les Miles

It seems to me the LSU game has gotten a lot more publicity than the national championship game with Texas. Maybe its the fact that almost everyone in the State of Alabama knows the LSU players by name. Les Miles is widely known in Alabama as a either an idiot or a mad genius. He is the luckiest head coach I've every known. Some of his coaching decisions are based on what? The pass that beat Auburn when a field goal would have done is an example. Tennessee having too many men on the field  to give LSU another win is a perfect example.

There is a lot to like about Les Miles. I'm one of those rare 'Bama fans who really enjoy him. A Les Miles press conference is lot like the funny man who lives down the street pontificating on life. Miles seems openly honest. He "aw sucks" attitude and his ability to joke about himself are really funny. Beneath all that though is a very good head football coach. He came from Oklahoma State after rebuilding that program to at least be competitive with arch rival Oklahoma. He is much like by Boone Pickens and everyone likes Pickens. It's a long way from the backwoods of Ohio and and Elyria High School. Miles was an All-State in football and then went to Michigan. He knows earns a  reported 3.75 million dollars annually (not counting potential incentives)  He may be the "Mad Hatter" but if you recall Alice in Wonderland the Mad Hatter wasn't all that mad.

Miles did something at LSU that many consider to be the most difficult job in college football - he took over a program that was riding high and has kept the Tigers at that level ever since. He's done so with a good sense of humor and dead solid perfect recruiting. If you want to understand why he's so successful you need not go further than Nick Saban. He took over Saban's drive for perfection, using basically the same game plan as his predecessor, and then added his personal stamp on the program. All that has added up to a lot of success. From his proclivity to trickery to eating grass its hard not to think about Les Miles. Good, bad, or indifferent depending on your personal perspective, you still have to give him credit for what he has done with the Tigers.
He has been the head coach of a national championship. Tide fans might not remember that Miles was the second choice to Coach the Tide when Mike Shula was hired. Most people in the know maintain that Shula was hired because Miles made it clear that the "good old boys" would have no impute in how he ran his program. The exact thing that Saban did a few years later.

Under Miles the Tigers have gone to bowl games every season, and the Bayou Bengals have become a program to be feared. Saban may have started the Tigers on the path, but Miles has widened the road by shutting down the boundaries to the fertile recruiting ground called Louisiana. It's a tough act to follow Nick Saban. That was the LSU equivalent of who came after the Bear. Miles has been vetted more than any coach in college football. He withstood the storm and fans have come to love him. His public statement of F_ _K Alabama endeared him with his fan base.

There are still goals to be attained for Leslie Miles. He has won a couple of SEC West division titles, but has never won an SEC Title outright. This might be the year. The Tide is a five point favorite going into the game this weekend. Most experts give a team five points for the home field advantage. That means on a neutral field the teams are even.

Whoever wins the game this weekend will not define how good either program is today. This isn't a game where we have good vs. evil, or a historic upset might occur. It is a game where one man chooses to eat grass, and the other chooses to beat down a path on the sideline grass meet once again. I don't know who will win. If I'm a Bama fan I'd hope a lucky bounce isn't involved. We know who is lucky. The age old questin might finally be answered. Would you rather be lucky than good? Don't joke yourself. Luck seems to follow good teams. Ask Paul Bryant.

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