LSU football coach Les Miles commented on rumors at Monday’s press conference about LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini possibly filling the Nebraska head football coaching position after Bill Callahan was fired Saturday.
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Nebraska interim athletic director Tom Osborne and chancellor Harvey Perlman flew to Baton Rouge on Sunday to interview Pelini.
Norfolk Iron and Metal company owns the private plane, and Nebraska athletics financial supporter Dick Robinson is president of the company.
According to Internet flight records, the plane arrived in Baton Rouge at about 3:10 p.m. Sunday and stayed at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport for two hours and 25 minutes before leaving for Atlanta. The Lincoln Journal Star reported that Nebraska’s search firm, Parker Executive Search, is based in Atlanta.
“Bo Pelini has not traveled any place. I’ve been with him every day,” Miles said. “I don’t have a lot of information on [Pelini taking the job at Nebraska]. What I know is he is preparing our team for the [Southeastern Conference] championship.”
Senior Associate Athletic Director Herb Vincent said Monday he could not confirm whether Pelini interviewed for the job.
Pelini was a linebackers’ coach at Nebraska in 2003 and the interim head coach in the team’s 17-3 win against Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl.
HOME STREAK SNAPPED
With LSU’s loss to the Razorbacks, the Tigers snapped a record streak of 19 consecutive home wins. Before Friday’s loss at Tiger Stadium, the last loss was a 30-27 overtime setback against Tennessee on Sept. 26, 2005. That game was played on a Monday night because of complications from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The streak broke the previous school record of 17 straight wins, which was set from 1935-37.
HOLLIDAY EXPECTED TO PLAY
Miles said he is optimistic sophomore running back Trindon Holliday will be able to play in the SEC Championship game against Tennessee.
Holliday, who is the only player in LSU history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns, missed Friday’s contest against Arkansas with an undisclosed injury.
“Certainly without him in there, we are not as fast,” Miles said. “I think by the back end of this week he’ll be ready to play.”
Holliday began sprinting Sunday and is expected to start working out with the team Wednesday.
FAMILY MATTERS
Not only does Miles have to worry about backlash from the media and fans after losing in the regular season finale to Arkansas, the coach said his own family took shots at him.
Miles said he heard stories about his children’s attitude toward him after the loss to Arkansas.
“I got home and heard a story that Macy was mad at me,” Miles said of his youngest daughter. “We had to teach her a heck of a lesson. We had to let her know this family is a little closer-knit than the final score of the games.”
OVERTIME WOES
With two losses on the year in triple overtime, the latest coming in the back end of the season, LSU’s BCS title game hopes are all but finished. This is a bitter pill to swallow for Miles, who said his team would be undefeated if not for overtime miscues.
“If you look at this team, we haven’t lost a game in regulation,” Miles said. “There is not a team that has bested us in 60 minutes, and if you had to look at the length and width of a game, that’s how it’s measured.”
Miles said the overtime system used in college football, where each team gets a chance to score from the 25 yard line, is a good one but is also “flawed.”
“It takes the length of the field out of it, and it takes certain situations out of it,” Miles said. “If you give us ties like that old system, we’re undefeated with two ties.”
As it stands, the new BCS rankings have the 10-2 Tigers sitting at seventh, one spot behind another 2-loss team of Virginia Tech, which the Tigers beat by 41 points earlier in the year.
— Amy Brittain contributed to this report.
—-Contact Jeff Martin at [email protected]