Larry Brown Sports

We still have almost a month to go before the BCS National Championship trophy is claimed, but Alabama fans have wasted no time commencing the trash talk.  At the Heisman Trophy ceremony over the weekend, a bunch of rowdy fans dressed in Alabama gear decided to give Les Miles a “Roll Tide” welcome as he was walking into the Best Buy Theater in New York City.  Miles didn’t say much, but he didn’t really need to.  A simple “nice hat” to the gentleman wearing the Bear Bryant had was plenty.  Check out this video that Outkick the Coverage passed along:

Clearly Les has been around the rivalry enough to have it figured out.  These Bama fans are completely erratic, and it does a coach no good to try to stand up to their grown-man sobbing ways or signs hanging from bridges above interstate highways.  Did Miles actually think the Bear Bryant hat was a nice touch?  Was he giving the Alabama fan a genuine compliment?  Was it the perfect insult?  The guy in the hat has been asking himself the same questions all weekend.

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino apparently was unhappy with LSU coach Les Miles for kicking a field goal late in the Tigers’ romp over the Razorbacks Friday. LSU was already up 38-17 when they decided to tack on three points to make it 41-17. The CBS cameras then flashed to a ticked off Petrino who tossed a few choice cuss words Les Miles’ way:

If Petrino indeed was upset with Miles for running up the score, it would be pretty hypocritical. 70-7, 59-7, 55-7, 61-10, and 69-14 were all scores Petrino won by as head coach at Louisville. The dude practically invented the concept of running up the score. I really hope that wasn’t his issue.

No surprise, he was in a pretty foul mood for the postgame handshake too:

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What exactly is it that has made LSU the best team in the nation this year? Is it their defensive line, which does a tremendous job of getting after the quarterback? Is it their secondary, which is led by the Honey Badger himself? The offense doesn’t seem all that spectacular, but it has certainly been explosive enough at times. But maybe — just maybe — the fact that Les Miles likes to eat Louisiana grass has given the Tigers a boost. Western Kentucky head coach Willie Taggart was willing to test that theory on Saturday when he sampled some upon entering Tiger Stadium. Check it out:

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The story we all figured was true has been confirmed by someone on the record: Michigan offered LSU coach Les Miles truckloads of money and he turned it down to remain in Baton Rouge. Stanley Jacobs, who is a member of the LSU Board of Supervisors, told the Shreveport Times that Michigan offered their head coaching job to Les Miles twice, only to have him turn them down. Jacobs says that Michigan naturally offered Miles more money the second time after they had already been turned down before.

As a testament to Les’ character (in Jacobs’ eyes), Miles didn’t even leverage the Michigan offer into more money from LSU. I’m not as willing to make the same connection because I figure Miles had some other motivation, but it still is a meaningful piece of information. Les already makes $3.75 million at LSU and according to Jacobs, was offered in the $4.25 million range in Michigan’s second attempt to hire him.

Michigan AD Dave Brandon has insisted that only one person was offered the job and that was Brady Hoke, but that’s just a matter of semantics. It’s like when a coach answers a question about whether or not he’s talked with a team about a job. The coach can always say “no” and be truthful because it’s his agent who’s talking to the team, but the answer is deceitful.

If Brandon wasn’t trying to make Miles Michigan’s coach, why did he bother meeting with him on a few occasions? And if Michigan was so set on Brady Hoke, why did they bother attempting conversations with Miles and Jim Harbaugh? It’s because Hoke was a backup plan as everyone knows, and the school ultimately failed to get Miles. And you know what? That might not be a bad thing.

Either someone at ESPN was misinformed, or Michigan decided not to offer Les Miles a head coaching position.  With the way the Wolverines’ head coaching position is losing it’s luster, it seems more likely that the former would be true.  On Monday, we relayed an ESPN report to you that indicated Miles would accept the Michigan job if it were offered to him.  Less than 24 hours later, it looks like he’s staying at LSU.

Sports by Brooks passed along a statement released by LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva on the Tigers’ official athletic website.  Here’s what he had to say:

I am pleased to announce that Les Miles will remain the head coach at LSU. Les has led this program to many great successes on the field and his players represent LSU well off the field. We look forward to many great years of LSU football under his leadership.”

Miles had already openly stated he was “extremely happy” with his current job, but it’s unknown if LSU sweetened the pot in some way to convince him to stay.  The Tigers coach played for Michigan in the 70s and coached their offensive line from the late 80s to the early 90s.  It looks like Miles interviewing with Michigan was more a case of showing respect for his alma mater than seriously considering a career change.

It wasn’t quite Scott Boras and A-Rod interrupting the World Series, but a good portion of the sports world found out that Les Miles was considering a move to Michigan while watching the BCS National Championship Game between Oregon and Auburn. The news has actually been in the making since LSU faced Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl Friday, and both major papers in Michigan have been tracking the story closely.

Early on Monday, The Detroit News reported that Les Miles planned to meet with Michigan to discuss their head coaching vacancy. WAFB in Baton Rouge later reported that Michigan AD Dave Brandon met with Miles at his condo nearby campus Monday evening. Miles played for Michigan in 1974 and ’75 as an offensive lineman, and later served as a graduate assistant for the program. Following a stint coaching Colorado, Miles returned to coach the offensive line at Michigan from ’87-’94.

The Mad Hatter was rumored to be a candidate for the Michigan job after Lloyd Carr was let go in 2007, but school officials chose Rich Rodriguez. There was even a moment where Miles had to issue a statement denying a Kirk Herbstreit report that Les had taken the Michigan job. Miles has continued to coach at LSU since then, leading the Tigers to two pretty good seasons and an 11-2 year this past season. Now, ESPN is reporting that Les would accept the Michigan job if it were offered to him this time around.

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USA Today released its annual list of coaches salaries for all 120 FBS head coaches. As you can imagine, the coaches at the BCS conferences are well paid, and those in the SEC are truly making bank.

The Top 10 highest-paid coaches in the country (based on USA Today’s research) are the following:

Nick Saban, Alabama – 5.997 million
Mack Brown, Texas – 5.161 million
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma – 4.375 million
Les Miles, LSU – 3.905 million
Jim Tressel, Ohio State – 3.888 million
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa – 3.781
Jim Grobe, Wake Forest – 2.939 million
Mark Richt, Georgia – 2.937 million
Bobby Petrino, Arkansas – 2.713 million
Gary Pinkel, Missouri – 2.550 million

Note: data was not submitted by some private universities, so coaches like Lane Kiffin, Jim Harbaugh, and Brian Kelly are not on the list. Kiffin would be in the top five based on reports, and there’s no doubt Kelly would be in the top 10. Harbaugh probably isn’t in this group. Also, Urban Meyer was in the 4 million club but is not on the list because of his resignation.

If you want to look at the most overpaid coaches, you can start with

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