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.
