For the second straight year, the Georgia Bulldogs ripped my heart out “‘Dumb and Dumber’-style” and placed it in a doggie bag.
After Saturday’s game, I’d like to say I ran out of the Georgia Dome and into a dark hotel room where I sat at my laptop all night churning out “The Things We Think But Do Not Say” like Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire,” but instead I looked for column ideas at the bottom of a glass.
My buddy DeRoche and I drowned our sorrows at a bar we called Bizarro Bogie’s – it was just like the Baton Rouge watering hole but there was no cover charge and no insanely loud rap music.
It was a familiar scene. This was the second time in 14 months I’d been to Georgia and left with the stench of defeat on my clothes.
At least I’ve gotten good at fending off the critics. For every, “LSU sucks!” and “Dawgs rule!” I heard from a popped-collared, Croakie-wearing yuppie frat boy, I responded with classic one-liners like “I guess that’s your theory,” and “That’s just, like, your opinion man.”
Did I mention I really, really hate Georgia?
I’ll devote the rest of this column to my thoughts on Les Miles and the way he’s handling the LSU football program.
You can divide LSU fans into two categories based on their thoughts of Les Miles. Some think he’s the second coming of Mike Archer, who went 10-1-1 in his first season only to send the program spinning down the toilet over the next three years. Others are grateful LSU went 10-2 and found success during a very tough season.
Miles’ biggest opponents are the ones who say things like “Nick Saban wouldn’t have lost the Tennessee game.”
Let the record show that these very same backseat coaches spent all last season second-guessing Saban’s decisions about who should play quarterback.
I think Miles’ supporters are just as crazy. There’s no way they can deny the look of uneasiness that creeps across his face when things aren’t going well. Some call it the “deer-in-the-headlights” look, but I think he looks more like a turkey staring down the wrong end of a shotgun the week before Thanksgiving. Either way, it’s usually enough to drive a man to drink. Heavily.
Many of Miles’ opponents also say, “This team is more talented than the 2003 team” and “We had the
talent to win the national championship.” The latter may or may not be true, but here’s the bottom line – in order for a season like 2003 to occur, everything must go right. Players must be healthy at the right times and step up when the game is on the line.
In 2003, everything went right. In 2005, untimely injuries and two devastating hurricanes prevented the stars from aligning above LSU.
Miles deserves praise for the way he handled the team this season. It may not have ended the way we all wanted (and I know LSU still has the Peach Bowl), but he still did a pretty good job under a ton of stress – a type of stress that is impossible to prepare for.
Despite his 10-2 record, I’m not sold on Les Miles, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support him. I consider myself a Les Miles supporter, but I think the majority of us are cut from the same cloth. I feel deep down most of his supporters root for him based primarily on hope — hope that the program will continue to thrive throughout his tenure – instead of pure trust in his skills as a coach and recruiter.
Believe it or not, despite the turmoil the team faced this season, Miles faces perhaps a greater challenge next season. LSU has road trips to Florida, Auburn and Tennessee all in a month’s time. After next season LSU fans will truly begin to know what the Tigers coach is made of.
Stay tuned.