Roundtable: Remembering Les Miles' time at LSU

One of the quirkiest and most colorful coaches in college football was let go from his job Sunday. Les Miles is a national treasure; at LSU, he was poor at clock management but quick with the one-liner. The school fired him on Sunday after he started the season 2-2. Miles’ dismissal was long overdue, but it doesn’t make it any less difficult.

So for this week’s roundtable, our panel looks back on the decision to fire Miles and their favorite Les Miles moment.

Pat Forde shared his thoughts on Les Miles in a piece Sunday evening, but he also added some thoughts about Miles as a person and a coach:

Everything about Les was just a little off. But charmingly so.

His hat never fit right. He clapped his hands weirdly. His manner of speech was downright odd. He employed the words “want” and “chest” in strange ways. Despite all that, Miles carried himself like a guy who always had all the answers. And even when it seemed abundantly clear he did NOT have the answers, it almost always worked out anyway. He was the luckiest coach I’ve ever seen.

But in a profession full of phonies who keep their personalities hidden beneath a mask of intensity, Les was always happy to be Les. He was enjoyable to be around. He was a human who coached football, as opposed to an automaton coach who moonlighted as a human. He will be missed at LSU, and the school may regret running him out.

(Pat Forde)

THAT’S A DIFFERENT DAY ENTIRELY

If you’re going to fire a guy, I guess it’s better to do so after a 2-2 start than a 9-3 season.

But if LSU wanted to get rid of Les Miles last year, they shouldn’t have talked themselves out of it near the end of the 2015 season. Maybe it’s like the adage of going with your gut. LSU knew its gut said to go with Miles, yet talked itself out of the decision last year only to regret it in 2016. And now that the decision is final, LSU has to live with it. Miles set a pretty high standard at LSU. If you break up with someone to move on to someone bigger and better, well, that someone has to be bigger and better to prevent you from thinking you’ve made the wrong decision.

Could the Tigers have simply fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron without Miles? Maybe. It was pretty clear after the Auburn game that there needed to be significant offensive changes. When you have the best running back in the country and a really good set of receivers, attempting to score a touchdown shouldn’t have all the drama of a Univision telenovela.

My favorite memory of Miles is his 2013 honor of Columbus Day. This is not St. Paddy’s Day. It’s a different day entirely.

(Nick Bromberg)

IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE SHOES

I have to agree with Nick on this one. It’s way easier to part ways with Miles while the LSU fan base is dismayed following another loss thanks to poor clock management than to wait until he has a nine- or 10-win season. It would be difficult for the LSU brass to justify the firing just like it was a year ago.

But, as difficult as this is to say, he had to go.

I’ll miss Les Miles as a personality and even as a coach to some degree, but it was clear the program was in a rut and now needs fresh blood to get it going again. Miles has done a lot for the LSU program and he should always be commended and respected for that. But sometimes teams just need to go another direction (see Georgia). I have no doubt Miles will land on his feet whether that’s with another coach job or a broadcasting job (please replace Lee Corso). My only concern about this firing is that it will cause other programs on the fence about firing their coach to pull the trigger early in order to get into a race with LSU for the next great coach, which is probably Houston’s Tom Herman. And if that’s the case, I hope it doesn’t distract the Cougars and derail what is already a promising season.

But, as I noted before, I’ll miss Miles the personality most. My favorite all-time Les Miles moment was a spot he did with Scott Van Pelt five years ago where he’s schooling his son in basketball. It’s hilarious and just a reminder of how simply awesome Miles is as a guy.

(Graham Watson)

I REPRESENT ME IN THIS ISSUE

LSU was very good for most of Les Miles’ tenure, but lately it has just been good. That apparently wasn’t enough for a program that expects to be in the national title conversation every year, so I understand why the school did what it did. Still, I think Miles deserved the chance to turn things around and finish out the year.

The offseason hype drove those expectations sky high again, so that opening loss to Wisconsin (which doesn’t look like a bad loss now … just ask Michigan State) was deflating. It also showed the same problems that very nearly cost Miles his job late last year. The offense was so bland and unimaginative that day, and didn’t look much better on Saturday against Auburn, when it could muster only 13 points in a loss. Ultimately, it seems like Miles’ decision not to change offensive schemes (and his coordinator) cost him his job.

My favorite Les Miles memory was nearly a decade ago when a certain ESPN personality reported on the day of the 2007 SEC Championship Game that Miles would take the head-coaching gig at Michigan, succeeding Lloyd Carr.

He cleared things up in classic Les fashion:

(Sam Cooper)

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday