So Les Miles wants a shot at USC. All I can say is...bring it on bitch!
I realize that I'm a little late on this one but I wanted to put my .02 cents in. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the LSU program and their fan base. They have been in the middle of some great games over the years.
But...
This is just the same old tripe out of Miles' mouth about the SEC vs. the Pac 10. All I can say to Les is, well...nothing. This is a tiring mantra about what conference is better and both Kyle and Dave, 2 posts, have some interesting thoughts respectively on the subject. Nobody cares except a bunch of fans that STILL feel slighted about USC "winning" a split championship in 2003. God, please the stop the whining Les, you sound like the bozos from across town because they still can't make any progress with their current coaching staff, regardless of expectations.
"I think the SEC provides much stiffer competition."
[...]Speaking later in the week with reporters in Baton Rouge, Miles continued the theme.
"The Big 12 is a conference that might have two really pretty good teams, maybe four," said Miles, who coached in the Big 12 while at Oklahoma State. "I think the Pac-10 may have one or two really good ones. The ACC certainly, arguably, has some quality teams.
"I don't think there's any conference out there that has as many quality teams as ours."
Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...whatever, cry me a river.
The fact is SC's play anyone, anywhere, anytime attitude gives them a hell of a lot more credibility than the OOC schedule LSU has put together.
I understand the passion of the SEC and its fan base. I have seen it first hand at the Florida/Tennessee game at The Swamp in 2005 and, there are a number of SEC fans who give USC and the Pac 10 its due respect. I am less bothered by the whining that comes out the SEC in regards to the Pac 10 but when a coach does it, especially one who hasn't won anything yet that perturbs me just a little bit more. It is irresponsible and just plain stupid to call out another team or conference in the way Miles did.
USC is in the Pac 10 pure and simple. Even if they weren't I would stack their record up against anybody. In fact I will goes as far to say that if USC, in its current form, were an independent they would be able to dump some of the bottom feeders in the Pac 10 and schedule some other impressive teams like Boise State.
Of course Miles goes on to make himself look more like an idiot.
Two SEC schools -- LSU in 2003 and Florida in 2006 -- proved a team doesn't have to be undefeated to win a national title. Both were 13-1, the only teams in BCS history to win the championship without a perfect record.
I guess he has a bit of a short memory considering that SC was left out of the BCS title game when they were ranked #1 in the coaches poll in 2003 and I have no doubt that they would have beat LSU that year so the feigned injustice is a bit tiring.
Stewart Mandel also has his take over at SI.com
[...]LSU fans would presumably kill for a chance to exact revenge on a program that's caused them so much frustration the past four years. USC fans have never seemed particularly moved by the Bayou Bengals' badgering, but they certainly wouldn't mind the opportunity to shut them up once and for all. In fact, the first topic on WeAreSC.com's message board Thursday was devoted to why the Trojans' program is "better" than the Tigers'.
Now, LSU's coach has gone so far as to insert himself into a war of words previously waged solely in cyberspace (or on billboards). That's sure to work followers on both sides into a lather.
But it still doesn't explain why he's mocking USC's schedule.
[...]it's not like the league is indisputably head and shoulders above everyone else. Perhaps Miles needs a reminder that two of his league's best teams last year, Arkansas and Tennessee, lost to the third- (Wisconsin) and fourth-place (Penn State) teams from the Big Ten in their bowl games. Or that the year before that, the SEC's champion (Georgia) lost its bowl game to the Big East's champion (West Virginia).
But apparently Miles' beef is not with the Big Ten or Big East. It's with those softies on the West Coast. Specifically, when asked by a reporter whether "something must be done about USC," Miles replied, "Should something be done about SC? Yeah. It might just have to be the system first, though." Translation: The "system" is presumably unfair because it allows a team like USC to waltz into the title game.
There are so many ways to go here that's it is just crazy. But of all that I have read it is Mandel's parting shot that reveals why Miles probably made the comments in the first place.
Yep. That's right. Miles' comments were one big excuse-in-the-making. He's seen the prognostications. He knows the experts are projecting a USC-LSU matchup. He knows his fans are foaming at the mouth for just such an outcome. And he's trying to diffuse those expectations -- and temper the possible letdown -- by saying, "Hey, I'd love to play USC, too, but if they get there and we don't, it's because we had to play Florida while they got to play Stanford."
You can read it between the lines in this follow-up comment to the Baton Rouge Advocate: "To say that the only achievement and the only positive ending is with one game and one game's ending, that's near-sighted, and that's a long way away."
Well, here's one person who's not letting you off the hook so easily, Les. You and your people have laid down the gauntlet, so now, you better make this thing happen. If the Trojans hold up their end of the bargain and reach the Superdome, we better see some purple and gold on that other sideline.
That's pretty blatant, even some of the fans from across town wouldn't be so brazen. That's just embarrassing and it makes a fine program and a fairly decent fan base look even more silly. I hope they have a great season and I hope we see them in the BSC title game as we can finally put some of these issues to rest. But one thing will never change the inferiority complex that some in the SEC have about USC will never go away and others will always point out their week OOC schedule but in the end Les Miles ha put a tremendous amount of pressure on his tem and that is one of the most stupid things I have ever seen.
I think my friend Peter Bean said it best when he coined the term "dinged Les Miles Points.".
He couldn't be more true!