Who’s fanning fire to fire Miles?

Published 1:03 pm Friday, November 20, 2015

On Monday LSU’s Les Miles said he would be coaching this week against Ole Miss “like there’s no tomorrow.”

Apparently, it may be a little more urgent than that.

A report in The Advocate in Baton Rouge Wednesday upped the ante considerably when it speculated that Miles “will be coaching for his very job at Ole Miss on Saturday.”

Then the whole thing starts over again next week for the Texas A&M game in Tiger Stadium.

The columnist, Scott Rabalais, was a little vague as to where these “indications” came from.

But, believe me, Rabalais didn’t just get bored one day and pull this hypothesis out of thin air just to see how much it might stir things up.

It surely did, of course.

Somebody wanted it to. Somebody was talking under a cloak of anonymity, but definitely wanted it out there.

At best, somebody wanted to run this up the flagpole and check the winds of public opinion before plotting a next move.

It really wasn’t necessary.

If you know anything about LSU fans, when this breaks with the Tigers in the midst of an ugly two-game losing streak, you know it’s pretty predictable what the fan reaction will be.

With frustrations aflame, the timing of it might not be the best true indicator, but it’s pretty well guaranteed to produce the fan feedback you’re looking for. Automatic groundswell.

It’s a tough crowd, and it’s gone into full-blown panic mode with the back-to-back losses to Alabama and Arkansas.

Never mind that Miles has never lost three in a row, and that LSU has the second longest such streak in the country, dating to 1999.

But that’s not important now.

More interesting, who’s behind it?

I don’t know for sure.

But it’s no secret that Miles and Athletic Director Joe Alleva haven’t always had the warmest or the fuzziest of relationships.

They do try to be amicable in public.

But the whole farce of Miles supposedly considering leaving for the Arkansas job after the 2010 season was staged by Miles as a jump-start to — what he perceived at least — was Alleva dragging heels on getting a new contract on the table.

Miles won that one.

Alleva returned the favor last year when he refused to budge on a contract extension offer to defensive coordinator John Chavis. Miles desperately wanted to keep Chavis — that was obvious immediately after the Music Bowl when the story was breaking — but Alleva was strangely hard line on what should have been minor contract points. Alleva didn’t even show up for the negotiating session Miles had set up with Chavis.

Chavis went to Texas A&M.

There are surely other spats not so public. 

But has it really come to this? 

The common view from outside state borders has been — paraphrasing here — Are those people slab-dab crazy down there?

Well, yeah, particularly about football, but that’s not the point.

What LSU is doing, even though admittedly it’s slacked off some in recent years, looks pretty good to a lot of people.

Miles has always been better appreciated from afar, much more so by LSU opponents than LSU fans who think the Tigers should never lose a game, and that if they do, it’s all coaching.

Miles doesn’t need me to defend him.

You know the record, chills and spills, heartburn flaws and all.

He’s basically being judged now for a team that, before the season started, most of us thought was a year away, a tune-up run for what could really be a special season next year. Just check the roster.

The 7-0 start was a surprise — the 0-2 slide was, What have you done for me lately?

Never mind the phrase, Be careful what you ask for. 

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence out there, if only LSU fans get past the notion that no other is school in the country is so uniquely positioned to never lose a game.

I won’t even bring up the 1990s.

But ask Tennessee what happened when it got frustrated enough to let Phil Fulmer go. The Vols still haven’t recovered.

OK, Tennessee isn’t the natural recruiting hotbed Louisiana is.

So explain Florida’s recent swoon.

But forget that, too.

Unless you’ve got — at worst — say, a Jimbo Fisher in line begging to step in, better be careful about pulling the plug without a better answer readily at hand.

And, yes, LSU really is one of the top jobs in the country.

Still, is this really the year you want to be out there coach hunting? It’s a crowded field right now, almost unprecedented with the top jobs already available, with more sure to come at season’s end.

It will be a seller’s market.

Still, the real absurdity to this is that Miles is supposedly being given the Ole Miss game to “save” his job.

Really?

One game?

If the powers that be have decided Miles needs to go, it shouldn’t matter who wins or loses Saturday. 

Does beating Ole Miss change how good of a coach Miles is?

Or Texas A&M, for that matter.

Right now, it would seem everybody just needs to take a chill pill.