Les Miles’ Stupidity Costs LSU Win Against Ole Miss

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In what had to be one of the worst coaching performances in the history of college football, LSU coach Les Miles literally gave away an opportunity to defeat Ole Miss on Saturday, allowing the Rebels to survive a last minute scare to beat the Tigers 25-23.

After Ole Miss had taken a 25-17 lead with 3:42 left to play, LSU used a 10-play, 66-yard drive to cut the Rebels’ lead to 25-23 with 1:17 remaining.

The Tigers failed to tie the game after they got two opportunities on consecutive two-point conversion attempts – an additional chance coming after Ole Miss’ Cassius Vaughn was called for pass interference on the first two-point try.

LSU called the identical play on the second two-point try but Jordan Jefferson’s pass to Terrance Toliver was incomplete.

LSU successfully recovered the on-side kick when Brandon LaFell caught the bouncing ball at the Tigers 42 with 1:16 left and two timeouts remaining.

Jefferson’s fist pass fell incomplete, but on LSU’s second play of the drive he connected with LaFell for a 26-yard gain to the Rebels 32.

It was at this point where Miles completely mismanaged the game.

Instead of running the ball to a point on the field that was most comfortable for his kicker, Miles allowed offensive coordinator Gary Crowton to call another pass play.

In fact, LSU didn’t have to run a play. From that spot on the field, LSU was already within kicker Josh Jasper’s range.

Miles could have had Jefferson take a knee and force Ole Miss to use their timeouts or if the Rebels chose to let the clock run, attempt what would have been a 50-yard field goal.

With the clock moving under one minute, LSU was fortunate that Jefferson was able to get rid of the ball after he scrambled away from pressure.

The Tigers weren’t so lucky on the second play. Crowton called another pass, but this time the Rebels’ Emmanuel Stephens sacked Jefferson for a 9-yard loss to the Ole Miss 41.

LSU called one of their remaining timeouts with 32 seconds left, facing a 3rd and 19. The previous play had pushed the Tigers beyond the field goal range of Jasper, whose season-long best was 52 yards.

After the game, Miles said he suggested to assistant coaches that they call a run play at that point, but allowed a pass play to be called. “We talked about runs,” Miles said. “I felt like the quarterback could manage the situation. That was my mistake.”

Despite having the chance to set up a play that would move the Tigers back into field goal range, Jefferson completed a swing pass to Stevan Ridley. The Rebels defense swarmed Ridley, dropping him for a seven-yard loss to the Ole Miss 48 with 26 seconds left.

Faced with a 4th and 26 and the clock ticking, Miles failed to immediately take his last timeout, allowing 17 seconds to run off before finally stopping the clock with 9 seconds left. Miles said he thought he heard timeout being called.

“The clock ran down, timeouts were being called verbally and I didn’t relate that to the official apparently and that was the mistake,” Miles said.

It turned out to be a huge mistake.

When play resumed, Jefferson completed a 42-yard pass to Toliver at the Ole Miss 6 with 1 second left. With the chain gang scrambling and confusion reigning, Miles failed to run his field goal unit onto the field for a chance at winning the game.

Instead, the inexperienced Jefferson attempted to kill the clock, but the last second ticked away and Ole Miss escaped with the win.

During the last timeout, Miles clearly failed to address the possibility of having one last shot at winning the game. He obviously didn’t instruct his field goal team to assemble and be ready to run on the field.

Moreover, even if a field goal attempt wasn’t possible, Miles should have had a play ready to run.

Never has a coach made so many mistakes in such a short period of time as Miles made Saturday in Oxford.

With an opportunity to clinch second place in the SEC West and earn a berth in the Capitol One Bowl, LSU now has to beat Arkansas next week and hope for an Ole Miss loss to Mississippi State to achieve that goal.

During the post game press conference, Miles uttered the understatement of the year.

“I can only tell you that the management at the back end of the game was the issue,” Miles said. “It’s my fault that we didn’t finish first in that game.”

Really?

The biggest problem of all the mistakes Miles made Saturday was the comment regarding his “suggesting” to coaches that the Tigers run the football after the LaFell completion to the Ole Miss 32.

Head coaches shouldn’t suggest anything. Miles should have dictated to his coaches what he wanted. Had he done so, LSU could have easily won the game.