Another Profile in Coaching Excellence

Earlier in the week, we had made the prediction that neither USC nor LSU would win the BCS championship. The logic behind USC coming up short was laid out but there was neither the time nor the space to get into why LSU would not win the whole shootin' match. And in the meantime, no small degree of doubt started to set in.

What's not to like about their chances? They return 8 starters (including 2 All-Americans on the D-line) to one of the top 2 or 3 defenses in the nation and 6 on offense... and that doesn't include the projected starting QB, Senior Matt Flynn, who won Peach Bowl MVP honors back in '05 before giving way to JaMarcus Russell. Any holes they have to fill will, no doubt, be done ably via the outstanding recruiting classes LSU has had the past few years.

And the schedule? By SEC standards, one could not be blessed with a more manageable one. Second game of the season, they get at home a Va. Tech team that will be coming off a hugely emotional home opener themselves and a team which will almost be guaranteed to be a bit flat (keep a close eye on that game's line). Aside from a trip to Alabama, all their toughest in-conference games will be at Death Valley: South Carolina, a re-building Florida, Auburn, and a defensively-depleted Arkansas squad. Even with one loss, if they take care of business otherwise, get to the SEC championship game, win that.... they're a virtual lock for the BCS title game.

But are we back-pedalling? Not a chance, my friends. You see, we've placed our faith in our main man, Les Miles. Yes, indeed. We've no doubt that ol' Les, the head coach, will find a way to screw-up this thing for the Bayou Bengals. Not sure quite what it is, but he just seems to have that "it" factor.... that ability to be able to completely choke away games from the sidelines. Saw it at Oklahoma State where if he wasn't beating Oklahoma outright he was giving them fits, but then could never capitalize on that by beating anyone else of note.

Never mind his moon-bat crazy rants about USC and the Pac-10, I first swooned for Clue-Les a couple of years ago during a game in Baton Rouge against Tennessee, in which the Vols made a stirring comeback to win. The game was in HD which allowed for some lip-reading and as the tide was turning against the Tigers in a frantic 4th quarter, there were two times where it appeared that Les, puzzled, turned to one of his assistants and said, "What just happened?" His assistants calmly explained that ".. well, yes, it is a Monday, coach and we usually don't play games on Monday and we're playing this other team in orange from Tennessee, and yes, coach, it is quite loud in here and yes, people are wondering very loudly why it is we are letting this game slip away...." At least, that's what it looked like. It was great television.

So Les, here's to you, brother. Don't let us down.