if youll have him:

•  He can be a sideline nut job who manages games like his hair is on fire.

•  Ask him a at once.

•  And the hat? Make that The Hat. Lets just say truckers all over the country are proud.

Les Miles has enjoyed success during his LSU tenure but he finds himself on the hot seat. (AP) No matter what you think of that profile, Michigan, theres one small problem: Les Miles coaches LSU right now. You know hes a Michigan man who played under Bo and weve been through this before.

The timing probably wasnt right for Miles to lea Miles was chasing a national championship. Now, h won more games in five years (51) than any coach in LSU history including Nick Saban.

Miles has beaten Alabama, Auburn and Florida all in the same season. Twice. The man has won almost 70 percent of his career games. But that championship was three years ago. Since then he is 17-9, which hardly qualifies dropping off the face of the earth.

Heres the dichotomy: LSU may not want him after this season, but Michigan cant have him. Not yet. Peruse this open letter to fans from LSU AD Joe Alleva sent in January. It basically put his coach on notice and seems a bit bold considering Miles accomplishments. Alleva termed last years 9-4 season a “nice: season. “On the other hand, being “nice” is not our annual goal,” Alleva wrote.

That was five days after Alabama beat Texas for the SECs fourth consecutive national championship. Alleva hardly let LSU fans exhale. This from the former AD at noted football power who played at noted power .

Check yourself, Joe, and quit pandering to the populace. Then check Les contract. It has a guaranteed rollover for 100 percent of the remaining salary. If Miles is axed at the end of this season, LSU would owe him between $14-$15 million. Alleva still has a ways to go to make that number manageable. That rollover, which wasnt renewed the past two seasons, would still have four years to run after this season.

Alleva didnt negotiate it (the former chancellor did) and Miles didnt seek it, but what is done is done. LSU is strapped. It basically cant afford to fire Miles meaning Michigan may be shut out of a candidate before it starts looking.

“The hot seat is a wonderful thing for the people in this room,” Miles said Friday at SEC media days. “Its a defining couple of words, right? Its the hot seat.”

It also puts Michigan LSU in a confining box. you believe Michigan is going to make a move with Rodriguez and you believe t as predict then things could get interesting.

Alleva seemingly is stuck with a coach he may not want and a contract he definitely doesnt want. Meanwhile, its looking like Michigan will have to go through the dancing-with-the-stars routine it went through a couple of years ago.

You should be understanding why coaches seek those multi-million dollar deals and rollover guarantees. It hasnt been that long since LSU fans exhaled for a different reason. Miles had to interrupt his game day preparations for the SEC title game in 2007 to emphatically state he was staying at LSU .

Some Tigers, Alleva apparently among them, believe that Miles has lost his mojo since then. Be careful what you wish for, Tigers. Were talking about a school that was led out of the wilderness by Saban. In 2003, The Sabanator wiped away four decades of frustration by delivering a national championship. Miles came from Oklahoma State and did the same thing in 2007.

What are the odds: Same school, two championships, two different coaches, five years apart?

Answer: Somewhere between rare and astronomical.

“Without tooting your own horn, when youre the winningest coach in your first five years at the school youre currently coaching, you enjoy that,” Miles told in June. “You get a certain understanding of the accomplishments that have been made. The whole [hot seat] notion is crazy. But thats today, thats America. We want it now.”

This must be an SEC thing, or maybe its a nationwide thing. Mark Richt is feeling pressure at Georgia despite similar success and a superior winning percentage to Miles. LSU, youre lucky, you just dont know how lucky. Miles can recruit with the best of them. His players love to play for him. There have been minimal NCAA dust ups.

In four of his five seasons, he has won at least nine games. He shepherded LSU through the Rita and Katrina disasters. He delivered that championship.

Hes quirky, but who isnt among major college coaches? He wears his hat like it is five sizes too small. His mind tends to wander when answering questions. There have been odd coaching decisions near the end of games, but they always seemed to go Miles way until lately.

There was the botched ending to the Ole Miss game last season that may or may not have been the coaching staffs fault.

“That did not go beyond my scrutiny,” Miles said. “I can promise you some of those situations Id never run into in coaching. Weve added that to our game week preparation. Maybe [well be] a little more ready to play in those situations.”

Worst of all, LSU, youre assuming things will get better with a new coach. You better get one who averages more than 10 wins a season. He better produce loads of All-Americans and ravenous defense. Before you do all that, ask Tennessee how it feels to change coaches.

Bo Schembechler may not have preferred Miles at Michigan but Bo passed before Miles won his title. Stanford coach Jim Harbaughs name also has popped up. But Harbaugh disparaged his alma maters (Michigan) academics a couple of years ago. He also had Stanford spend more than $50,000 to install a toilet in his bathroom.

thats what they call him. The Tigers coach with the used car salesman nickname isnt going to sit back and be roasted on the hot seat. Miles may be fired after or cheaply.

“Let me tell you about the hot seat,” Miles said. “The second game that we played, we were on the hot seat that day. Weve been on the hot seat since we got here.”

Posted on July 24th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: College football news, NCAA college football