He smiled and gave them a reassuring wink.
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Report after report indicated that long time LSU Head Coach Les Miles was out. “What a great job it has been to lead a team on Tiger Stadium”. We should be a team playing for championships.
After several days of rumors that Miles would be fired, LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva addressed the topic for the first time, saying “Les Miles is our football coach and he will continue to be our football coach”.
“It’s not right to win occasionally”, Miles said. You have to win all the time.
When have you seen a team part with a successful coach so clearly revered by his fans and players? LSU’s kick and punt coverage units have been particularly atrocious.
“There has been much speculation that Les Miles is coaching his last game tonight”, Jacobs said to Gannett Louisiana Saturday morning.
There were a handful of pre-snap penalties and the passing game was largely ineffective. Most of his receptions came on check downs to running backs, including a critical third-down swing pass to Fournette for a 17-yard gain that sustained the Tigers’ final scoring drive.
The Tigers (8-3) added field goals of 32 and 38 yards by Trent Domingue, but Domingue missed three others from 25, 50 and 46 yards.
LSU drove 70 yards in 13 plays late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter with Fournette getting 60 of those on seven carries, including a 23-yard run to the A&M 13. He finished the game owning LSU’s single-season rushing record at 1,741 yards, surpassing the mark of 1,686 yards set by Charles Alexander in 1977.
Les Miles is staying at LSU.
“The motor seems to be pretty stinking strong”, Miles said of Fournette.
As of now, LSU has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country in 2016.
Did Miles really do anything that could be considered so egregious that he deserved to get the ax after one of the most successful coaching tenures in NCAA history?
Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron’s contract is up, and it’s not clear if he’ll return.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette ran for a 4-yard TD. He also reached 100 wins faster than any coach in LSU history. Over the last ten seasons, no college football coach has been more entertaining than Les Miles and no program has been as consistently good as LSU.
Still, Tigers receiver Malachi Dupre defended Miles’ record as a head coach.
Whether you believe that Miles won that title because of his outstanding job of coaching a talented group of young men to the pinnacle achievement of their young adult lives, or if you just think he got lucky by inheriting Saban’s leftovers, is a moot point.
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Miles’ postgame interview with the SEC Network was delayed because – as he said on air – he had to fulfill the Tigers’ postgame tradition of singing the school’s alma mater.
