by Kyle Golik
Recently I took to task the College Football Hall of Fame for its requirements to become eligible for enshrinement where legendary coaches Mike Leach and Howard Schnellenberger fall short. While many are taking up the fight to Leach, notably Southern California head coach Lincoln Riley and Hall of Fame former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, former LSU head coach Les Miles is sticking up for himself in this fight and taking his former school to court.
Miles is suing LSU and the College Football Hall of Fame over LSU vacating 37 wins that drops Miles below the .600 winning percentage threshold to be eligible. In a statement from his legal counsel Peter Ginsberg of Moskowitz Colson Ginsburg & Shulman, New York, “Les was given no right to be heard, or even advance notice of LSU’s actions, despite LSU being a state-owned and state-run institution that is bound by constitutional safeguards.”
As your read through the complaint, Miles’ counsel paints a picture that he is a man of integrity, that the violations involving former offensive lineman Vadal Alexander happened outside of Miles’ purview and the rogue booster had no affiliation with LSU. The backstory is Alexander’s father received $180,000 from a rogue booster who embezzled money from a Baton Rouge children’s hospital. You read about Miles’ achievements and the biggest thing you read is Miles wasn’t extended due process of being heard before LSU voluntarily vacated 37 of Miles’ wins.
What you don’t read about is Miles taking any accountability of his actions, or for that matter trying to make a situation right. The whole reason Miles lost all those wins was because he failed to uphold the integrity smoke screen. Let’s be honest, at some point, all programs have been dirty in one way or another – part of the head coach’s job is to maintain an illusion all his kids go to class, they are pillars of the community, and during the time in question athletes weren’t being compensated for their play or image.
I am willing to bet Miles’ counsel will use a similar strategy the Reggie Bush legal team did to restore Bush’s Heisman Trophy. What won’t come up is Miles acknowledging his failures as a coach.
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One of the many axioms coaches like to pontificate to its players is that no one is bigger than the team. Miles’ actions seems to go against the axiom as he isn’t willing to pay the price for failing to maintain the integrity of the program.
Ask yourself this question, why is LSU going to punish a current group of players that had nothing to do with it? Why would LSU thwart the momentum current head coach Brian Kelly is building?
I do agree with Miles in his complaint he should have been heard with the NCAA and LSU. The thing is Miles would have denied any knowledge of the situation or even “plead the fifth.”
Accountability was missed by Miles in understanding the involvement of outsiders to his program. Let’s not be naive, if you think Alexander was the only player who had a booster funding him while Miles was at LSU, I got some swamp land to sell you.
