People who hate Alabama and people who hate the BCS are both rooting for the same thing this weekend: chaos.
And it’s fitting that both will be placing their trust in LSU coach Les Miles.
Miles’ tenure in Baton Rouge has exemplified controlled chaos. He’s become the most successful coach in the program’s history, but nothing has ever been normal, routine or easy under the Michigan man the Tigers hired from Oklahoma State to replace Nick Saban.
From the way he talks to his postgame rants to the occasional clock mismanagement, chaos is part of who Miles is. Every time that craziness leads to a bad result, message boards label Miles an idiot and openly call for his job.
But the truth is his style has produced the highest winning percentage in program history.
However, in the last three seasons, the level of crazy on the field has not matched the level off of it. Miles still has the same zany antics on the sidelines and at the podium, but it seems like ages since the Tigers won a game on a daring coaching gamble or trick play.
LSU is nowhere near as good as Alabama. If it wants to go into Tuscaloosa and win Saturday, the Tigers need a classic performance from the Mad Hatter.
They’ll need the kind of brilliant insanity that dialed up the tight-end reverse on fourth down to defeat the Tide in 2010, or the successful fake field goals to trick Steve Spurrier and then beat Urban Meyer three years later.
Perhaps more importantly, they’ll need the Miles that once played for the last-second touchdown against Auburn and converted five fourth downs against Florida en route to a BCS National Championship.
But for whatever reason, that magic has disappeared the last few seasons. LSU has become a much more buttoned-down team, especially against elite opponents.
And the last time Miles tried to re-conjure some Mad Hatter magic in a big spot (last season’s Alabama game), it misfired.
In the second quarter, Miles decided to fake a 47-yard field goal attempt on fourth and 12, which failed miserably. On the next possession, facing a more fakeable fourth and four, Miles let Drew Alleman attempt and miss a 54-yard field goal. The latter led to a Tide touchdown.
Then leading in the fourth quarter, LSU failed on a fourth-and-one attempt and missed another Alleman field goal. In a four-point loss, virtually every fourth-down decision Miles made backfired.
Going against a superior Alabama team on the road, Miles will again need to gamble if he wants to upend the Tide.
The Tigers, especially on defense, are not good enough to line up and defeat the Tide. But with a boost from some well-timed trickery, LSU could pull the win out.
That doesn’t mean run trick plays simply for the sake of doing so, like the Zach Mettenberger- Anthony Jennings throwback pass or the Seth Fruge fake field goal we saw earlier this season. To use one of Miles’ favorite words, the play has to come at a significant time against a significant opponent.
Miles had a bye week to prepare for Alabama, so he probably spent some of that time drawing up something crazy. It won’t work unless he dials it up at the right time and his team executes it correctly.
If not, the Mad Hatter nickname will continue to be a hollow relic of the past as LSU loses to Alabama again.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Beacon, N.Y.