Saturday was reportedly supposed to be Les Miles’ last game as head coach for the LSU Tigers.
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Fournette, who was one of Miles’ prized 2014 recruits, 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. “I am very pleased with going forward with Les Miles as our coach”.
All week leading up to Saturday’s game, one report after another speculated on Miles’ future as LSU coach.
In an awesome scene following the win, Tigers players carried Miles off the field as the crowd chanted “Keep Les Miles!”.
LSU (8-3) announced after the game Miles would retained as head coach. Alleva and LSU’s Board of Supervisors reportedly had been planning Miles’ firing for weeks in hopes of hiring Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who was LSU’s offensive coordinator from 2000-06 and won the 2013 national championship with the Seminoles.
Alleva informed Miles minutes before telling reporters.
That said, in an in-game interview with Maria Taylor of the SEC Network, O’Neal solidly backed Miles, and he said the school should be showing the coach “a lot more respect”. No recommendation has been made. That drive we had, the second-to-last drive when we scored, that took it out of me right there. “We seemed to undershoot our mark this year”, Miles said. “I think no one expected that”, said sports talk show host Ronnie Rantz.
In classic Miles fashion, LSU dominated the Aggies (8-4, 4-4 SEC) on the ground with 244 yards to 89. He completed just 7 of 21 attempts for 83 yards and was intercepted once. “The guy who delivered our body blows was Leonard Fournette”.
Miles indicated that he would evaluate his coaching staff and make any adjustments he deemed necessary. The Tigers have committed far too many penalties and looked lost coming out of timeouts. They blew their third scoring opportunity to open the third period.
LSU’s frustrations on offense were encapsulated by the opening possession of the second half, which began on the A&M 25 after Guice’s long kickoff return in which he broke more than a half-dozen tackles before finally getting pushed out of bounds. “He leads this team to a bowl game and to another great recruiting class”. “LSU played very well on defense”. Two rushes for 13 yards by Fournette put the ball at the Aggies’ 15, but Harris missed two passes, bringing on Domingue. The announcement capped more than a week of speculation that Miles was on the verge of losing his job after his first three-game losing streak in his 11 years at LSU.
Texas A&M quarterback Kyle Allen threw Ricky Seals-Jones for a 8-yard TD.
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Four players later, Fournette punched it in on third down from the 4, running over an Aggies defender at the 1-yard line for a rousing touchdown to make it 19-7.
