One Foot Inbounds: Les Miles' Missteps

by Robert Weintraub

Three years ago, I attended the Ole Miss-LSU game in Death Valley, courtesy of the great Dr. Lou Levin, the uncle of my editor at Slate, Josh Levin. It was a classic night game at Tiger Stadium, LSU struggled to an overtime victory, and everyone had a good time. Actually, that's not true -- the dozen or so season ticket holders with whom I made the trip and tailgated had a surprisingly intense disdain for coach Les Miles. Keep in mind, the win gave the Tigers a 9-2 record, and LSU went on to crush Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, which propelled them to a BCS championship the following year. Nevertheless, Miles was held in low regard. I wrote it off as typical SEC dissatisfaction with anything but an unbeaten team that wins every game by three touchdowns.

Now I know what they were talking about.

Simply put, Miles' (and his staff's) endgame ineptitude in Oxford Saturday was epic, and if the stakes were higher (say, if LSU had been unbeaten), it would have been a sackable offense.

A quick recap -- LSU trailed by eight with about 90 seconds left. The Bayou Bengals picked on Rebels corner Marshay Green all day, and Marshay stood up to the attention. But now, Rueben Randle suckered him on a hitch and go, and quarterback Jordan Jefferson hit Randle with a 25-yard touchdown pass. With their top two backs out with injuries, LSU had to throw a fade pass on the two-point play, and it fell incomplete.

Down by two, LSU then recovered an onside kick, a strange one that never took the high hop and skipped along the ground cutting worms. With 26 seconds left, LSU completed a short pass, and, according to Miles, called time out. But the referees either never heard him, Miles wasn't nearly demonstrative enough with the signal, or the refs ignored him because they want Florida and Alabama to be undefeated going into the conference title game. OK, maybe not that last one.

So 19 precious seconds ticked away before the timeout was granted. Bad, but just wait. Down to only a Hail Mary, Jefferson failed to reach the end zone -- but WR Terrance Toliver somehow came down with at the Rebels 6-yard line. There was a single second left, and the clock stopped to move the chains (college football's best rule).

As Dr. Levin and all of the Cajun Riviera screamed at Miles to run in the field goal team for a hurried but easy kick, LSU inexplicably lined up to spike the ball. Of course, the clock restarted when the chains were set, and it's impossible to spike the ball without any time runoff. Victory, Ole Miss, 25-23.

How Miles didn't have his team prepared for that situation defies belief. Sure, they probably didn't expect the Hail Mary to be caught in the field of play, but that's why Miles makes almost $4 million a year -- to be ready for the unexpected.

Houston Nutt, whose early season misuse of Dexter McCluster qualifies him for the same bad coaching wing of the Hall of Shame Miles occupies, was so flabbergasted with the win he almost knocked the microphone from sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson's hand, before molesting her and jogging off. Billy Cannon's fabled punt return seems more distant than ever after this one.

Speaking of poor coaching -- Charlie Weis, everybody! His travails are pretty well documented, but it should be noted that losing in overtime to UConn, a tough, hard-nosed squad playing with passion for a fallen teammate, isn't nearly as bad as going down to a different Big East basketball power, Syracuse, last season. But it was great drama. After seemingly every play, the NBC director cut to Weis, as the pendulum swung between Charlie's imminent firing and him saving his job for another week. Fumble by the Irish in its own territory late in the game -- cut to Weis, he's gone! Winning touchdown overturned by penalties on back-to-back plays -- cut to Weis, he's coming back! Huskies score in overtime -- cut to Weis, see ya, buddy! Notre Dame ties it -- cut to Weis, you can't kill this guy! UConn finally wins it, 33-30 in double overtime -- cut to Weis, waddling off the field, and into oblivion.

Weis, of course, is one of those innumerable withered branches that fell off the Bill Belichick tree. The Belichick "To Go Or Not To Go For It" controversy continues in other precincts of this Web site, but a different New England coach went Belichick times eleven in the Harvard-Yale classic. Leading 10-7 with about 2:30 to play, Yale faced a fourth and 22. Proving that one can coach at Yale with a Community College degree, Tom Williams called for a fake punt, one involving a reverse no less. Needless to say, it came up well short. The Crimson responded immediately with a touchdown pass from Peyton Man ... er, Collier Winters, to win the game 14-10. By the way, Collier Winters -- what a perfect name for the Harvard quarterback! Williams' decision probably won't lead "Pardon The Interruption," but then he doesn't have the genius rep Belichick does -- for good reason, apparently.

It wasn't quite as memorable as "Harvard Defeats Yale 29-29," but those raccoon coat-wearing, sloe gin fizz-sipping Cambridge elites will be talking about this one for some time nonetheless.

(Side note -- throughout the first quarter, large swaths of the Yale Bowl remained empty. This is the fabled Harvard-Yale rivalry? But sure enough, by the time of the denouement, the place was packed. I guess they know a little something about tailgating in the Ivy League.)

Unlike Yale's head coach, Stanford's Jim Harbaugh was being mentioned as an impending "genius," thanks to immense wins over Oregon and USC. But in "The Big Game," against arch-rival Cal in Palo Alto, some of that brilliance wicked off Harbaugh. Down by three late in the game, Harbaugh too elected to go for a fourth and 8 deep in his own terrain, rather than punt. Stanford had all three timeouts left but chose to go for the long odds. Fail. Instead, Harbaugh handed the Golden Bears an easy three points. That proved critical when Stanford drove into the red zone with seconds to play, but needed to go for the touchdown. Quarterback Andrew Luck ran out of, well ... luck, and tossed a pick that sealed defeat.

Cardinal back Toby Gerhart plowed for four more touchdowns in the game. Put him in the "send him a ticket to New York" category, along with C.J. Spiller. But the back on the other sideline, Shane Vereen, was no "Chicken George" when it came to replacing injured Jahvid Best (too obscure a reference?). Vareen hauled the mail 42 times for 193 yards and three scores. More importantly, Vareen allowed Cal to keep the ball away from Gerhart. The Bears ripped off drives of 70, 62, 85, 92, 72, and 72 yards, scoring on five of them. My stepsister Jill, a Berkeley grad who was in the house for "The Play" and got married on Cal's campus, was happier than Uncle Lou, that's for sure.

Toedrags

• This week's co-MVPs are Jeremy Foley and Mal Moore, the athletic directors of No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama, respectively, who managed to schedule Creampuff U. and Tomato Can State with rivalry games and their SEC Championship collision ahead. Combined score -- 107-3.
• Continuing the friends and family shout-out theme -- many moons ago, I went to an epic Lafayette-Lehigh game courtesy of my buddy Ted, who was a Lafayette undergrad at the time. Theo is hurting today because Lehigh pulled out an overtime thriller. Hopefully no one was seriously injured in the annual battle for the goalposts.
• In case you went to bed at a normal hour, Oregon pulled out a late night doozy at Arizona. The Ducks drove 80 yards in less than three minutes to tie the game at the death, then pulled it out in the second overtime. The Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State now takes on an added dimension -- the winner heads for the Rose Bowl.
• Northwestern pulled out a stirring 33-31 win over Wisconsin. Another impressive win for Pat Fitzgerald, while Notre Dame falls again. Hmmmmmm ...
• Kansas was bad in every respect against Texas, but the one that irked me the most was the futile onside kick in the first half, with the game only 14-6. It wasn't the attempt that bothered me, but the execution -- kicker Jacob Branstetter tried to dribble one to himself, but the weak poke only pushed the ball about six yards.
• Texas may be good, but they remain the most obscure "unbeaten and headed for the BCS title game" squad ever. No memorable wins, nothing about their style of play that leaps out at you, no running game, mostly faceless defense -- if it wasn't for receiver Jordan Shipley, the Longhorns would more anonymous than TCU or Boise State.
• Telling sight between the hedges -- after a brutal fumble on the goal line (quarterback Joe Cox pitched it to his back who was only a step away and expecting a handoff), thousands of Georgia fans filed out. This despite the fact that a) the opponent was Kentucky, b) there was more than two minutes left, and c) Georgia had all three timeouts. Never doubt the wisdom of crowds -- Cox got the ball back, only to be intercepted on the first play, and Georgia lost by seven.
• Worse afternoon in a rivalry game -- Tate Forcier of Michigan, or Mark Sanchez of the Jets? Both made innumerable turnovers and handed the game away. At least Sanchez can smile when he hits the ATM.
• Obligatory Syracuse Orange update -- the ‘Cuse spanks No. 24 Rutgers 31-13! The stunning result makes quarterback Greg Paulus 2-0 on Senior Night: one at Duke, one at Syracuse.

The OFI Top 25

Every week, Robert votes in the BlogPoll [2], hosted by mgoblog [3], and available on CBS Sportsline [4].

[5]
Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida [6]
2	Alabama [7]
3	Texas [8]
4	TCU [9]
5	Cincinnati [10]
6	Boise State [11]
7	Georgia Tech [12]
8	Ohio State [13]
9	Oregon [14]	1
10	Pittsburgh [15]	1
11	Virginia Tech [16]	2
12	Clemson [17]	2
13	Oregon State [18]	5
14	Stanford [19]	5
15	Oklahoma State [20]
16	Iowa [21]
17	Penn State [22]
18	California [23]	5
19	Utah [24]	1
20	Nevada [25]	1
21	Miami (Florida) [26]	1
22	LSU [27]	10
23	Brigham Young [28]	2
24	Temple [29]
25	Central Michigan [30]
Last week's ballot [31]