Jackson Jambalaya

Well, we LSU fans got our hearts broken Friday. Atlanta was looking nice and playing for the BCS Title looked even nicer until our Pickett's charge foundered upon an interception. I've been saying for three years now I would save my judgement of Miles until after this year as I considered this season to be his exam. Well, it is time to grade the exam.

First the positives on Miles. I think he is a good man. He has good character. Family man type of guy and everyone who has met him likes him. The players like him. Not bad qualities for a coach to have.

If he stays at LSU, he will win 75% of his games. He is a good recruiter as he keenly recognizes talent. He hires good staff (although I am now questioning Pelini as a good SEC DC), showing he is not afraid to hire true experts for his team, something Dinardo was averse to doing. Hiring good coaches and having strong recruiting classes alone will ensure a winning record at LSU, a string of bowl games, publicity, and a decent ranking every year. See Cholly Mac.

Now for the negatives. I think although he has a good character, I think it is weak to some degree and lacks strong decision-making skills. I don't think its any coincidence that he had to kick 5 players off the team this year for violent crimes as he had similar problems at OSU. Now it is true Miles did the right thing in kicking off these players. What these guys did went way past teen-age stupidity. It makes one wonder why Miles is recruiting these players in the first place.

Perrilloux is a prime example of recruiting questionable players. Saban said he was not crazy about Perrilloux's character. When Miles came to LSU he made signing him a priority. Perrilloux has shown nothing special on the field (He has been at LSU for 3 years) and over the last year and has been in trouble repeatedly with each incident worse than the one before it. If the police reports from the incident at the Varsity are to be believed, Perrilloux truly is a thug. From what I have heard, his teammates are sick of him and his attitude. Make no mistake, Saban had his share of problem players too but they were not in the police blotters and headlines and frankly, the players WERE scared of Saban.

Forgetting Saban's ethics for the moment, there is one important fact to consider about Saban's evaluation of players: if the player is one Saban does not want or can't work out for Saban, history shows he is not worth having: Barrington Edwards, Robert Lane, Parquet..the list goes on. However, Miles has shown he will take a chance on such players and look what we get: reporters checking the police blotter on a daily basis with a stack of ten dollar bills ready to pay for police reports. Nice legacy. The question is by repeatedly recruiting players who get in trouble so much, does Miles make good decisions in recruiting? Does he focus just on talent? What is his philosophy when it comes to recruiting? Is talent alone the determining factor or does it include character and intelligence?

There has been another disturbing trend among his football team that can not be ignored. Under Miles, LSU tends to play to the level of the competition if its an SEC team, unless that team is really bad. His best SEC win was this year against South Carolina: 11 points. Consistently playing to the level of the competition usually indicates a very young team or weak coaching.

Every mediocre or better SEC team has presented us with the same scenario: LS comes out flat or has to win in the last minutes of the game. LSU does NOT come out and control the game from start to finish. Yes, Saban had 3 loss seasons but he also had games where we dominated (when is the last time you heard Miles talk about domination? You know why you don't know? Because he never has.) The record does not lie:
Florida: Every game but '06 was down to the wire
Tennesse: last minute win, OT loss
Arkansas: all three games were very close
Auburn: everyone knows that history
SC: won by 11
UGA: Blowout loss
Alabama: OT win, last minute win, came out flat in '06
Ole Miss: against bad Ole Miss teams: OT win, back and forth game last week.
Kentucky: average SEC team this year. we lose.
MSU: we've always owned them. same with Vandy.

In 03, LSU blew out Auburn, Georgia, S. Carolina, Bama, and Arkansas. LSU blew out FLorida in 02. We beat Arkansas handily in 04. Every good SEC coach will have wins against decent SEC teams where they have controlled the game from start to finish. We have had good teams blown out by Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and so on. Good SEC teams DON'T have Miles track record of playing exactly to the other team's level every game. From time to time, they dominate. At other times they are dominated but that is why you play the game.

Under Miles, LSU does not have a killer instinct for the most part. The result is we live by the edge and every game is a nail-biter in the SEC. That is fine for winning record. However, it shows something is not right. I don't think he focuses as other coaches do having his players dominate the other players. I think his nice guy personae plays into that and he does NOT have a killer instinct. One time I heard him defend the team having a tough game in saying hey, the other team was good. You can interpret that any way you choose. That lack of a killer instinct means we will usually lose that one game that keeps us from true success in college football.

In '05 before the Georgia loss, he flew to Dallas to discuss the Cotton Bowl with its representatives on Thursday night BEFORE the SEC Championship game. He defended it saying that was his normal family night so it did not interfere with his game preparations for Georgia. Oh really? I remember in 01 making fun of Fulmer because on that same night, he and one of his players flew to Florida and back to accept an award on that Thursday night when he should have been back in Knoxville getting his team ready for LSU. Can you imagine Saban or Meyer going out of town for a whole night 48 hours before the SEC Championship game? Can you imagine them doing family night before a big game. Make no mistake, coaches NEED to spend time with their families. However, 48 hours before such a game, shouldn't they be working on the game, not worrying about bowl games or awards? However, I digress.

The lack of discipline shows up on the field during games. Leading the SEC in penalties. Repeatedly committing personal fouls on the field. Punches to the head during games. Late hits. Experienced players repeatedly lining up wrong, costing us touchdowns. The constant inability of our offense to use the clock wisely. The refusal by Pelini to adjust on defense during games as needed. The numerous times where the team has lacked a killer instinct when the opponent could be put away for the rest of the game (see Arkansas and Alabama this year). As for the defense, even if the soft defense is due to Pelini, Miles still can overrule him, which apparently has not happened. One does not face SEC offenses with soft coverage and a basic 4 man rush. After three years with veteran, highly recruited players, this should not happen and the blame should be placed squarely at the feet of Miles. One must also wonder once again about his ability to make decisions when he allows coaches like Pelini to run schemes that obviously do not work and have not worked for some time.

I'm sorry for writing this as I like Miles as a person. However, LSU fans have to decide what are their expectations. If it is to be a winning program with bowl games every year, then Miles is the coach. However, there is a huge difference between a championship coach and a winning coach. Saban was a championship coach. Stallings was a championship coach. Meyer is one as well. We won't even mention Tuberville. Put those guys into big games that mean something, they know what to do. Miles has shown that in games that truly count, he does not know how to coach the team before or during the game.

I am not one of these idiot fans who think we should go undefeated every year and think ten wins a year is not good enough. However, I want a championship coach. My expectation is a top ten or so ranking every year and every 5 years, a shot at the national title. A shot, not a win. Its very rare you get to the level of Miami in the 80's or Florida State in the 80's or 90's where you are playing for one every year and I don't have those expectations.

After grading Miles' exam, I don't think Miles is a championship coach. He will win, he will have success and if that is the expectation, then he is the right coach for LSU. If a championship coach is desired, then he is not the right coach and LSU should let him go to Michigan. Unlike Skip, I don't want a "best fit". I want a championship coach who has his team disciplined on AND off the field. Having said that, LSU might beat Tennessee this week and win the SEC Championship. However, there will always be the fact that LSU was ranked number one twice this year and lost twice to average SEC teams that finished in the middle of their division.