Les Miles is a god, and yes, I want The Mad Hatter's Powerball, MegaMillions, Fantasy Five, Win For Life, whatever, I want his lottery numbers.
Drunk intramural frat teams often seem more coherent than LSU, and little is better evidence than Saturday's loss-win against Tennessee.
A Miles press conference is worth 10,000 words, so watch this to figure out what happened.
Sadly, it's a fairly accurate depiction, and why LSU is the team to watch every Saturday. "24" and "Lost" are Bugs Bunny cartoons compared to "Kickin it with the Cajuns" each weekend.
Miles is the most-criticized winner of 79 percent of his games in history, and certainly the most lampooned. But note: 79 percent. Something proper is happening, regardless the headache-inducing rout.
The absurdity of the "winning with somebody else's players" argument has Miles as the poster child. But isn't that what winning coaches do? You want him to lose with somebody else's players?
And good God, people, everybody in the SEC is going after the same players. Every year. Every upper-level recruit that lists six schools has four SEC schools on the friggin' list.
Every
single
year.
Almost
every
recruit.
So Miles wins in transition. A good thing, right?
And note that the national championship came in Miles' third season, meaning that was Saban's young recruits, the same people LSU would have been going for anyway, people Saban and Co. may not have necessarily coached all that much as regulars.
Saban, however, gets a pass for winning with Mike Shula's players, as if suddenly Alabama was getting UAB talent.
Remember that Shula got players after inheriting the massive Mike Dubose debacle. Aaaaand note this:
The likes of Javier Arenas, Antoine Caldwell, Simeon Castille, Glen Coffee, John Parker Wilson, Andre Smith, Drew Davis, Greg McElroy, Terry Grant, Marlon Davis, among others, were all on the 2006 roster that went 6-6 as welllll as the 2008 roster that went 12-2.
Shula had 2006. Saban had 2008. Those players, save for one or two Dubose leftovers, came under Shula, who did go 10-2 in 2005.
It happens. Want to give back wins and trophies because somebody wasn't winning with their own players?
All that said, yes, he is Loopy Les. Manic Miles. The Ego from Elyria (Ohio). He is on very much a different frequency.
But there are leaders, CEOs, presidents, all sorts of people in charge who have substantially smarter people around them, and Miles certainly does.
He isn't the offensive or defensive coordinator, so, actually, blaming him can be misplaced. And often it isn't.
Of course, college fans are silly and think winning is their team's birthright. In the SEC, fans bellow about how strong the conference is, until they lose a conference game to almost anybody, then start whining in short-sighted ignorance.
Nobody genuflects to your team, people. Get over yourselves. And aren't fans allowed to be smart and passionate?
So LSU isn't allowed an 17-9 two-year run in the toughest conference around? Of course it is. Tiger fans, a few words: Curley Hallman. A few more: Gerry DiNardo.
Now hush.
Georgia's may have its first losing season since Jim Donnan's debut in the mid-90s. Tennessee fired Phillip Fulmer. Florida State forced out Bobby Bowden. Alabama has been at .500 or less in the last decade. Florida survived Ron Zook, and he went 23-14 in three seasons and got fired.
And hold on, Urban Meyer won with Ron Zook's players while running a different offense!
Ahem. I start talking about Madcap Miles and I go off on a Les-like tangent. Sorry.
But that's what a god does, sidetracks what it supposed to be lucid thinking.
Les Miles is a god. And I want his lottery numbers.
ANGST IN ATHENS
People seem to want to whine and bellyache and cry and bitch and "woe is us" and think there was a birthright. I think people enjoy it, there's so much venom and vitriol and tunnel-vision.
Masochists, fans are. And avoiding reality, thus "fan" being short for "fanatical."
Georgia is this close to being a bad 3-2 or 4-1 team. Shoot, I thought South Carolina was going to roll the Dawgs after that first drive, but the Gamecocks only won by 11.
Yes, Georgia has done all the wrong things to lose. Or right things to lose. Every single thing is easily fixable, but should have been fixed long ago.
That's why - yes, I'll say it again - they could go the rest of the way and lose only one game, and now I'm not sure about Florida again. Let's wait for the Gators against LSU and Mississippi State and see if they’re any clearer.
Look at it this way: If Georgia blocks a little better, if Murray gets rid of the ball or runs a hair sooner, if the defense tackles just a little better and/or stays with actual coverage assignments a bit, if the defense stops everybody from scoring on the first possession, and there are one or two fewer fumbles, where would Georgia be?
On defense alone - forget the often-misguided wailing about playcalling - a minimum amount of fundamental football would make a huge, huge difference.
Yeah, 3-2 or even 4-1, albeit extraordinarily ugly (which would inspire more grousing), but 4-1 nevertheless, and ugly 4-1 beats almost-there 1-4.
A little better. Not drastically better. Not a lineup overhaul. A little better.
Don't fumble inside the 5, convert on all of 35 percent on third down and hold USCE to 50 percent on third down, one could easily say UGA beats USCE.
Nope, didn't, but was two plays away.
Make half a block at the end, cover anybody before or on the final drive, improve tackling by a mere 10 percent, don't jump a route in the final minute against a Heisman candidate quarterback, don't drastically underthrow a couple 40-yard passes (lost time by needing more plays to score) or don't sit in the pocket for five seconds (a good sign, to a point), and one could easily say UGA beats Arkansas.
Nope, didn't, but was two plays away.
Don't fumble, cover a little bit better, tackle a little bit better, don't have a penalty far from the ball nullify a touchdown pass, and cover/tackle a little better, and one could easily say UGA beats Mississippi State.
Nope, didn't, but was two plays away.
Find more receivers, cover/tackle a little better, hold on to one simple handoff and fall down, and one could easily say UGA beats Colorado.
Nope, didn't, but was two plays away.
For the talk of how awful UGA is, let's A) give some damn credit to other teams and move on from the past; B) note that UGA was within 8 of USCE for about 23 minutes in the second half, was tied with Arkansas in the fourth quarter, trailed MSU by one at halftime on the cowbell-infested road, and led Colorado in the second half
All winnable games. Ask a fan, and he/she can point to one play - if not a half-dozen, minimum - in each game that was the difference or could have changed momentum that, no, Georgia just didn't make.
Sure, 1-4 is 1-4 and it's not been a pretty 1-4, but it's still an annoyingly close 1-4. The Dogs haven't lost to anybody with a losing record - opponents are 12-5 and two are in the top 20.
None of that really changes the fact that there are issues with the program, but forget the daily hand-wringing, bellyaching and all that. Nothing will happen until the season is over, and it's not over until November.
And be surprised less at 7-5 than 4-8 when that time comes.
PRE-KICKOFF SATURDAY (Sept. 26, still original, albeit it dated, as are many of us) STUFF
"Must-win" and "Starkville" don't go together in a sentence unless talking about a Mississippi State coach trying to avoid a fourth straight losing season.
In this case, they go together for Georgia.
Since people refuse to give other teams and programs credit, and since people still live part of their weekends in the 1980s or 1960s, note this: Mississippi State isn't bad, and Starkville is no picnic.
Georgia isn't all that good, either, but the Pooches aren't far away. They're just missing, but just missing about 80 percent of the time. The 20 percent of the time they click, they can look good.
It's be surprising if Georgia didn't come out and play some tight, sharper football, though still struggling to a win wouldn't be a surprise. Mississippi State made LSU settle for five field goals last week.
Urgency when playing in Starkvegas? Yup, Georgia should have it.
Georgia Tech was an 8-8.5-point favorite over N.C. State. The Sagarin Ratings have the two separated by less than a point.
Tech's schedule is 75th, State's is 114th. Neither has been impressive this season, Tech losing to Kansas and surviving undermanned North Carolina, and State beating Central Florida only by seven.
This one's fairly simple. Whichever defense shows up more, and earlier, will win. ...
The WAC, home to Boise State, is 3-7 against BCS conference teams this season, a list that includes Southern Cal, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas A&M, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
The wins? Boise over Wah Tech, Nevada 51-6 over California and Fresno State 28-14 over Cincinnati. Not inspiring.
The Mountain West, Boise State's future home, is 4-7. But it's still a stronger conference and will accelerate BSU's legitimacy in the national title picture, especially if they can keep getting two big boys or more a season.
The MWC, as per Sagarin, has a tougher schedule (average rank of 52) than all the BCS leagues except the ACC (40.9 average). Worst: Big 10 at 113, Big East at 87.8, Big 12 at 86.4. ...
The SEC has seven undefeated teams, all but Minnesota in the Big 10 have winning records. The Sun Belt has no winning teams. ...
Yessir, this football weather is lovely.
For the Rain Forest Conference in Brazil.
POST-KICKOFF SATURDAY (Oct. 2) Stuff
OK, really nothing just yet. This has been plenty long-winded enough. Some folks lips will be flat worn out.
And THIS weather - 50s at night, 70s daytime - is what it's supposed to be. When you wear no team colors, this weather is even nicer.
No comments:
Post a Comment