Thursday, November 15, 2007

Introducing Les Miles...






Les Miles is the leading candidate to replace Lloyd Carr. Miles certainly wants the job and even though some people think he is not the best Xs and Os guy available I think he is the most qualified and best candidate. He is innovative, creative, and a risk taker. He is therefore a great change of pace from Carr.

There are concerns in some Michigan circles that he has acted inappropriately by stating publicly in the recent past how interested he is in becoming Michigan’s head coach even with Lloyd Carr firmly entrenched. Also, there are concerns voiced about his “suspect” recruiting practices. Then there was the fact that he voted for Florida over UM last year to be #2 and play OSU in the national championship game.

Les Miles started out as an all-state high school football player in Ohio. He then went on to letter at Michigan. He has an extensive UM record as an assistant coach. He was a UM assistant from 1980-1982 and from 1987 to 1995 first under Bo Schembechler (whom Miles views as a second father) and then under Gary Moeller.

After serving as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, Miles became the Dallas Cowboy’s tight end’s coach from 1998-2000. From 2001-2004, Miles was the head coach at Oklahoma State where he took a team that had gone 5-6, 5-6, and 3-8 the previous three seasons before he got there and then 4-7, 8-5, 9-4, and 7-5 under Miles. Included in those seasons were back-to-back victories over Oklahoma when Oklahoma was ranked #4 (finished #6 that year) and #3 (finished #5 that year) in the country. Miles was also named Big 12 coach of the year.

At LSU, Miles went 11-2 and finished #5 in the country in 2005. He went 10-2 and finished #3 in the country in 2006. In ’06 his LSU team crushed ND in their bowl game. ’05 and ’06 were the first back-to-back 10 win seasons in LSU history. Miles’s 2007 team is currently 9-1 and ranked #1 in the country.


So Miles has everything you want in a Michigan head coach. He played for us, coached for us, loved Bo, has coordinator experience, NFL experience, a mid-level head coaching job with great success, and a top-level head coaching job with great success. Plus he really wants the job. Miles would make the big ten coaching fraternity much better.

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