SEC Head Coach Evaluation: LSU’s Les Miles

Jul 16, 2015; Hoover, AL, USA; LSU Tigers coach Les Miles addressed the media during SEC media days at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kelly Lambert-USA TODAY Sports

SEC football coaches are constantly being evaluated, and we do our part to add to that. This is the ninth in our series of head football coach evaluations for the conference.  Les Miles’ evaluation is the second of the SEC West evaluations.

SEC West Head Coach Evaluation:  Kevin Sumlin 

It is not very often that a coach with Miles’ credentials is given so little credit.  Les Miles has led the Tigers to 2 SEC Championships, 2 National Championship appearances (winning 1), and is the third fastest coach in the history of the SEC to reach 100 wins according to lsusports.net.  Yet you would be hard pressed to find fans outside of Louisiana who would mention him among the SEC’s elite.

It is a common sentiment among SEC West fans that they want Les Miles to stay.  They figure that LSU is good for 8 or 9 wins a season with or without a good coach.  In their minds, Miles makes them beatable.  His, at times, poor decision making has cost his Tigers a game or two and fans figure their team could be the next to benefit.   The only problem with this logic is that if LSU is good for 8 wins, Miles has increased that instead of decreasing it.

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Miles is entering his 11^th season at LSU and is averaging slightly better than 10 wins a season.   But college football is a world where only the most recent accomplishments, or failures, matter.  Many fans are more concerned with Miles losing 5 games for only the second time in his stint at LSU rather than the fact that it was only . . .  his second time in 10 seasons.

SEC fans have an excellent memory that is similar to the coaches they admire.  They remember the pain of the losses far more than the thrill of victory.  Fair or not, fans currently only remember 5 losses in 2014.  They are also remembering poor game time management, grass chewing, inept quarterback play, and the 2011 defense that could have won a national championship with even the most average offense.

Les Miles’ accomplishments rank with some of the greatest coaches in recent SEC history, but he has also had the opportunity to do even greater and has that held against him.  Such is life in the SEC.

So where does that leave us in 2015?  Does Les Miles get a thumbs up as he goes in to the future?   Or should he have found an offensive coordinator that can develop quarterbacks?

Next: Miracle Miles