For Miles, tough way to 'geaux'

If anything is certain about the state to Arkansas' south, it's that Louisiana people are compassionate and toss out second chances like candy at a parade.

Where else could a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan oppose an indicted former state governor for the highest office in the state? Though he later went to federal prison on racketeering charges, Edwin Edwards appealed more to Louisiana voters in 1991 than David Duke, whose Klan background made a fellow Republican, President George H.W. Bush, repudiate his candidacy and triggered national interest in a statewide race.

Don't be surprised then if some candidates with checkered pasts become linked to the LSU football job as the successor to Les Miles. Another coach caught in the LSU meatgrinder, Miles' 114-34 record at LSU included a national championship but couldn't save him from firing four games into his 12th season in Baton Rouge.

If it's not Ed Orgeron, Miles' interim replacement, then get ready for an audition line possibly including Lane Kiffin, Bobby Petrino and Art Briles -- all carrying baggage but with winning records on the field.

As Nick Saban's offensive playcaller at Alabama, has Kiffin, whom former Oakland Raiders boss Al Davis once called "a flat-out liar," regained a seal of approval? Or do ungraceful exits from the Raiders, Tennessee (after one year) and USC (athletic director Pat Haden confronted his coach at Los Angeles International Airport after a road loss to Arizona State) disqualify Kiffin from holding the keys to the kingdom of another marquee program?

Petrino has the media savvy of Richard Nixon, but if LSU wants a hired gun the former Arkansas Razorback and Atlanta Falcon coach might be their man. Considered unemployable after his April 2012 ouster from Arkansas, Petrino has Louisville No. 3 in the polls before a Saturday-night game against fifth-ranked Clemson. Miles couldn't pick a quarterback out of a police lineup; that won't be LSU's problem if Petrino gets the job.

Briles is rehabing after being forced out at Baylor in the wake of a sexual-assault scandal that university President and former Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr also got axed. A former Texas high school coach turned miracle worker at Baylor, Briles will resurface somewhere.

The early favorites are Tom Herman, 17-1 at Houston after winning the Broyles Award as offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer's 2014 Ohio State national champions, and Jimbo Fisher, 71-15 with a national title at Florida State. Fisher is a former offensive coordinator for Saban and Miles, and was mentioned for the LSU job before Miles got an 11th-hour reprieve last year.

The coach who can make LSU fans happy all the time may not exist. Charles McClendon, better known as "Cholly Mac" and for whom the school's football practice facility is named, lasted 18 years, once winning a Cotton Bowl against a Frank Broyles-coached Arkansas team on the brink of a national championship. But he couldn't keep up with Alabama after Bear Bryant, a fellow Arkansan and his former coach at Kentucky, switched to the Wishbone offense. McClendon, 137-59 at LSU, was considered passe by Tiger fans upon his 1979 retirement from the school.

Paul Dietzel won a national title (1958) at LSU with Billy Cannon, whose 1959 punt return for the winning touchdown against Ole Miss in a 7-3 Halloween-night classic at Baton Rouge is the most famous play in Tiger football history. After seven years at LSU, Dietzel thought his success would carry over to Army, then big in college football, but he was proved wrong.

In 2003, Saban won LSU's first of two BCS championships, leaving for the Miami Dolphins two years later. His fling in the pros lasted two years before a distress call from Alabama after its rebuff by West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez.

After making some noise at Oklahoma State, Miles was chosen to replace Saban and for a time had his LSU program on a par with the Crimson Tide. Whereas Saban realized he needed a high-powered offense to complement his brilliant defenses, hence the hiring of Kiffin, Miles went through quarterbacks like they were actors playing Batman. Unfortunately for Les, his guys played like Bruce Wayne.

On my only visit to Tiger Stadium, Miles' 2009 LSU squad won a thriller from Petrino's Razorbacks, 33-30 in overtime. A passionate lover of college football must visit Baton Rouge at least once. An LSU gameday is a cacophony of sound, Southern home cooking and religious camp meeting that one expects to see Willie Stark, the Huey Long-like character depicted by Robert Penn Warren in "All the King's Men," handing out political leaflets. Saturday Night in Death Valley is a sight to behold.

Slightly goofy at times to the point of chewing grass during games, Les Miles resembled the football equivalent of Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, played on screen by Paul Newman in the movie "Blaze." Miles was a good fit in Louisiana until he became an embarrassment on football Saturdays. He needed a Huey Long in office to champion his cause, although a passing game might have served the purpose.

Sports on 09/28/2016

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