Les Miles and Kansas Football Seem Like an Odd Fit

The next 2 days I want to talk about 2 “new” college football coaches. Today I will talk about the one that is for certain, he’s signed a contract and held a press conference, I don’t think it could be anymore official, and that’s Les Miles to Kansas.

To be honest, this shocked me. I was stunned when the news crossed my phone and computer. It’s no secret that Miles was once a great, national championship level coach. He took his team at LSU twice to the title and won once. He has been to “mountain top” of the college football world. He also has a very solid overall win percentage. He was good for anywhere from 8-10 wins a season while at LSU. Hell, in his last season there he was let go one year after winning 9 games I believe. His departure kind of reminded me of when Lloyd Carr “retired” at Michigan.

For Miles, just like Carr, being a perennial top 25 team and winning 8,9 or 10 games a year wasn’t enough for the rabid fans. It also felt like he was kind of coaching dinosaur football when the game was changing. He would try to win by pounding you to death with the run and play action. He also hung his hat on having a dominant defense. And while he was still producing bowl games and staying ranked, LSU couldn’t keep up with Alabama, Auburn and even teams like Ole Miss and Mississippi State in his own conference. They were revolutionizing while he was stuck in the early 2000’s. I didn’t think he deserved to be let go, but he was. LSU is just as good now as they were when he was let go. Nothing has changed.

I thought, after taking a year off, Miles would have a prime choice for a big job. I wanted him at Michigan before they got Harbaugh. I’m sure his name came up at Texas after Charlie Strong was let go. I bet Mississippi State thought about him after Dan Mullen left for Florida. I was certain he was going to get a big time job.

But, Miles chose Kansas very early on in the hiring process. I’m sure there will be more openings soon, this is the time when coaches leave or are let go. But clearly he didn’t want to wait. And while I know Kansas is in a power 5 conference, they’re not a power 5 team. I believe they finished with 3 wins this year, and that was looked at as a team getting better year. They hadn’t beaten a D-1 school for 2 years. They are in a very dire situation. To get a name like Les Miles to coach there is humongous for them, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. The best thing for Miles is, he’s going to have a very, very long leash. They’re going to give him the entire length of his contract to turn this team around. I just don’t know if it can be done. Les Miles is a big name who knows how to recruit. But, he’s going to have to go up against the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and TCU for recruits. I can’t see top level, 4 and 5 star kids, picking KU over any of these schools. I know the promise of playing time will play a factor, but let’s not get it twisted, college football is a means to the pros. And KU doesn’t produce nearly as many pros as the schools mentioned above. The best pro they’ve produced in the past decade is Aquib Talib. Most of the other Big 12 schools he’s going to be recruiting against can name way more than one player they’ve sent to the pros.

My biggest fear for Miles is, I feel like he thinks this is a stepping stone job. I feel like he thinks he can turn this team around faster than anyone else thinks he can, and he will get another major job. I don’t think that will happen. I think, at best, he can get KU back to being a bowl team, but a 6 or 7 win bowl team. He’s going to struggle against the cream of the crop in the Big 12. He’s really going to struggle in his first 2 or 3 years there. That might cause him some frustration.

This is a puzzling hire. I hope it works out because I like Les Miles, and just to be a contrary Missourian, I like KU. But they’re a basketball school, and no one really cares about the football team. Maybe that will change under Miles, but I doubt it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks Les Miles should have coached high school over Kansas. Ty’s old school has not had a winning season since his playing days. Come on Les, give it a try.

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Charlie Strong is the Best Coach for Texas

This longhorn still stands by strong

Yesterday I wrote about a college football coach, and today, I am going to do the same. Today, I want to tackle this whole Charlie Strong and Texas situation. I have heard a lot of people, most of the national sports media, calling for Strong's head since Texas got beat by Kansas last week. In fact, people have been saying he was going to get fired as early as the middle of last year.

I am on the opposite end of everyone else. I feel like Charlie Strong is one of the few coaches that I would give the full 4 or 5 year rebuild time to. First off, Texas made Mack Brown resign so they could hire Charlie Strong three years ago. Strong did wonderful things as the defensive coordinator at Florida, and was even better as a head coach at Louisville. He turned Teddy Bridgewater into a great QB. He had that defense at, or near, the top of most defensive stats. He had them in perennial BCS contention. He did a great job at Louisville. Then, after Texas forced out Brown, I was very pleasantly surprised that they went out and hired Charlie Strong. He was the best available candidate, and he got one of the best jobs in all of college football.

When Brown left, the cupboard was kind of bare. Brown was getting into that Les Miles area, where the college game had passed him by. His last few Texas teams were not world beaters like when they had Colt McCoy and Vince Young. They were treading water, going 8-4 or 9-3. They were okay, but not as good as their fans and boosters thought. Strong was brought in to bring a new toughness and a faster and better offense and defense. But, he had to recruit his style of player. Texas was a pro style type offense, and Strong ran a spread type offense. The players there his first year did not fit what he wanted to do.

And in his first season, they struggled. It wasn't as bad as Rich Rodriguez's first year at Michigan, but it wasn't that good either. After that first year, people thought, okay, one bad year, we can handle that, but they should be better in Strong's second season. Well, they made a bowl, but barely. They did not look great, but they did look better and more disciplined. That is one thing I really like about Strong. He does not take any of these kids crap, and let's not get it twisted, these are children. If people mouthed off at him and his staff, he suspended them. If they didn't get grades, he suspended them. If they did something unlawful, he kicked them off the team. He did not care how good, or how highly rated of a recruit that kid was, if they screwed up, he held them accountable. I really appreciate and respect that.

The fans and boosters did not care for this. They did not like his no-nonsense attitude, especially when it meant losing out on big time recruits. That is the problem, fans and boosters are irrational. And, when the people making the choices for coaching jobs start to listen to fans and boosters more than the actual staff, that is when stupid decisions are made. That is when the higher ups get a bit irrational themselves.

This most recent season saw Texas start out much better. They beat Notre Dame on opening weekend. That win wasn't as big as it seemed at the time, but Texas was back on the map. They went all the way up to 11 in the rankings. Then, they rolled off 2 more wins, but eventually came back down to Earth, losing a few in a row, and it all culminated at Kansas last week.

I will say that some of Strong's recruits have been pretty good this year. Texas still does not have a viable QB. They have one QB that is a great read option guy, and another that is a better passing threat. But, both guys are not upper echelon. Texas does have one of the best running backs in college though, in D'Onta Foreman. Foreman is incredible. He has been running all over people. He has been the one guy for Texas that seems like a he is a legit division 1 college football player. He is a joy to watch. And, he is a Strong recruit. Also, since Strong has taken over the defense, which is his forte, Texas hasn't been great, but they have been a hell of a lot better. The players are tackling better, the secondary is in the right spot for the most part and they seem to understand what Strong wants to do.

Look, I think Texas needs to keep him around for, at least, one more season. He finally has his recruits and they are finally starting to buy in. I know that they got beat by Kansas, but they also played Oklahoma really well this year, beat them last year, and have, at times, looked really decent. I know they want Tom Herman, who lost to SMU people, or Jimbo Fisher, who's FSU team has been wildly disappointing, or Les Miles, who got fired once this year already, but I say stick with Strong for one more season. This team could be a legit top 25 team if he sticks around. But, if they do fire him, they will be in another rebuild, and I do not know if the fans and boosters can deal with that. I say be patient, but it is not my decision, and it looks like the people who make this decision have already decided what they want to do.

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty has won 27 championships in a row for Michigan on his old copy of NCAA Football 2011. Do you hear that Texas boosters? Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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