By Jordan Long
The LSU Tigers football team lost to Auburn 18-13 on Saturday, dropping their record to 2-2. LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva decided to fire Head Coach Les Miles on Sunday. They announced that Defensive Line Coach Ed Orgeron is the interim head coach for the rest of the year. What kind of move is this?
LSU hired Miles prior to the 2005 season. That year they went 11-2. His best year was in 2007 when they finished 12-2 and won the BCS National Championship. LSU made one more appearance in the championship game in 2011 but lost to Alabama 21-0. Overall Miles has a 114-34 record at LSU or an impressive winning percentage of .770.
There was heat after last season to fire Miles even though they went 9-3. Alleva determined to give him one more year. The last straw came on Saturday when they failed to get the last play off on offense. LSU scored a touchdown that they thought won the game. Upon further review, the clock hit zero before the snap and they lost the game. According to Yahoosports.com, Alleva said, “Coach Miles has done a tremendous job here and he’s been a great ambassador for our University, which makes this even more difficult. However, it’s apparent in evaluating the program through the first month of the season that a change has to be made.”
I don’t understand this move. Sure they lost a close game but they are only 2-2 and 1-1 in SEC conference play. Miles should have been given the chance to coach the rest of the year. It is still possible they could win the conference. If they fail to win the SEC they could still be invited to go to a bowl game.
This is a panic move. Alleva is seeing in four games that the season is slipping away when it isn’t. There is still time to turn it around. What happens if they play poor football with Ed Orgeron and fail to go to a bowl game? I am sure he wouldn’t be back as head coach. I hope for LSU they thought about the dismissal of Les Miles long and hard. He is a winning coach.
What do you think of LSU firing Les Miles?
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