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LSU firing Les Miles was a mistake

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Firing Les Miles is part of a disturbing trend in college football, and one that we need to change.

Nick Saban has ruined college football. The entire SEC (heck, the entire college football nation) is chasing his record, and most of them come up woefully short. Firing Les Miles was a mistake, and one which LSU will regret. There is always a need for new blood and new ideas; yet college football’s traditions and history are such a major part of what makes the sport so compelling. LSU canning Miles is part of a conference-wide obsession with numbers and championships and one which I find disturbing.

The problem with this preoccupation with championships is that getting rid of Les Miles will not fix LSU’s woes; indeed, without a strong hand at the tiller the team might flounder even more. It is this same type of win-or-die mentality that caused Georgia’s administration to fire Mark Richt last year. Both Richt and Miles had win percentages over .770. That makes both coaches eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s also better than Saban’s (.750) record in his tenure at LSU.

So when did winning a national title become the sole barometer of a team’s success? The answer is when Nick Saban took over at Alabama and turned that team into the collegiate equivalent of the Spartans; that is, an unstoppable force. I can respect Saban’s tactics-he does win. Unfortunately, he is also making it impossible for other great coaches to succeed.

The SEC seems to require every team to be eligible for a national title; yet the school administrators also won’t wait for that to happen. It takes time and patience to build a program. Unfortunately, it seems that time and patience are too much to invest. The SEC football programs want success now, so they get rid of coaches with outstanding records in a hunt for that elusive something better.

That is the problem. Coaches like Les Miles have an innate talent. Coaches like Miles don’t just hang around, waiting to transform a program’s destiny. LSU is looking for a superior solution to Les Miles, and chances are they won’t find it. Look at the coaching carousel that Florida and Tennessee were on if you think I’m wrong. Look at Georgia’s implosion.

So I blame Nick Saban. He has made Miles’ stellar 114-34 record appear like it is not good enough-and that is heartbreaking. College football was built on legendary coaches whose characters far outlived their record. College football shouldn’t be only about titles, and it’s high time we remember that. Here’s to you, Coach Miles.  You will be missed in more ways than one.

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