Written by Joe Dexter at The Comeback
Welcome to the era of college football in which a coach that has won 77 percent of his games at an institution has to wait until the final play of an eight-win season (essentially nine, since a likely win was cancelled) to find out his fate.
Les Miles was carried off the field Saturday, after his LSU Tigers defeated Texas A&M, 19-7, not knowing if he would ever return to the sidelines.
Moments after the final play, Miles finally learned about his job status as he prepared for the postgame press conference with assembled members of the media.
It took ending a three-game losing streak for LSU athletic director Joe Alleva to have the confidence to say that Miles was his guy moving forward.
More than likely, it took a public outcry across the state… and Jimbo Fisher saying no to the Bayou.
In a college football world where “what can you do for me now?” means more than tradition and consistency, it shouldn’t be surprising that a coach such as Les Miles lives on the border between coaching legend and “searching for a new position.”
According to recruiting experts, the often brash head man has recruited the best class in the country for the 2016 season. He’s won 10 or more games in 7 of the 11 seasons he’s spent in Baton Rouge. Just four years ago, his Tigers were in a national championship game. In his 15 years as a head coach, the only time a Miles-led team hasn’t qualified for a bowl game was his first year at Oklahoma State in 2001.
After Saturday night’s fiasco at Louisiana State came to a close, all of those accomplishments were erased. As much as we continue to hide from it, the LSU administration proved to us yet again that college football is an industry.
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