The Tigers became the second preseason Top 10 team to tumble out of the rankings when Sunday’s Associated Press Top 25 poll was released.
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First reported by The Advocate in Baton Rogue, the decision to part ways with Miles after 12 seasons was made Sunday following a 18-13 loss to Auburn. Miles was nearly fired last season when consecutive losses to Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss seemed to doom him.
Dellenger also reports that current LSU defensive line coach Ed Orgeron will be offered the position of interim coach. A loss to Auburn on Saturday that dropped LSU to 2-2 didn’t help his longevity. But it will go down as the last after 11-plus seasons that were highlighted by a 2007 national title. Miles makes $4.3 million per year, and Cameron is paid $1.2 million per year. “Coach Miles has done a tremendous job here and he’s been a great ambassador for our university, which makes this even more hard”.
“However,”Alleva adds, “it’s apparent in evaluating the program through the first month of the season that a change has to be made”.
It was the latest of several frantic finishes in which the clock management of a Miles-coached offense had come under scrutiny.
Despite his unceremonious departure, Miles was highly productive for LSU, and was even reportedly targeted by MI before Jim Harbaugh became a serious candidate. He is so passionate about LSU. “I love you coach”. “I hurt for coach”.
“Coach Miles loves us. We had some great memories with him”, Fournette said. “He is one hell of a coach”. At the time, I did not expect either school to pull the plug the next day.
Receiver Travin Dural said Miles “almost broke down”, while delivering a touching speech, and added, “You could tell he loved the team”.
Cam Cameron also was sacked as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator. His offense was effective when his quarterback was Zach Mettenberger, a tall, strong-armed, pro-style pocket passer. The 2013 and “14 seasons were plagued with a passing game that ranked near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference and the nation”.
The 2011 Tigers were one victory away from going down as LSU’s best squad in more than a century of football. The Tigers also reached the 2011 BCS national championship game, falling to Alabama 21-0 in the Sugar Bowl. But his job was spared at the last hour due to an intervention by LSU president F. King Alexander, who was concerned about the political ramifications of paying out Miles’ then-$15 million buyout amid a higher education funding crisis.
Miles, who led the Tigers to three SEC West titles, two SEC championships and one national title, was in his 12th season with the program. Many believed Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher was the Tigers’ target should they have fired Miles last season.
Many picked LSU to rebound and contend for the College Football Playoff in 2016, but the Tigers lost their opener to Wisconsin at Lambeau Field.
Even if LSU had won, Miles would have been on a tightrope the rest of the season; that’s life at LSU.
The fact that Miles’ fortunes were dependent in the first place on a Purdue castoff quarterback trying to rally against a 1-2 opponent that itself couldn’t get in the end zone pretty much summed up the state of Miles’ program.
Orgeron, known by players as “Coach O”, is a Louisiana native and renowned recruiter.
While the firing of Miles carries a tangled heap of implications for the future of Ole Miss football (which we’ll touch on later this week), the most immediate effect is that Coach O will be steering the ship against Ole Miss when the Rebs head to Baton Rouge on October 22.
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“Coach O brings new energy”.
