.....waiting for Les Miles to be fired. LSU typically has the most talent in the west. They dominate recruiting in Louisiana, rob plenty of recruits from Mississippi, and they raid the Mobile and Florida panhandle regularly. In addition, they hold their own in the Texas hill country and Houston areas.

.....The downfall of the last two coaches LSU fired were coordinators. Curley Hallman bought the farm when his offense continued to throw the ball with a lead against an Auburn team that could hardly make a first down. DiNardo’s insistence on sticking with a run-heavy, primitive offense doomed him when he had line injuries. That, and when he stuck with a defensive coordinator who had no clue how to defend against SEC offenses.

.....The jury’s still out on whether Miles’ decision to promote from within on the defensive side, will pay off. But Gary Crowton is one of the best offensive coordinators in the business. His work with Louisiana Tech in the mid-late 1990s was amazing. Remember Tim Rattay? And Troy Edwards, who won the Biletnikoff Award in 1998? Crowton spent a couple of years with the Chicago Bears, and rolled up the yards despite a revolving door quarterback situation. And lest you forget, LSU rolled up a boat load of yards, last year.

......It’s also worth pointing out that Miles essentially turned a bottom-feeder Oklahoma State team into a bowl team. Les Miles beat Bobby Stoops twice in four tries. Sure, Miles made some wild gambles, last season. But really, the only thing that made last year’s LSU team mortal was injuries. They were horribly beat up by the end of the regular season, and Arkansas took advantage. And Houston Nutt, finally, in his last game with the Razorbacks, used MacFadden’s full spectrum of abilities.

...but I think that Ben Tate should be the primary back. It takes two or three guys to bring him down. Don’t get me wrong, I like Lester, too, but he’s going to have to step up as a leader, this his final season, and stay out of Tuberville’s doghouse.

Both these guys could have 1000 yard seasons if they played it right, but that’s asking a lot in an inaugural year of the spread. I’d be happy with 1500 between the two, and about another 500 from the other guys.

You guys lay off the LSU going-down talk. They’re not going anywhere any time soon. Historically, they’ve had a hard time hanging on to coaches, but I think that they may have some momentum going now. Hopefully not enough to win the west this year—hopefully.

.....is durability. But, WOW, do I like how he hits the hole! Tate’s a big strong guy with deceptive speed, but he doesn’t have near the moves Lester has. Lester’s vision is something else! He is firing through the line at 100 MPH. Tate’s got to take several steps to turn the corner…

I share WDE’s opinion of Miles and agree that he tripped into the NC game last season. Although I believe the only reason AU was favored so heavily to win the west has more to do with LSU’s huge question at QB than anything else. I also believe that Miles hasnt missed a beat on recruiting and Gary Crowton is a fantastic offensive coordinator. The loss of Bo Pellini (met him this past june in sandestin… nice man) will hurt LSU as will Miles luck running out as it surely must. I do believe that LSU has seen its better days under Miles unless he stops with the gambling and reckless play calling (but we know of another coach that used to have that rep and has shed it). If (and its a big “IF”) Miles can calm down and call a smart game he may prove us all wrong.

Ben Tate is my favorite back when he gets rolling but Brad Lester is the more elusive back.

Ole Miss is my sleeper in the west and the most dangerous non ranked team in the SEC, Nutt inherits as much talent across the board as any he ever had at Arkansas. Alabama as far as I can tell doesnt have the depth to survive and are relying on to many freshman at skilled positions. The Razorbacks are depleted at RB and LB and lack depth at WR. Not to mention Casey Dick as starting QB although being under Petrino one would expect him to show marked improvement. Arkansas is at least 2 years away from competing in the west. Mississippi State won’t sneak up on anyone but will leave any team in the SEC feeling good about a win and hope you dont get too beat up in the process.

..there was time left, and there is no doubt that LSU would’ve had the FG attempt had this pass been incomplete. But it could have had a different result, too. It looked like to Miles that there was plenty of time left, but Flynn could have scrambled and ran off more clock than they bargained for. You just don’t know.

Jeez, why did I jump in on this? It’s over and done with. I’ve put it out of my mind. The Tiger bowl is always close. This one was a particularly good game though…

WDE. Reconsider the scenario you’ve just described.

So far you have said.

Arkansas is going to be very good. Ole Miss is going to be very good. MSU will be more competitive and Bama will be awesome.
+
Miles cant coach. Miles can’t recruit. =
LSU will be a whipping boy of the west.

I hate to state the obvious but Auburn has to play Arkansas, Ole Miss, MSU and Bama too. If these 4 teams improvement is bad news for LSU then its bad news for Auburn too.

“Miles cant coach.” OK. maybe he’s not the best but, so far he has gone 11-2, 11-2, 12-2. He is obviously doing something right. You dont do that in the SEC with no coaching ability. If anything, he has good assistant coaches.

“But he is doing it with Saban’s recruits ” you say. This is an invitation to a lot of speculation. But fair enough. I think the question is, would Miles have gotten the same caliber recruits, if not many of the exact same recruits had he been there for those recruiting years. I think he does. (Like Pittman said, its not Mile’s fault that his seniors happen to be in Saban’s last recruiting class. Do you expect him to sit Saban recruits to make a point?) There a number of the big names from Louisiana in last years NC team ie Dorsey, Doucet, Steltz, Hester to name a few. Miles has retained almost all the major talent from within the state. Chances are he would have had them as well, and the NC team would have looked very similar… BUT this is all impossible to prove. What is possible to prove is that Miles has had recruiting classes in the last 3 years ranked 11,4, and 7. Not bad at all. Compared to 20,7, and 10 for Auburn.

All this brings up my real point here. Can Miles recruit as well as Saban? No. I’m not sure anyone can except for maybe Pete Carroll. Can Tubberville recruit as well as Saban? Not a chance. WDE, the changes you have depicted point to the demise of Auburn not LSU. Houston Nutt to the west. Fulmer to the north. Richt and Meyer to the east, and the biggest beast of them all, Saban, in your own backyard. You’ve predicted the rise of Bama under Saban’s reign. I agree. What do you think is going to happen to recruiting at Auburn if and when Bama wins a national championship? Auburn is going to get destroyed in recruiting… and Ole Miss, MSU, Arkansas, and Bama are going to be much improved. Brother, you guys are screwed for years to come. LSU can continue to get talent from in state and poach from Texas. Where are you going to go? Cuba?

LSU has a quaterback issue because Perrilloux, and upcoming junior and the number one recruit in the country got kicked off. Get serious, any top rated quarterback isnt going to come in and sit for possibly three years while Perrilloux shines. He did a good job getting a Rivals 250 player in Jarrett Lee.

I’m going to have to completely agree with NEPOMO here. Allow me to quote some of the posters above and then retort.

To my point about Miles…..the guy can’t coach, period!!! And he proved it last year with Kentucky and Arkansas. A cat only has nine lives and he exhausted 4 (Auburn, Florida, UT and UA) of them last year.

I think Auburn fans should know a lot about performing with lofty expectations in the form of preseason polls from 2003. We had a target on our back and came into some games with poor game plans. We pulled out some close ones and lost some close ones. So what? I think the NFL combine showed us that our “elite NFL quality talent” was flat out SLOW. Maybe Saban’s boys weren’ t quite as good as we thought they were in some cases…

And he did it with Saban’s recruits (Hester, Flynn and Dorsey to name a few).

I still don’t quite get why Miles get’s persecuted for this on a daily basis, and Urban Meyer get’s a pass for 2006. Oh and P.S. WDE will heretofore be referred to as RBR, because that’s who he sounds like with this comment.

They have a QB debate this year. Why?? Because he didn’t get a new one!!!

First off Jarret Lee was a 4 star QB in the same class as Kodi Burns, who was also a 4 star QB. And doesn’t Auburn have a QB debate this year? What’s wrong with that? Since this is obvously the dumbest comment ever, I won’t address it any farther.

I am talking about their coach and leadership. We had one hell of a team in 2003 as far as athletic ability but our OC (Hugh Null) could not run an offense to save his life.

Why is it that Auburn’s problems are from poor coordinators and not the only thing that has stayed constant for AU over the last 10 years, Tubby? Apparently you guys dont’ even think it’s Tubby’s fault that he hired bad coordinators.

And so then why is it that every perceived poor call that is made in an LSU game is Miles’ fault and every great game changing play must be because Crowton is an offensive genious or Bo Pelini is a defensive genious? Personally I have a man crush on Crowton, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Pelini, especially in 2007. The call for the last second TD against AU last year probably went something like this.
Crowton: Les, let’s take a shot at the endzone.
Les: How confident are you?
Crowton: I’ll tell you after the play.
Les: Call it in.
Now Les get’s a label that he’s a moron even though it worked, when it was probably CROWTON’S FREAKING IDEA.

And we all know what happens to recruiting when you stop winning.

I can’t believe we are even talking about recruiting. This rivals the QB comment for the ignorance award. And like NEPOMO says above…

WDE RBR, the changes you have depicted point to the demise of Auburn not LSU.

I’d have to agree. The fact is with all of the excellent coaches in the SEC and more specifically, the West, everyone is going to suffer. There are only so many good atheletes, and there is only so much room at the top. Thus far, it looks as if Auburn’s recruiting has taken the biggest hit. Yall’s biggest recruits the past two years have been JUCO guys. That is usually not an area that big time programs need to dip into. Now, I have to say that Tubbs is probably THE best at finding the 2 and 3 star diamonds in the ruff, but let’s be real, if Auburn’s already subpar recruiting reletive to the SEC big boys is going to take a hit (and I think it has), I think we will start to see that in the W & L column in the near future.

all of the corndogs of their mancrush on miles after he is run out of Baton Rouge. One could also say that right now LSU is recruiting (the program) not the coach. However as I stated above “Less” Miles hasn’t missed a beat recruiting. As for the demise of AU? I’ve been hearing that same rhetoric the last 26 years from the bammers and it hasn’t happened yet. I said last season that LSU would lose 2 games that they should not lose, and had all of the craziness of last season not occurred and you had sat out of the NC game you would’nt be feeling all warm and fuzzy about “Less” . Instead you would be sittin around b*tching and moaning about how “Less” needs to go because the talent is going to waste. LSU backed into the NC game and I’m glad they did as I am glad they won it. But that doesnt change my opinion of “Less” only he can do that. If I and others are right about him he won’t be there in 3 or 4 years and/or LSU will be back to the middle of the pack in the SEC. If I am wrong then LSU will be a power house for years to come.

everything that poeple bash Les about, I blame his coordinators for. Jimbo Fisher single handedly lost the AU game in ‘06 and I blame the Kentucky and Ark losses on Pelini last year. I fully expected to lose a game last year, in fact I predicted it to be Kentucky.
Had Les not won the NC last year, there would probably have been the same amount of people calling for his head as there were calling for Tubby’s head after the 2003 season. That’s just the way it goes when you don’t meet expectations.
What is stupid is that people think Les will bring the program down, when, and I think most LSU fans would agree, Les has actually elevated the program from where Saban left it. Recruiting hasn’t slipped, media attention has increased, and wins per year have increased. Those are the facts. Everything else is just perception.

Why doesn’t anyone want to mention the way Saban backed in to the NC game? Guys let’s face it, getting to the NC game involves luck. Winning the SEC West doesn’t, and Les has done it as many times as Nick did it in 2 less years.

.....I haven’t really seen any evidence that Les Miles is an idiot. At least not any more of an idiot than any other SEC coach who works 16-hours days is…

.....I didn’t like the call on the TD pass against us last year, but taking a shot with Demetrius Byrd against a chasing 5’9” corner wasn’t that big a risk. If Powers had been over top, looking back, Flynn was probably coached to throw it out of the end zone and kick the FG. The clock management was pretty close, but faulty clock operating made it look closer than it was. And as Jonno points out, LSU lost in 2006 partly because they DIDN’T take a shot at the endzone, at the end. I’m sure Miles didn’t want that to happen, again…

......Sometimes you have to go for the throat, and L.S. U. did. And Auburn did the same in O.T. vs. Clemson. 4th and inches, and a sneak with Cox was equally risky. If he doesn’t make it, that’s game-over! And don’t forget that Cox QB draw on 3rd and 6, leading to the tying TD. Risky calls, all.