We have used scholarship after scholarship on offensive linemen. We have more scholarship offensive linemen than we have scholarship players at any other position. We have, on the roster, enough offensive linemen on scholarship that we have scholarship players in the 4-deep. The four-deep. And yet, our offensive line was the primary weakness of our team for most of the season. We have spent so many scholarships on offensive linemen (or on defensive linemen or tight ends who get converted to OL), and yet we still don’t have a solid offensive line. It solidified and got better as the season went on, but could never be considered a strength. That’s a huge scholarship drain on one position, ultimately to have that position fail. Those are scholarships that could have been used over the years to give people like Frank Alexander, Robby Green, and Darrington Sentimore (at least two of whom felt like LSU just didn’t want them) scholarships to come to LSU and contribute at other positions. Frank Alexander, in particular, would have made a big difference for this team.

Miles had the benefit of the doubt with rational fans on basically every topic until this Ole Miss game. Now everything is up for debate.

While I have been questioning his recruiting (privately) now all of a sudden it is getting questioned openly. The recruiting blunders that Richard point out are now starting to be questioned instead of fans blowing them off saying, “hey, if it is one thing Les knows it is recruiting”. Maybe they are starting to come into question because they are starting to impact the team. Maybe Les is a better coach than recruiter? Maybe our Rivals rankings have been artificially inflated? Anyone care to try to answer these questions?

What I’m saying is, everything the man does from now on will be under the microscope. If he smells a little funny after practice, if he orders the wrong menu item from The Palace Cafe, if he tips 19% instead of 20% people are going to question him.

Hell people already questioned him. But now you have rationale people like Richard, The Bengal and others questioning him (for good reasons). It is going to take an SEC championship to win back the trust of the fans.

Aside from Frank Alexander, I’m not sure you can really say we’re missing out on those names (yet). Green is a reserve for Alabama, but who would he play over in LSU’s secondary? Brandon Taylor? That’s debatable. Sentimore is yet to see the field, and McKnight wouldn’t be much more than a punt returner here (next Reggie Bush my ass) because Miles and Porter don’t use east-west running backs (which is why others have started over Keiland Williams).

Jackson looks like a potential star, but you have to wonder if he’d get in even more trouble here given what problems he’s had in Knoxville.

I agree with your post in general, just wanted to address that specific point.

It was a chance to be a head coach in the NFL. He would have been a fool not to take the chance. It just didn’t work out for him.

But it’s about wins and losses. It’s a rough buisness, but 3-5 followed by 4-4 with two straight Novembers of three straight losses to close the season gets coaches fired. If you’re paid as much as Miles is, you cannot lose every game down the stretch in two consecutive seasons.

I’m a bottom line guy. I’ll be fair and judge Miles on wins and losses, not any perceived weakness. But he has to win. That’s what he is paid to do.

I’m just saying, if we set an ultimatium aren’t we just setting ourselves up to fail?

No.

You can also count on Auburn, Arkansas and Miss State being better, there will not be an easy win in the West period.

Based on what evidence do you think they will be more improved? Out of those three only Auburn seems to be recruiting at a high level. So they will probably step into the vacuum that will be made by Ole Miss’ (expected) decline next season. So it will most likely be what it always is; a three dog race for the West. Arky says they will be better, but I just don’t see it next season.

You know honestly, a 9-3 season wouldn’t be such a bad prospect if the team looked like a well oiled machine. Effort is great, but some semblance of a game-plan and execution of said game-plan would go a long ways to alleviating some criticism of the coaches. We’re 9-3 this season, but looking at our stats who would be surprised if this team had ended up 7-5, or… (gulp) 6-6? There were times this season where we looked downright horrible. I think if we go 9-3 but look like an 11-1 squad; I can be happy with that. Admittedly though, next season is supposed to be our rise to the top of the division (and SEC), and with Les spending all of his benefit of the doubt points up; 9-3 might not be enough.

9-3 would be too early to tell, but anything less and Miles is probably out of a job.

instead of preaching and emotional shouting. That, I think, is what everyone has been on your case about.

The benchmarks are that we need to see execution on the field and weaknesses being addressed. As Richard said we won the majority of our games while being outgained and outplayed. It finally caught up to us at Ole Miss. That’s when the recurrent clock management issues finally cost us a game. That’s the key thing. It’s not effort, it’s execution. This has been a sloppy, sloppy team for two years. While most rational people expected a 9-3 or 10-2 record this year, we didn’t expect to see LSU get consistently outplayed by opponents like Washington, MSU, ULL, La Tech, Vanderbilt, etc.

Speaking for myself, I want to see us in the SEC Championship game. But if the stars don’t align, the question I will be asking is did it appear Miles corrected the issues with this team? Does the offense execute without delay of game penalties? Do we have a running game? Are we able to keep the Defense off the field? Do Defensive Ends maintain contain on running plays? Can we get a pass rush? Can we dominate and extend an early lead (Auburn) or do we let teams back in the game (Arkansas, Alabama, Ole Miss)?

So I prefer to think of the SEC Championship game as a benchmark rather than an ultimatum. If we don’t hit the benchmark were there enough other mitigating factors to measure significant improvement? If so, great. If not, we have to evaluate the whole program and that does include the guy at the top.

LSU and Alabama are probably equivalent in talent (based on potentially flawed recruiting rankings, I know) and are both significantly more talented than the rest of the West. All other things being equal, we should be splitting games with Bama on average and consistently beating the rest of the West. The differentiators are player development, game preparation, and game coaching. That’s how Miles and staff should be graded each year. This season was the equivalent of turning what should be a “B” paper (9-3) in content, but the sloppy handwriting, poor spelling, and foodstains result in a “C”.

… Ralph Friedgen was a home run after returning Maryland to the BCS. Now he’s a bum who coaches the worst team in the ACC.

Al Groh was a recruiting genius who brought absurd talent to UVa. Now he’s the guy who squandered all those first rounders.

Mark Mangino was the savior of Kansas football. Now he’s under investigation.

Bob Stoops was Big Game Bob. Now he’s a guy who is known for his high profile losses.

Mark Richt was the best young coach in the SEC. Now he’s the captain of a sinking ship.

Even the home run hires lose their luster once they lose that new coach smell. They didn’t suddenly become bad coaches. Every program has ebb and flow. The issue is returning to the top after the bad year.

…..