Amid His Quirks, Les Miles is a Really Good Football Coach
Posted on October 11, 2011 by Jacob Bunn
The head football coach at LSU, Les Miles, has absorbed many jokes about his personality and characteristics over the years. He has never become upset at people calling him ‘the hat’ or making light of the fact that he was captured on camera eating grass during the second half of the LSU/Alabama game last year. When you look past the quirks in his personality, though, you find someone who is a very above average football coach.
He has won 72 percent of his games as a head football coach (80 percent at LSU). He has an SEC Championship and a BCS Championship on his head coaching resume. Every year, it seems, he has LSU in contention for the national championship.
For a time after Miles was hired at LSU, college football pundits attributed his success to the leftover athletes from when Nick Saban was the head coach in Baton Rouge. Some thought that was the reason his team won the national title in 2007. And, it’s true that there were plenty of players on the Tiger roster when Saban departed for the Miami Dolphins, but it takes a skilled coach to lead a team to a major achievement.
Now that several years have passed since the national championship, Miles’ team is yet again ranked at the top of the polls and in a prime position for a title run down the stretch. Let us not forget, though, LSU was in serious contention last season also. The Tigers lost to the eventual national champion, Auburn, by a touchdown. Then later in the year, they dropped another game to Arkansas in Little Rock.
This year, though, I doubt there will be more than one loss in the regular season for the Tigers. I feel that LSU is a very talented squad this year on both sides of the football, but particularly on defense. And I conclude that the reason LSU is as good as it is this year is a direct result of the coaching done by Miles and his staff.
It is clear to me, as I watch LSU week-in and week-out, that Miles’ team plays extremely hard for him and respond to his coaching extremely well. More than occasionally, he will do something completely unconventional, like the fake punt that his team successfully pulled off against Florida this past Saturday. I think that kind of style inspires his players and allows him to get the most productivity out of them. Because of his personality, I think fans feel like they have more of an affinity and connection to him than they do most coaches as well.
He is also a great staff manager. His hire of John Chavis as defensive coordinator was a really good one. And, his handling of the tough situation surrounding former offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe before the season displayed more of the human side to Les Miles.
With all of the changes in the SEC’s head coaching ranks the last few years, there is no question that there are two coaches who are a tier above the others, Les Miles and Nick Saban. The two have met across the gridiron four times, and both have won twice. This year, both coaches have championship contending teams with top-notch defenses. Is anyone else ready for November 5th?
There will always be an added element of humor when talking about Les Miles. But as far as being an SEC head coach, he deserves respect as one of the best. Every year, it seems, we hear a ton about how Les Miles is one of those coaches who will be on the hot seat if his team starts losing during the season. Yet every year, Miles’ teams continue to succeed. So now that he has his team in legitimate competition for the BCS Championship for the third time in six years, I think we can say he has done an exceptional job at LSU.
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Email Jacob at jacob@bunnsports.com and follow him on Twitter at @JacobBunn
