In the 24/7, Twitter-fueled, non-stop news world we live in, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. Every rumor is reported as the stone-cold truth, every sentence out of a source’s mouth hits our Twitter feed faster than Trent Richardson hitting the five-hole against an overmatched SEC opponent. At this point, it really is impossible to sort it all out.
However, every once in a while a nugget of information hits that is just juicy enough, just logical enough, and from just the right writer, that it makes you perk up and say, “Woah!”
That happened early Wednesday morning, when well-respected CBS Sports NFL Insider Mike Freeman floated a rumor that he’s been hearing around NFL front offices over the past few weeks: The idea of Les Miles, college football’s greatest natural resource, as a man of interest for future open NFL coaching positions. The Mad Hatter to the National…Football…League?!?! It could happen.
As Freeman stated in his “10 Point Stance” Column:
NFL owners and general managers over the past few years have always been intrigued by LSU coach Les Miles, but something about Miles always made them hesitant: They thought he was a goofball.
The wacky, Mad Hatter rep made some NFL executives who considered hiring him nervous, I’m told. They weren’t certain if he had the maturity to be an NFL head coach, so in the end, they stayed away.
That is changing drastically. After interviews with several team executives, it has become clear Miles has vaulted near the top of some lists as the next hottest NFL coaching candidate.
First off, it really is amazing what a little winning can do for a man, huh? Prior to last season, when Miles was coming off an 8-5 year in 2008 and a subsequent somewhat disappointing 9-4 stint in 2009, some thought Miles was on the hot-seat. Was it fair? Absolutely not. Accurate? No way. But it was still rumor none the less. Now, thanks to an 11 win season a year ago, and three wins over ranked opponents (all away from Baton Rouge) this season, Miles is apparently, the toast of NFL circles.
Now to the more interesting question: What kind of NFL coach would Les Miles make?
The easy assumption of course would be that he’s too much of a “player’s coach,” someone who is too loose and fun and (to use Freeman’s word) “goofy,” to succeed. I for one, actually agree.
If we’ve seen anything over the years, it’s that the best NFL coaches are task-masters, the guys that command respect from a room and don’t take crap from anyone. That is what’s made Bill Belichick successful over the last decade and also made Mike Tomlin a two-time Super Bowl winner. And looking across the NFL landscape, there really isn’t any one coach who comes to mind with a similar coaching style to Miles who has been successful. Rex Ryan is probably the best example of a guy who has defied the “player’s coach,” tab and had success in the pros.
Still, Ryan was a well-respected NFL assistant for years before showing up in New York, and known as the guy who molded Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott into one of the most feared defenses in the league. Ryan had instant credibility courtesy of a Super Bowl ring that Miles obviously wouldn’t bring with him. Not to mention that for all the eccentricities surrounding ole’ Rex (you know what I’m talking about…), he is still incredibly sharp and witty in front of the camera, something that seemingly would translate to the team meeting rooms and practice fields. Les clearly doesn’t have the same charisma, which makes me wonder: Would professional athletes listen to, and respect him? It’s hard to say.
There’s also another interesting nugget to expand on from the Freeman article, when he is quoted as saying:
Their belief is that Miles is, as one told me, the next Jimmy Johnson in terms of knowing how to coach the 21st-century player. Take that comparison as you like, but to me there’s no bigger compliment since Johnson deftly handled a Cowboys locker room full of gigantic egos.
Umm, ok. With all due respect to whatever executive that Freeman spoke with, he or she was either talking out of their you-know-what, or simply didn’t know what they were speaking of.
For an insight into the psychosis of Johnson, please, by all means read Jeff Pearlman’s excellent book, Boys Will Be Boys, about the reign of the Cowboys in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
If you do that, you’ll see that Miles and Johnson have about as much in common as I do with the Dalai Lama. Johnson was a mean-spirited, borderline cruel guy, whose players gave him their all, simply because they were terrified of him. In the book, numerous players talk about Johnson’s militaristic approach to leading that team, and at times, Johnson cutting players on the spot, in season, totally on a whim. Again, Johnson didn’t “relate” to those players. He struck fear in them, a personality quirk that’s certainly not in Les’ wheelhouse.
What I will wrap up by saying though is this: If LSU were to win a second National Championship this year (Which we all know is likely) and Les wanted to dabble his toes in the NFL waters, I wouldn’t blame him.
The truth is that as things stand, he’s got just about the cushiest job in all of college football. On the surface, LSU has loyal, rabid fan base, that’s going to provide him with every necessary resource he needs to compete. Unlike virtually every other program in the sport, he has no natural rivals competing for him in-state with recruits. There is no Auburn to his Alabama, no Florida State to his Florida. If Les wants a recruit from Louisiana, there is a 99.9 percent chance he’s getting him, meaning that LSU is always going to have one of the 2-3 most talented teams in the country. With the way he recruits, in most season’s LSU is only going to have to play one or two teams with the talent to actually beat him. Is he really going to be motivated to return to the Bayou when 10 wins seem like practically a guarantee every year?
Then there’s this: If LSU wins a title this year, Miles will almost certainly have conquered every demon from his past.
When LSU won the title in Miles’ second year in 2007, the easy cliché to throw around was the did it with “Nick Saban’s players.” Well what’ll the excuse be for the doubters this year when every single player on the roster will have been recruited by, and coached up by Miles and his staff? There won’t be one.
Not to mention, if he wins the title, he’d almost certainly have to go through Saban again, and this year, win in Tuscaloosa. Should Miles do that (and again, we’re a long way from it happening, but still), he’d be 3-2 against Saban in the five years since the coach got to Alabama, making Miles the unquestioned king of the SEC West.
And if you’re king of the SEC and king of college football, what else is there to do in college football?
I’m not saying Miles, can or would ever leave LSU for the NFL. Who knows if the offers will even be out there.
What I do know is that if Miles wins another title, it might be time to look for another challenge.
And the right opportunity at the next level might be it.
Follow Aaron Torres on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
