LSU Tigers Football: Les Miles & Bowls, An Update

With the LSU Tigers’ football season now over, there has still been plenty of discussion as to speculation whether Les Miles will take the Michigan job if offered, and the Tigers’ bowl destination.

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• LSU Football: What fans are saying about the Week 3 win over Mississippi State

Before updating these topics, Death Valley Voice would like to recognize the following:

• The Tigers finished the season with the #1 total defense in the SEC. As we’ve mentioned here previously, quite a great achievement considering not so auspicious beginnings. Kudos to John Chavis and crew for reaching that lofty height. Chavis and Jamal Adams, among others on the defensive unit tweeted out the great news over the past several days.
• How about the LSU Tigers basketball team! What a great win this week over the #16 West Virginia Mountaineers on the road! The Tigers fought back from a 14-point second half deficit to get the 74-73 win. Tim Quarterman finished with a career-high 21 points coming off the bench for Jordan Mickey, who had early foul trouble. Plus a huge shout-out to Josh Gray who hit the game-winning shot. Check out the last few seconds of the game; Gray with ice water in his veins to hit that shot. Best win thus far for Johnny Jones.

Les Miles

Okay, now on to the Les Miles story, which Death Valley Voice touched on previously. Tiger fans know this story has dominated most of the LSU-related topics over the past week. If offered the Michigan job, it seems to us that Miles should stay at LSU. With a record at LSU of 103-28, he’s very close to becoming the winningest coach in LSU history.

Plus, assuming the Tigers fix the quarterback situation for 2015, and with most of the defense returning, LSU will be primed to make a championship run (most likely in 2016 as well). Michigan has had numerous problems of late, and there is a huge rebuilding job there facing the new coach, whether Miles or someone else. Is this something that Miles really wants to deal with?

Over the past couple of days, as this subject continues to come up, it appears that Miles has attempted to put it to rest. First, when visiting LSU-commit Kevin Toliver II on Thursday, he told Toliver and family that he isn’t going anywhere, as stated by Toliver’s father:

"“Last night, (Miles) really put a stop to (the rumor). My wife really wanted to ask the question, but she didn’t have to because of the dialogue we were having, so he just went and put it out there. He’s not going to do it. He told us he is not going anywhere and he is fine where he is at, and he is not going to leave what he has going on here. He kind of gave us that look of ‘I would be stupid to leave’. And the thing about it is it is built around his family.”"

Additionally, last night, after son Manny’s high school championship football game, when asked again about Michigan, Miles would not comment.

I agree with Scott Long of the Dandy Don website that Miles should make a statement soon as to his intentions. Perhaps tomorrow when LSU’s bowl destination is announced.

Bowls

Death Valley Voice reported on this topic earlier this week, with the possibility of five bowls in play for LSU. It appears that all five remain in the mix. According to a report, however, in today’s Advocate, three of these bowls seem to be among the leading destinations for the Tigers (TaxSlayer, Music City, and Texas):

• TaxSlayer (Jacksonville, FL) vs. Big Ten/ACC, 2:20 pm, Friday, January 2nd
• Music City (Nashville, TN) vs. ACC/Big Ten, 2:00 pm, Wednesday, December 30th
• Texas (Houston, TX) vs. Big 12, 8:00 pm. Tuesday, December 29th

The TaxSlayer Bowl could feature an intriguing matchup with the possibility of Notre Dame as an opponent.

The Texas Bowl would have a Big 12 opponent, likely the Texas Longhorns. The Texas Bowl is a great destination for LSU, given the proximity to Houston – LSU has a huge alumni/fan base there making it ideal.

LSU has never played in the Music City Bowl, and has not played in Nashville since facing Vanderbilt in 2010.

The bowl pairings will be announced tomorrow. Death Valley Voice will have full coverage.