Recapping a Crazy Day in College Football

That was an unbelievable day in college football, both on and off the field, and it's still going on as I write this (Hawaii is playing what could be a very important game against Washington -- But we'll get to that in a moment). But before we get to the mess that is the BCS, let's do some clean-up on the Les Miles fiasco.

As I wrote, and wrote, and wrote some more about earlier in the day, we went from Les Miles coming to Michigan, to Les Miles returning to LSU, to a press conference which led to more questions and more ambiguities, to finally, what we think is absolute, definitive words that Miles is not coming to Michigan.

"For a coach to be an issue, on a day like this? It's not forgivable. That's why I had to take the podium and tell the truth. I promise you, it's not a press conference I wanted to have. I wanted the game to be the focus, not the coach. I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that my name was on ESPN. I was embarrassed for my team."

Miles said he was saddened for Michigan and his team, but made it clear that he will sign an extension with LSU and is no longer a candidate to succeed Lloyd Carr in any way, shape or form.

"There's no wiggle room," Miles said. "I just want you to know. It's very difficult for me to take another job if I'm not talking to anybody, and I said that. I'm very fortunate to represent LSU. It's a great place. My family is happy. ... We have great support. It's a special place. I'm glad to be home."

Kudos, BTW, to Jim Carty for his excellent reporting all day on the Miles story and being the first to report Miles was staying at LSU, which could not have been easy considering ESPN was reporting he was already delivered to Michigan. So why turn down your dream job? That's an interesting question. Maybe it came down to money. LSU is set to make Miles one of the top paid coaches in the country, which I read to mean somewhere around $4.0 million (Nick Saban is the highest paid coach at $4 million per year). I don't know what Michigan would have offered him, but probably not more than $3 million (Lloyd Carr was only making $1.5 million per season). And maybe it was simply a timing issue, which made it hard for Miles to leave LSU. It had to be hard for Miles though, knowing he more than likely will never get another opportunity to coach his alma matter.

The question now is, what does Michigan do. Angelique Chengelis, of the Detroit News, had a list of potential candidates:

Meanwhile, sources close to the Michigan search said Martin will continue to look at candidates that include Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, N.C. State Tom O'Brien and Cal coach Jeff Tedford.

Outside of Schiano, who would be a very intriguing candidate and probably the best candidate at this point, that list of names is not awe-inspiring. Tedford is a quarterback guru, but he just finished a .500 season at Cal. Pinkel, Grobe, and O'Brien won't excite anyone in Ann Arbor, and none are more than mediocre candidates (Pinkel may have turned Missouri around this year, but he's been a 4, 5 loss coach each year until now). And word has it Brian Kelly, successful at Grand Valley State and Central Michigan (as well as Cincinnati this year) is not a serious candidate. There just are not very many blow-away candidates out there. Miles was it. Now, unless Michigan can get Schiano, it's going to be a sad, disappointing search for the Wolverines. Eerily similar to the difficulties Notre Dame had finding a head coach a few years back before Charlie Weis came to the rescue. I don't envy Bill Martin.

The only thing stranger than the Les Miles situation is the BCS mess. This college football season has seen more upsets and top teams falling and Saturday was no different. After the #1 (LSU) and #2 (Kansas) teams in the country lost last weekend, the same happened this week, as Oklahoma destroyed #1 Missouri in the Big 12 Title Game and #2 West Virginia, despite being a 28-point favorite, lost to Pittsburgh, at home (just an incredible loss with a BCS National Title birth hanging in the balance). So the question now becomes, what on earth to do with the National Title Game, with so many one and two loss teams (not to mention undefeated Hawaii, or, at least they were undefeated when this post went live -- After a day like today, who knows what may happen against Washington -- 12:00 Update: And, of course, on cue, Hawaii falls behind 14-0 to Washington in the first quarter. Go figure.)

It's all but a given that now Ohio State becomes one of the two teams in the National Title Game (talk about a bad day for Michigan -- They lose Les Miles, their basketball team is upset by Harvard, who just happens to be coached by the man they fired, Tommy Amaker, and arch-rival Ohio State makes it into the National Title Game) but the team they are going to face is anybody's guess. Georgia is the #4 ranked team in the country going into this weekend, so keeping that constant, they would move to #2, but can you really put them in the National Title Game after failing to even make it to the SEC Championship Game, especially when SEC Champion LSU just defeated Tennessee, which beat Georgia 35-17 earlier in the season? Then you have one-loss Kansas, but again, they failed to make it to their conference championship game, and were beat by Missouri, which again, got blown out by Oklahoma tonight. Virginia Tech won the ACC today, but they lost 48-7 to LSU during the second week of the season. If they make the National Title Game over LSU, then there's something seriously wrong. And of course, Hawaii is still the only undefeated team in college football (12:00 Update: See above, Hawaii falls behind 14-0 against Washington early on.)

I think at this point, I would say Ohio State should play either LSU or Oklahoma, and flip a coin on who deserves it between the two of them. I'm happy I don't have to make that choice, and you can bet, no matter what happens, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people, as the BCS will, once again, fail in its mission to eliminate the exact controversy it was desigined to avoid.

What a day, a full, very full day, in college football. Good thing there's a break before the Bowl Games start. After a day like today, we need it.

Video of Les Miles Press Conference - Les Says, Well, Nothing

Les Miles just held a very short press conference, just hours before LSU takes on Tennessee in the LSU title game, and he said, well, nothing. He didn't announce that he had signed a contract extension at LSU and he didn't announce he was leaving for Michigan. He did sound very angry that word had leaked earlier in the day that he was leaving, and he did say he was LSU's head coach and that he had no interest in leaving, and that he would answer questions later. It was, odd to say the least. If he does indeed have an agreement on a contract extension with LSU, why not announce it? Here's the video of the short and curt press conference from an obviously perturbed Les Miles. (I originally captured and posted the video of the press conference, but after reading Sean's post over at Michigan Sports Center and seeing ESPN has their own embed-able video, which is of much higher quality than my capture, we'll use that instead.)

The conspiracy theorist within me thinks this: The only reason why Miles would not announce that he had agreed to a contract extension, is because he hasn't. That word leaked earlier today that he was leaving, he and LSU's athletic department knew that such word leaking out would be a huge distraction to LSU's team going in to today's SEC Title Game, and thus, they decided to leak word he was staying, hold his pseudo press-conference in hopes of reassuring the LSU team and getting them ready to play this afternoon's game, and still leave Miles free to leave sometime later this week. I think that's highly unlikely a scenario, but, I have no other explanation for why Miles wouldn't just kill all speculation and announce he signed a contract extension if he has indeed signed (or even simply agreed to one).

Very very strange day and it keeps getting stranger as at 10:15 I was posting about ESPN.com's report that Miles was headed to Michigan then taking that back at 12:30 when I wrote about Jim Carty's report he was staying at LSU. Stay tuned, this thing may not be over yet.

Change In Plans: Les Miles Staying at LSU

Just hours after ESPN reported that Les Miles would become the next head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, MLive.com and the Ann Arbor News are reporting that Miles will instead sign a multi-year contract extension with LSU.

Sources close to both Les Miles and the LSU administration report the coach has reached a multi-year contract extension with his current school and will remove himself from consideration as the next Michigan coach.

Details of the extension are expected to be released by LSU shortly.

LSU will reportedly make Miles one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.

If true, and Jim Carty, the reporter who broke the story, is usually dead-on with his reporting, it's a big blow to Michigan. Instead of hiring Miles, one of the best coaches in the country, and a Michigan-man to boot, and bringing along one of the best defensive coordinators in the game according to some (in Georgia Tech's Jon Tenuta) Michigan will have to go back to the drawing board. Potential names you are likely to hear are Iowa's Kirk Ferentz again, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly, and Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.

Update: The story does indeed appear true. Both the Detroit News and the New Orleans Times Picayune confirm that Miles is staying at LSU, and that there will be a press conference to that effect at 1:50 EST, two hours before LSU takes on Tennessee in the SEC Title Game.

ESPN Reporting Les Miles to Michigan

ESPN is reporting, though announcer Kirk Herbstreit, that the University of Michigan will announce early next week that former player, assistant, and current LSU boss Les Miles will be the next coach of the Michigan Wolverine football team.

Sources have told ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit that barring any unforeseen circumstances, Michigan will announce early next week it has reached an agreement with LSU coach Les Miles to be its next head football coach.

Herbstreit is also reporting that Miles will make Georgia Tech defensive coordinator and interim head coach Jon Tenuta part of his staff at Michigan.

While the ESPN report seems solid, I'm siding with M-Go-Blog on this one, which is which reported yesterday that while Miles is indeed the front-runner, and in all likelihood will get the job, it's not as done of a deal as people believe (and the Detroit Free Press essentially reported the same thing this morning that while the job may be "Miles' to lose" it's not a sure thing, yet). I don't want to get my hopes up too prematurely.

The news about Jon Tenuta is new, and while I'll be honest, I didn't know much about him before this morning, I like what I've found out. Herbstreit called him one of the best defensive coordinators in the country, and he knows Ohio State backwards and forwards (he's from Columbus and coached defensive backs for the Buckeyes according to M-Go-Blog. Tenuta could be the first new hire in a new direction and new chapter in Michigan football, one far removed from the Lloyd Carr era, and one which, fortune or failure, you have to give Bill Martin and company credit for going with.

In many ways, Miles is not the "safe" choice, in so far as despite his impressive pedigree and ties to the Michigan program, he is in many ways the "anti-Lloyd Carr" and he doesn't have Carr's support for the job. The safe thing for Michigan to do would be to continue to hire coaches like Lloyd (which is why Iowa's Kirk Ferentz was mentioned so much in the early going -- He's a younger Lloyd Carr) and decide that Miles was too expensive, too much of a wild card, to fit with Michigan. Instead, it looks like Bill Martin and company are taking the plunge with one of the best coaches in college football and somebody who has admittedly coveted the Michigan job for decades. It's the right move, and it's the move Michigan needs to make in order to return their program to elite status. Let's just hope, for Michigan's sake, there are no hiccups in the next week, and Miles, Tenuta, and the rest of what already appears to be an incredible coaching staff, are coming to Ann Arbor.