04/25/24
February 03, 2012
Les Miles Rips Recruit who Spurned LSU: When top quarterback prospect Gunner Kiel dropped his commitment to LSU to attend Notre Dame in mid-January, LSU coach Les Miles said he understood why the Indiana prep star was staying closer to home. Miles changed his tune at a signing day event, telling fans, "There was a gentleman from Indiana that thought about coming to the Bayou state. He did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program, so you know."
did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program
Sounds like a Les Miles autobiography
posted by cixelsyd at 10:51 AM on February 03, 2012
Miles is having a bad 2012. This makes him look ridiculous, considering how he would've been talking if Kiel signed with the Tigers. The guy was the second-highest rated quarterback among recruits, while the quarterback they got was the 12th.
I can't recall the last time a coach ripped a recruit for going elsewhere.
posted by rcade at 11:13 AM on February 03, 2012
Stay classy, Les.
posted by scully at 11:31 AM on February 03, 2012
I can't recall the last time a coach ripped a recruit for going elsewhere.
I'm going to go with Kiffin ripping a Florida recruit...
posted by jmd82 at 11:40 AM on February 03, 2012
So many bad things were reported about Kiffen in Tennessee I didn't hear that one.
posted by rcade at 11:45 AM on February 03, 2012
I am from the Knoxville area, I got to hear all of them daily. He may win quite a few games at USC which mostly recruits itself, but I am glad to be rid of him. Dooley may not be the answer but he is a much better person.
Kiffin's comment was something about the recruit would be pumping gas the rest of his life after he passed on UT. It made a big stink around here, especially since the recruit was from a school in Florida that mass produced 1A talent.
posted by preacher81 at 12:07 PM on February 03, 2012
I was curious about that recruit, so I looked him up. Alshon Jeffrey has caught 22 touchdowns and 2,894 yards and is entering the NFL Draft.
posted by rcade at 12:45 PM on February 03, 2012
Yeah, but what happens when he pulls into a self-service station in his enormous gold-plated SUV next year?
posted by yerfatma at 01:16 PM on February 03, 2012
Heading in the other direction, Tyrone Willingham called up Notre Dame and ripped them for hiring George O'Leary instead of him.
While he was on his horse, Willingham shortly thereafter reprimanded an interviewer who asked about his close friend Condi Rice. "It's DR. CONDOLEEZA Rice!" thundered the future would-be savior of South Bend.
Good old Les Miles and his anatomy lessons. The QB he got has about two and a half as many chests as Jamarcus.
posted by beaverboard at 01:24 PM on February 03, 2012
Gee whiz, Les, ya think the kid might just want an education to go with his football? Take a look at graduation rates for BCS colleges, and it could become apparent why Kiel chose Notre Dame.
The source linked is from Stanford, but there is no reason to suspect it is biased.
posted by Howard_T at 02:02 PM on February 03, 2012
If he based his decision on graduation rates he should have went to Auburn, Howard.
posted by tselson at 03:32 PM on February 03, 2012
Good one, yerfatma . . . I'm still chuckling.
posted by outonleave at 06:36 PM on February 03, 2012
If he based his decision on graduation rates he should have went to Auburn, Howard.
If his intended major was in one of the engineering disciplines, I completely agree. During my working days, I worked with a number of Auburn grads, mostly Aerospace Engineering majors, and found them to have received an excellent education. I don't know about other programs at Auburn, but if they are as good as their engineering school, they are likely to be very good indeed. I wanted to draw the distinction between LSU and Notre Dame, including no other colleges in the comparison.
posted by Howard_T at 09:49 PM on February 03, 2012
I wanted to draw the distinction between LSU and Notre Dame, including no other colleges in the comparison.
That's fine but I think graduation percentage of athletes is a silly way to draw that distinction.
Auburn has a worse overall athletic graduation rate than LSU. So LSU must be a better a school. You've found some people at Auburn have received an excellent education but based on graduation rates I'd say you'd find more have received an excellent education from LSU and undoubtedly from Notre Dame with their 96% graduation rate of football players.
But if you scroll down a little further on your link you'd find that based on graduation percentage of football players, Auburn (100%) is the bomb diggity for white kids and therefore the best school academically for Gunner. Kind of silly.
posted by tselson at 11:22 PM on February 03, 2012
Graduation rate does not equal excellent education..just sayin'
Back to Les Miles, no coach should ever rip a kid for his choice of which college to attend. No upside to it, and the down side is that you look like an ass.
posted by dviking at 03:05 AM on February 04, 2012
Can we fall back on Randy Newman as a way of judging LSU's academic merits?
posted by yerfatma at 11:38 AM on February 04, 2012
Les should not have been shocked. Nowadays football "verbal committments" are a joke. Not only do these so-called student athletes have no sense of responsibility, coaches are as much to blame. 15-20 years ago, when a player verbally committed to a college, coaches respected that and left that recruit alone. That,sadly is no longer the case.
posted by caddyshack7 at 01:22 PM on February 04, 2012
These days big-name coaches move all the time without regard to the commitments they've made to their players. If a recruit makes a verbal commitment and changes his mind before signing day, I don't see why that's a big deal.
posted by rcade at 03:22 PM on February 04, 2012
At this point, if I were a big time recruit who chose not to attend LSU, I would not be satisfied until both Les Miles and Landon Collins' mama got after me on camera.
posted by beaverboard at 07:33 PM on February 04, 2012
Not as bad as Lane Kiffin's pumping gas comment about a recruit from Florida turning down Tennessee during his brief stint in Knoxville. UT may be struggling a bit right now but its better than annual probation, which is where he had us headed if he had not left. This just seems par for the course for Les Miles.