The NEW Jetgate.... for LSU

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Did you guys see this????? If someone already posted it, I apologize. Sure shocked the hell out of me tho. What a maroon.

Linky

Miles can't seem to win for losing

Sunday, December 04, 2005

ATLANTA -- Private jet flights can get you football coaches in trouble.

Ask Bobby Petrino, who probably would be the coach at Auburn today had a charter flight carrying AU administrators and boosters to Louisville in November 2003 not been uncovered.

Or ask Les Miles, who found himself answering questions late Saturday about a private flight he and his boss took to Dallas less than 48 hours prior to Saturday night's SEC Championship Game against Georgia.

This past Thursday, Miles hopped on a plane bound for Dallas. Bad idea.

He and LSU athletics director Skip Bertman arrived at Dallas' Love Field around 8:20 p.m. Thursday. Twenty minutes later, they were in the Cotton Bowl's offices meeting with five members of the bowl's selection committee and two staff members.

"Thursday night's my night off," Miles said (What coach takes a night off during the season, especially two nights before the SECCG????)following Saturday night's 34-14 loss to Georgia. "I know those people. My question on whether or not I would go was based on the fact that I've got 21 seniors who deserve a great bowl experience. They're a great group of guys. I certainly don't regret spending time for my football team.

"I promise you I'd do it again. It had nothing to do with the gameplan and it had nothing to do with the expectations of this football game. We certainly came in here with the idea that we would win."

The plan, clearly, was for the media to never find out about the meeting. LSU hoped to beat Georgia Saturday night, trivialize the flight and let the Bulldogs worry about lobbying bowl officials late Saturday and early today.

Dan Petty, chairman of the Cotton Bowl selection committee, would neither confirm nor deny the meeting took place when asked by the Dallas Morning News Friday. However, Petty was in attendance at the Georgia Dome Saturday night and said LSU's just-in-case lobbying effort was the only one of its kind he's experienced in his 10 years in charge of the selection committee. In other words, he confirmed the story.  

Miles' decision to fly to Dallas to lobby a bowl in the event of a loss won't endear him to a fan base that doesn't like him too much.   

"I have not really given a lot of thought to the bowl scenario, to be honest with you," Miles said at a press conference Friday.

Those are words that could come back to haunt Miles. They simply don't ring true. In fact, Miles apparently gave at least some thought to the possibility of losing to Georgia. During the meeting, according to the Dallas newspaper, Miles and Bertman detailed how much the team had overcome in dealing with the effects of two hurricanes while winning the SEC West.

Did one evening away cost LSU Saturday? No. Would former LSU coach Nick Saban have entertained the prospect of losing long enough to lobby the Cotton Bowl? The guess here is no. Something tells me that's the guess of most LSU faithful as well.

LSU was 10-1 in the regular season, one interrupted by the one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

The flight to Dallas won't do anything to ease fans' skepticism. To make matters worse for Miles, the indication late Saturday was the lobbying effort wasn't going to work anyway. The Cotton Bowl was still expected to select Alabama to face Texas Tech on Jan. 2.

It was just another loss for a guy who can't seem to win.

Contact Neal McCready at: nmccready@mobileregister.com

[tgr4lfe 220]

WOW...is that just covering all your bases or just absolutely no faith in your team. I wonder how the corndogs will take it....my guess is the later.

WAR EAGLE

[AuNuma1 1]

Less Miles is a loser...outside of a Peach Bowl visit, Lswho will not make a return trip to Atlanta with ol Less. Write it down.

[rexbo 104]

I really just cannot imagine CTT doing something like this. Getting the nicer bowl is not even close to the bad publicity you are generating with your fan base; and he didn't even get the nicer bowl!! I wonder if his contract has some incentive clause, some percentage of the bowl payout, and he was just trying to make sure he got a larger personal cut?

[SEC FAN 0]

Less Miles is a loser...outside of a Peach Bowl visit, Lswho will not make a return trip to Atlanta with ol Less.  Write it down.

203798[/snapback]

AuNuma1, as an LSU fan I would like to disagree with you but I can't. Seems like Miles is in over his head at LSU. This is why I see AU easily winning the West next year.

[swensks 0]

Less Miles is a loser...outside of a Peach Bowl visit, Lswho will not make a return trip to Atlanta with ol Less.  Write it down.

203798[/snapback]

AuNuma1, as an LSU fan I would like to disagree with you but I can't. Seems like Miles is in over his head at LSU. This is why I see AU easily winning the West next year.

203806[/snapback]

I hope SEC FAN is right about that...

If someone can come up with a GOOD reason that Les Miles took the flight and met with the Cotton Bowl committee, let's hear it...I have nothing.

[SouthLink02 8]

He was playing UGA.

He knew he couldn't win before the game started!

:evil laugh:

[AuNuma1 1]

He was playing UGA.

He knew he couldn't win before the game started!

Ya see? There's no way he's going to be able to come up with a half-intelligent excuse for doing what he did. He's an idiot! With a terrible bald spot!!

For all that Bertman has done for the cajuns, I'm more shocked at his actions.

[Draven 0]

Wow what was Miles thinking. . . . :huh:

[Tigermike 3,041]

Wow what was Miles thinking. . . .  :huh:

203830[/snapback]

Obviously not the SEC Championship game!

[CarolinaTiger 0]

He's an idiot! With a terrible bald spot!!

Numa, the bald reference was really uncalled for.

Really.

Not that I'm bald. I'm balding perhaps, but not bald by any stretch of the imagination.

Hair is overrated anyway.

I mean, think about it... can bald spots really be 'terrible' anyway? They are inanimate objects, spots are. To assign 'terrible' status to something like a spot doesn't even make any sense!

Further, while some may work lifetimes to remove spots, there are some spots that are good! Take "X" for example. "X marks the spot" is frequently used as a good thing. You'd never say, "With a terrible bald X" would you? I didn't think so.

"Spot on"...yet another positive reference to spots. And being bald isn't all that bad. Take the bald eagle, for example. We love it! And who can really hate the Bald Mongoose? You might as well come out against Christmas Trees.

Is it any wonder why hairy people everywhere want their own bald spot? I say no. I can see it now...Numa is a baldie-wannabe. Why else would he try to be so derisive toward something so innocent and beautiful as a spot...a bald one at that! I say go out and lose a few hormones like the rest of us before you go off on bald spots! It's pure envy and jealousy.

balding people everywhere, UNITE against the NUMA's of the world!

GOT HAIR? NO I DON'T, AND I'M PROUD OF IT!

you may now return to your regularly scheduled surfing.

ct

[SupperClub 0]

Take the bald eagle, for example.  We love it! 

203857[/snapback]

Yes, we do!

[SupperClub 0]

Moving on...did Les really think that no one would find out about this flight? I mean, he has to know that with a high-profile job like his that people are watching his every move. Way to think it through, Les!

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

[SLAG-91 1,483]

Lost in the shuffle of all this is the fact that the Cotton Bowl has degenerated into a second-rate bowl game with a fourth-rate facility...the Cotton Bowl itself sucks, the start time (10 AM) sucks and half the time the weather in Dallas sucks.

There's not much explaining the fact that your head coach is doing something like that...ADs are paid to negotiate behind the scenes for potential bowl game positioning, not the coach. Very puzzling.

[CircleDrill 178]

This guy is a moron. He might be good at winning the SEC with somebody else's players his first year with a loaded team, but there is something just not right about him. Only time will tell if he can produce at a level expected by LSU.

Remember at the beginning of the year he wore that little "slimline" headset in the first couple of games? This was a clue to anyone watching that he had NO IDEA what he was getting in to. To try to wear that little piddly thing in LSU at night??? He finally had to take it off and wear the same headset that every other coach in the SEC wears.

I think he is way out of his league in the SEC to be honest. What would LSU be saying about him right now if they had lost to Auburn? Weren't they one of the most penalized teams in the country this year?