People forget that Les Miles, the Miles who led his team through a natural disaster. I'll take the emotional Miles over the buttoned-down Vest any day.
Miles coaches in the tougher SEC, hasn't had a doddering old goat to beat up on the way Tressel had in Lloyd Carr, and in 2005 and 2006 became the first coach in school history to post back-to-back 10-win regular seasons. Miles is a stunning 33-6 at LSU in the nastiest conference that contains some of the best coaching talent.
The full Miles line: 33 victories, 20 SEC victories, 13 wins over top 25 teams, seven wins over top 10 teams, one SEC title, two bowl victories and back-to-back top five final rankings. On Monday, he could add a national title.
In just three years.
Yeah, he's terrible.
"He enjoys being the underdog where people think he's not a smart football coach," LSU AD Skip Bertman told USA Today. "In reality, he's extraordinarily gifted as a tactician. He's so underrated, it's hilarious."
Some of his coaching decisions have been wacky to say the least. Still, none of the great coaches across football -- not Tressel, not Urban Meyer, not Mark Mangino -- have overcome what Miles did early in his career.
None of them had to beat the toughest opponent ever: the aftermath of an apocalyptic storm.
The only disaster Tressel has had to deal with was Maurice Clarett.
There is more sophistication to Miles than people think. You have to be deeper than we think to lead a team to 10 wins and a bowl victory during a hurricane-ravaged year.
Miles reminds me of the Get Smart episode where the bad guy says, "You've fallen into a very clever trap."
"I've fallen into cleverer traps than this before," Smart replies.
If you believe Miles wears a clown suit and is steeped in silliness, you've fallen into the same trap.
Sucker. He's smarter -- and better -- than you think.
