LSU coach Les Miles has made very few mistakes in his three-year tenure as the Tigers’ head coach.
Miles has 33 wins in three seasons, capped off by winning a national championship this past January.
His on-field results are open-popping, but his off-the-field decision concerning junior quarterback Ryan Perrilloux is flat-out wrong.
The junior quarterback should have been kicked off the team.
Period.
No questions asked.
Miles announced Thursday that Perrilloux will regain full-team membership after Saturday’s spring game. The junior quarterback again garnered negative attention when he reportedly used racial slurs and cursed a server and a manager at Kona Grill on Sunday.
The latest incident is certainly not the only knock on Perrilloux. Since joining the team in 2005, he has been officially suspended twice and missed a week of practice before the Alabama game this past fall.
Perrilloux has become known more for his antics off the field rather than his on-field accomplishments. He was reportedly a person of interest in a money counterfeiting ring; he allegedly tried to enter a local casino with his brother’s ID; he was reportedly involved a nightclub brawl at The Varsity; and he has been rumored to be slacking in the classroom.
The decision to keep Perrilloux on the team is a slap in the face to the rest of the team. There is certainly no blatant blanket rule on player discipline. During Perrilloux’s embarrassing streak of bad behavior, Miles has kicked six players off the team – Tyson Andrus, Derrick Odom III, Jeremy Benton, Troy Giddens, Zhamal Thomas and Kyle Anderson.
LSU burst onto the scene this past season in a positive light after capturing the national championship. But the recent Perrilloux news frenzy has turned the Tiger football program into the butt of a national joke.
This school’s name does not deserve to be associated with a player who consistently embarrasses this community.
Thank you, Coach Miles, for everything you have done for the team – specifically this school, its students and this town.
But you made a bad decision this time. LSU football is about more than wins and losses; it’s also about maintaining positive national attention.
We guarantee this won’t be Perrilloux’s last problem – you can take that to the bank.
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