A phrase popped into my head this past week that hadn’t crossed the threshold of my consciousness for some years now:
“Oh, Les, what are you doing?”
Those words, or something like them, ran through my head with regularity during Les Miles’ 11-plus seasons at LSU. Years filled with championships, lots of victories but also many head-scratching decisions.
Miles did a lot right at LSU, as his 114-34 record, BCS national title and two Southeastern Conference titles suggest. But he also left LSU under the cloud of being fired in 2016, a cloud that only grew after the 2021 Husch Blackwell report into allegations that LSU mishandled sexual misconduct cases and Title IX policies.
That cloud got even bigger after LSU vacated 37 victories from 2012-15 — the last four full seasons of Miles’ tenure at LSU — because offensive lineman Vadal Alexander played in those games. The NCAA found Alexander’s father received $180,000 worth of payments from LSU booster John Paul Funes, who was convicted of embezzling nearly $800,000 from the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation that he ran.
Those NCAA-mandated 37 vacated wins don’t mean much to Tiger fans or the teams they beat. They don’t mean much to me, either. Of all the penalties the NCAA has lobbed at schools over the years, vacated wins are the weakest.
But they do mean something to the National Football Foundation, which runs the College Football Hall of Fame. Its rules stipulate that a coach must have a winning percentage of at least .600 over 10 seasons to be inducted.
Deprived of those 37 wins, Miles career winning percentage fell from .665 (145-73) to .597 (108-73). That prompted Miles to launch a lawsuit against LSU, the NCAA and the National Football Foundation.
Miles isn't seeking money. I’m sure he still has plenty after 18 seasons as a coach at Oklahoma State, LSU and Kansas. At age 70, and apparently in declining health, Miles is trying to secure his legacy.
He’s serious about it, having hired well-known sports attorney Peter Ginsberg, who has represented the likes of Jonathan Vilma in the Saints’ bounty case, Ray Rice and even former University High golfer Patrick Reed over cheating allegations while on the PGA Tour.
On one hand, I sympathize with Miles. Sure, his record includes numerous “rent-a-wins” — just like any College Football Hall of Fame coach’s record does. Whatever you think of Miles as a coach — a fair assessment is that he was good, not great — he certainly had a better resume than many coaches enshrined in Atlanta.
But on the other hand, I'm left once again to think: "Oh, Les, what are you doing?"
Miles put himself in this spot. If he hadn’t made an ego-driven decision to go coach at Kansas, where he went 3-18 in 2019-20, he would have a post-vacated wins record of 106-55, a .658 winning percentage. And Alexander played for Miles at LSU. The ultimate responsibility of what happens falls on the coach. Lastly, Miles was fortunate to have coached LSU to most of those vacated wins from 2013-16. Then-athletic director Joe Alleva urged LSU to fire Miles in April 2013, according to the Husch Blackwell report, because of alleged sexual harassment of female student workers within the football program.
Miles’ lawsuit contends he was denied due process in all of this. That’s for a court to decide, but it certainly seems that Miles might have better luck if he tried persuasion instead of litigation with LSU and the NFF.
I do not foresee the NCAA restoring LSU’s 37 wins. That means the NFF would have to waive its .600 winning percentage rule for Miles. To that end, there is a groundswell of support for the late Mike Leach, who had a .596 winning percentage in 21 seasons before he died unexpectedly in 2022 while at Mississippi State. But earlier this month, NFF president Steve Hatchell said the rule would not be waived for Leach.
Positions and opinions do change. It once seemed impossible that ex-Saints running back Reggie Bush would have his 2005 Heisman Trophy reinstated, but in April that’s exactly what happened.
Miles faces yet another hurdle. College Football Hall of Fame rules also say a person must be nominated by a school where he played or coached (in Miles case that wouldn’t include Michigan, his alma mater, because he wasn’t an All-American) or by an NFF chapter. Someone from the latter category could nominate Miles if eligible, but I don’t see LSU, Oklahoma State (which he left for LSU) or Kansas doing so.
I stop short of calling Miles’ lawsuit frivolous, but it certainly looks futile. Perhaps an argument can be made against the National Football Foundation’s rules, the NCAA’s penalties or LSU’s response to the case. But there is much Miles could have done with his coaching — or by not coaching — to leave himself in much different circumstances than he now finds himself.
If Miles never makes the College Football Hall of Fame, he will know why.
