Mitch Albom's take on Les Miles
Michigan
Posts: 4,942 ✭
in Sports Talk
Good riddance.
Personally, I saw all I needed to see of Les Miles in his hastily called news conference Saturday. He affected a barking, angry tone, hands by his hips, at one point tugging emphatically on his sports coat.
“I’m the head coach at LSU,” he declared. “I will be the head coach at LSU. And I have no interested in talking to anybody else.
“I’ve got a championship game to play and I’m excited about the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play..…
“It’s unfortunate that I had to address my team with this information this morning.”
Right. Stop. So long, Les. We’ve put up with a lot of baloney this past week in the Michigan coaching search. But Miles’ getting belligerent about a process he encouraged, he invited — and he ultimately parlayed into a jackpot?
Sorry. Not swallowing that meatball.
The ugly business of college football
When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. When they say it’s about the school, it’s often about the money. When they say it’s about the program, the kids, the integrity, it’s, well, you know.
Les Miles says he’s happy at LSU. He also claims to love his alma mater, Michigan. He should. U-M just made him a rich man. It won’t be for coaching the Wolverines, however — a job so dear to Miles that his employers, in his contract, foresaw the day he might leave for it.
Instead, the LSU Tigers did the old preemptive blitz and tackled their own guy before Michigan could touch him. Hey. That’s business. It’s hard and cold and nasty and sneaky.
But when Miles wants to act insulted that he had to deal with this? That’s when the curtain comes down. His people did plenty of talking with Michigan. His interest peaked then waned or was phony all along, just a way of getting LSU to pony up.
“He never wanted to go to Michigan,” LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said.
Don’t be so sure, Skip. Maybe it was that fat contract you waved. Miles was the star of this little show. He shouldn’t bark at people for buying tickets.
The light at the end of the Big House tunnel
Meanwhile, don’t cry for U-M. It will be fine. This is an elite program, a huge school, kids want to play there, and its tradition will attract a great candidate. If you’ve been happy with the last 40 years of U-M football, remember, Bo Schembechler was a nobody when hired, Gary Moeller only got the job because Bo pushed him for it, and Lloyd Carr was thrust into it when Moeller was abruptly fired for a public incident.
Someone good will wear that whistle. In the interim, maybe those people whispering that Miles was a bad choice were onto something. This is a guy who was bought out of his contract at Oklahoma State and would have to come up with a $1.25 million buyout had U-M taken him from Baton Rouge. He seems to like the money shower, and it’s raining down on him right now.
If U-M were truly his dream job, it wouldn’t have hinged on money. And since it did, we can only speculate, had he taken the position, how long it would have been before he jumped when someone else waved a wad of dough.
Good riddance. Move on. Les Miles never was a head coach here, he only shadowed the job for a few weeks. Besides, guys who act angry when they are quietly counting their new money aren’t guys you’re going to miss.
.
Personally, I saw all I needed to see of Les Miles in his hastily called news conference Saturday. He affected a barking, angry tone, hands by his hips, at one point tugging emphatically on his sports coat.
“I’m the head coach at LSU,” he declared. “I will be the head coach at LSU. And I have no interested in talking to anybody else.
“I’ve got a championship game to play and I’m excited about the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play..…
“It’s unfortunate that I had to address my team with this information this morning.”
Right. Stop. So long, Les. We’ve put up with a lot of baloney this past week in the Michigan coaching search. But Miles’ getting belligerent about a process he encouraged, he invited — and he ultimately parlayed into a jackpot?
Sorry. Not swallowing that meatball.
The ugly business of college football
When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. When they say it’s about the school, it’s often about the money. When they say it’s about the program, the kids, the integrity, it’s, well, you know.
Les Miles says he’s happy at LSU. He also claims to love his alma mater, Michigan. He should. U-M just made him a rich man. It won’t be for coaching the Wolverines, however — a job so dear to Miles that his employers, in his contract, foresaw the day he might leave for it.
Instead, the LSU Tigers did the old preemptive blitz and tackled their own guy before Michigan could touch him. Hey. That’s business. It’s hard and cold and nasty and sneaky.
But when Miles wants to act insulted that he had to deal with this? That’s when the curtain comes down. His people did plenty of talking with Michigan. His interest peaked then waned or was phony all along, just a way of getting LSU to pony up.
“He never wanted to go to Michigan,” LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said.
Don’t be so sure, Skip. Maybe it was that fat contract you waved. Miles was the star of this little show. He shouldn’t bark at people for buying tickets.
The light at the end of the Big House tunnel
Meanwhile, don’t cry for U-M. It will be fine. This is an elite program, a huge school, kids want to play there, and its tradition will attract a great candidate. If you’ve been happy with the last 40 years of U-M football, remember, Bo Schembechler was a nobody when hired, Gary Moeller only got the job because Bo pushed him for it, and Lloyd Carr was thrust into it when Moeller was abruptly fired for a public incident.
Someone good will wear that whistle. In the interim, maybe those people whispering that Miles was a bad choice were onto something. This is a guy who was bought out of his contract at Oklahoma State and would have to come up with a $1.25 million buyout had U-M taken him from Baton Rouge. He seems to like the money shower, and it’s raining down on him right now.
If U-M were truly his dream job, it wouldn’t have hinged on money. And since it did, we can only speculate, had he taken the position, how long it would have been before he jumped when someone else waved a wad of dough.
Good riddance. Move on. Les Miles never was a head coach here, he only shadowed the job for a few weeks. Besides, guys who act angry when they are quietly counting their new money aren’t guys you’re going to miss.
.
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What a tool.
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