COTTRELL COLUMN: Miles remains in way over his hat

Every once in a while, a moment comes along that has you feeling so prescient — so vindicated — you can hardly stand it.

For yours truly, that moment came Saturday night somewhere around 6:15.

Right around the time a discombobulated LSU team saw time run out on its comeback bid against Ole Miss, it seemed the rest of the college football media universe finally figured something out that I’ve been saying for three seasons in the pages of this very newspaper.
Les Miles is not a good football coach.

This isn’t to say Miles doesn’t have his assets. He’s a good motivator, decent recruiter, loyal and, above all, the man has character. If he didn’t have character, he’d be at Michigan now.

But that team and coaching staff that looked like it had no idea what to do in the final minute of the loss to the Rebels wasn’t new. Virtually every close game the Bayou Bengals have played over the course of Miles’ tenure has looked like that.

The big difference was that for seemingly the first time, Miles and LSU didn’t find a way to win in spite of themselves.

But we probably should tip our hats to Miles. Going back to his years at Oklahoma State, the man had 8.5 seasons of remarkably good luck.

It had to end some time.

You Spin Me ...
The coaching carousel is about to get moving, and boy could it get interesting this time around.

The three coaches most considered goners heading into the season — Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis, Louisville’s Steve Kragthorpe and Virginia’s Al Groh — are almost certainly done. Mark Mangino’s job at Kansas suddenly looks very much in danger. Dan Hawkins may be in trouble at Colorado. Several smaller schools, such as Memphis and Western Kentucky, have already made the move.

The big fish in the coaching market pond would, obviously, be Notre Dame. Rumors are already swirling of big offers to current Florida coach Urban Meyer, who actually may be the only guy who can get that ship righted.

If the Irish were able to lure Meyer away, that would obviously start some dominoes falling. But they could go with other coaches currently toiling away in less-desirable locations — Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh or Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly.

Regardless, watching the lies, distortions and half-truths to come out of the next month-and-a-half or so is always a yearly highlight.

In Which The Writer Mentions The Iron Bowl ...
Very rarely can you say there’s a better sporting event happening in the entire state on the day Alabama meets Auburn each year.

But what about the same city?

No. 1 Auburn High meets No. 2 Prattville on Friday night a few hours after the Iron Bowl, and it should be a fantastic game. It is, without question, the biggest high school football game in the history of the City of Auburn.

When you add in two more area teams — Loachapoka and Reeltown — playing in the AHSAA semifinals that same night, it shapes up to be the biggest sports day in the history of east Alabama.

As far as the Iron Bowl goes, it’s hard to find a single area in which you can say the Tigers are a better team. Maybe quarterback.

One thing Auburn fans can rest assured knowing is that this Tiger team will actually show up to play, unlike last year’s debacle in Tuscaloosa.

Chasing The Impossible Dream
Last year, Vanderbilt made a bowl game for the first time since 1982.

Earlier this decade, Rutgers ended a similar streak.

Now this season, we’ve already got Temple likely going bowling for the first time since 1979 and SMU doing the same for the first time since 1984.

Both, in fact, can win their conference. The Owls can clinch the MAC East with a win over Ohio this week, and the Mustangs would need to beat Tulane on Saturday and hope for a Houston loss to bring home Conference USA’s western division.

Regardless, both Al Golden at Temple and June Jones at SMU have done remarkable jobs.

But we can bring another team out of the desert and into the promised land with a little luck this weekend, too.

Duke, which hasn’t made a bowl game since 1994 and hasn’t even come close to doing so since then, can get to 6-6 on the season with a win over Wake Forest this weekend.

Possible? Maybe.

Tim Cottrell is sports designer of the Opelika-Auburn News. He will write a weekly column on college football during the season. You can also read him on the O-A Sports Blog at oanow.com. He can be reached at 737-2511 or .