Adams: Miles stepping out of Saban's shadow

HOOVER, Ala. — LSU football coach Les Miles was on his best behavior Friday at the SEC Media Days. Too bad, huh?

For quotation purposes, bad Les is so much better than good Les.

Bad Les used a popular expletive to challenge the recruiting tactics of new Alabama coach Nick Saban. Bad Les denigrated the entire Pac-10.

Good Les is calculatingly bland. Jack Bauer couldn’t torture a colorful quote out of him. So you can imagine how the media fared.

One prodding reporter asked: “Do you regret saying ‘(expletive) Alabama’ at (an LSU rally)? And who wins in a boxing match, you or Nick Saban?”

Said Miles: “I can tell you that at the end of a recruiting season, where there was a lot of hearsay and innuendo, there was some heated exchanges. I can tell you that I did have emotion, and I certainly regret any choice of words that you described that I made.

“No, I am not in any way derogatory toward Alabama. I look forward to competing with them and their coach.”

In case you didn’t notice, that was good Les, the one who bores the Mardi Gras beads off fun-loving LSU fans. But the same fans are really warming up to bad Les, the one who doesn’t chose his words or targets so carefully, and — to his credit — isn’t intimidated by the former LSU coach who has overshadowed his program for two years.

When Alabama hired Saban in January, I quickly concluded that Miles stood to lose the most. Now, I’m not so sure.

In fact, Miles actually could benefit — at least, in the short-term — from Alabama’s decision to make Saban a $4 million college football coach.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Miles, like any other SEC coach who hasn’t fallen on his head, would prefer that Mike Shula had stayed at Alabama for another 20 years. Saban is a proven winner. Shula is a proven pretty boy.

No one is more aware of Saban’s accomplishments than Miles.

In building a national championship program at LSU, Saban left Miles with enough talent to contend for more championships. He also left him with an almost impossible act to follow. Not only did Saban win a national title at LSU, he stabilized a volatile program that had shuffled through a series of mostly mediocre coaches with inconsistent results.

Miles couldn’t top Saban. He could only match him.

All he had to do was win a national championship.

In his first two seasons, Miles won 22 of 26 games, including a couple of runaway bowl victories over Miami and Notre Dame. But he didn’t win so much as a conference championship. And he didn’t make LSU fans forget Saban, who left them for the Miami Dolphins after the 2004 season.

In fairness to Miles’ critics, his last LSU team was probably as talented as the one that won a national championship. As harsh at it might sound, you could make a strong argument that despite a No. 3 finish nationally and an 11-2 record, the Tigers under-achieved in 2006.

Just when you thought Miles was the least-popular 22-4 coach in SEC history, Saban returned to the conference. The reaction was stunning.

The national championship coach had become a world-class traitor to many LSU fans. The response was so virulent, you would have thought Saban had left the Tigers for the Tide without an NFL stopover in between.

And the biggest beneficiary was Miles. Maybe he hasn’t won a national championship, but he hasn’t abandoned LSU for Alabama, either.

When Miles questioned Saban’s recruiting tactics in Louisiana, LSU fans applauded. Then, earlier this month, he took a Spurrier-like shot at the Pac-10.

Suddenly, the coach who had been marching to elevator music had a Cajun band playing in his head.

So what if he wears his baseball cap two sizes too small. If LSU beats Alabama in Tuscaloosa this year, the same fans who once referred to him as “Les Smiles” will chant “Les is more.”

That doesn’t mean Miles would get equal billing with Saban at a coaching seminar. But he might get more credit for what he has accomplished.

Sure, he has capitalized on Saban’s recruiting, but he also has recruited well himself. His most recent class was ranked as high as third nationally and included outstanding players from Texas, Michigan, Florida and Saban’s Alabama as well as the usual haul of outstanding in-state recruits.

Those recruits will add to a team that might be talented enough to win a national championship.

But for the first time in three years, Miles won’t have to match Saban to satisfy LSU fans. He just has to beat him Nov. 3.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.