LSU head coach Les Miles was asked about the impending opening at Michigan and his prospective interest in the job should it come open at his weekly availability on Monday, and he didn’t exactly shoot the speculation down with a high-caliber rifle.
“I have given little or no thought to any other jobs, and I am so comfortable with my team and doing what I’m doing,” Miles said, via MLive.com. “I do not read the paper. I certainly respect and love Michigan and wish them the very best.”
Miles played under Bo Schembechler in the 1970’s, and served as offensive line coach under Schembechler and his replacement Gary Moeller from 1987-94. He has turned down the Wolverines before, though, declining an offer following the 2007 job as LSU was in the midst of a national championship march. That job, of course, went to Rich Rodriguez, sending Michigan into a tailspin from which it has yet to recover. Which brings us back to ‘ol Lester.
Asked if he considered it a compliment for his name to be a thrown in the mix, Miles again hemmed and hawed.
“I, uh, don’t really look at it as a compliment or not, I haven’t read the newspaper in a month, just so you know,” he said. “It’s hard for me to tell you what the record of other schools are.”
There is one way for Miles to make the speculation go away, and that is to definitively state he will be LSU’s coach in 2015. But he didn’t do that.
However, that does not mean Miles will be Michigan’s next head coach. Far from it. He could have an interest in holding a conversation with interim athletics director Jim Hackett just to see if he would maybe, possibly be interested - he did the same with Jeff Long at Arkansas before he ultimately hired Bret Bielema - or he could be interested in serving as a reference point in hopes of helping identify another coach to send his alma mater pointed in the right direction.
Anything’s possible. And that’s kind of the point, because Les left it that way.