The firing of Les Miles by LSU on Sunday afternoon caught a number of people by surprise. Perhaps it shouldn’t have considering the drama surrounding Miles’ job situation toward the end of the 2015 season, but none the less the Tigers have moved on and named Ed Orgeron its interim head coach for the remainder of the 2016 season. On Monday, the coach Miles was hired to replace at LSU reacted to the news, and he certainly seemed puzzled by it.
“A man wins a national championship and two SEC titles, and he doesn’t make it through the season?” That was the response of one Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“Les Miles is one of the most respected colleagues in terms of rivalry we’ve had,” Saban said of Miles. The two SEC West coaches met each other 12 times on the field, with 11 coming in SEC play and one other coming in a BCS National Championship, won by Saban’s Crimson Tide. Saban held the upper hand in the series with seven wins to Miles’ three. It wasn’t always that way, as Miles and LSU took advantage of Saban’s earlier years to stay just ahead of the Tide before Saban got his Alabama machine in full gear. And that’s just what happened on the field.
Recruiting battles were always engaging as well, as Alabama and LSU routinely pursued many of the same top players. Miles and LSU did well in locking down many of the top recruits in the state of Louisiana, but battling for the top draft classes on a regular basis added fuel to the fire.