You can’t spend that much time at any one place and not have feelings.
Advertisement
There was the emotional Miles lovefest at his Wednesday call-in show, with children and adults alike shedding tears over the possibility that this would be it for their popular coach.
The reports of Les Miles’ demise are, at least, somewhat exaggerated. “You are our coach”, and Alleva followed with the same message.
Director of Athletics Joe Alleva began the press conference by announcing that Miles will remain as LSU coach.
But as the game ended, fans chanted, “Keep Les Miles!”. “These last three weeks will help this team grow and help us grow in life”. “It was hard for everybody”. “We all said we had to play LSU football”. “God does everything for a reason”. Three more runs moved the Tigers up to the Aggie 29.
LSU’s Domingue kicked 38-yard FG. It included one pass attempt – a big one.
That allowed Texas A&M to take a 7-6 lead into halftime.
The linemen lifted Miles not long after that. The Aggies managed seven points and 142 yards, while the Tigers scored six and gained 156 yards. Both played 11 games in the regular season. 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 had lost three straight games coming into Saturday night.
Those seniors honored were starting outside linebacker Lamar Louis of Breaux Bridge, quarterback/holder Brad Kragthorpe of Tulsa, Oklahoma, starting safety Jalen Mills of DeSoto, Texas, starting punter Jamie Keehn of Queensland, Australia, safety Tommy LeBeaux of Monroe, starting outside linebacker Deion Jones of New Orleans, starting snapper Reid Ferguson of Buford, Georgia, starting right tackle Vadal Alexander of Buford, Georgia and defensive tackle Quentin Thomas of Breaux Bridge.
But that was it for A&M as the LSU defense stood tall. At that point, we will turn our focus to that game.
The Tigers defense turned it up against their old boss.
“King Alexander came up and said, ‘I want you to be our coach, ‘” Miles said.
“We are going to go forward and win championships”, said Alleva. They closed it out and we didn’t. “The guy who delivered our body blows was Leonard Fournette”. On the next play, Guice took the hand-off on an end around to the far side of the field and raced 50 yards untouched for a touchdown, putting LSU back in the lead for good 13-7 with 7:13 to play in the third quarter. So, Miles never had the opportunity to tell the players that he was remaining as their coach.
“Can y’all imagine it without Coach Miles?”
Emotion and drama were heavy at Tiger Stadium. “We made sure that it would start with us”.
“They are still in the mix”, Chatman said of Florida and Oklahoma.
Got “my attention”, he said smiling. There were also several signs in support of Miles and asking for the firing of Alleva.
Les Miles’ destination is known – his home in Baton Rouge.
Advertisement
Later, he was asked to describe riding on his linemen’s shoulders. “To me, it’ll be nice to reacquaint myself with some of the guys that now know that I can be here”.
