Dumb and Dumber: The Les Miles Story

Following their loss to Ole Miss back in November, I assumed that LSU head coach Les Miles learned a valuable lesson regarding clock management. After all, here is a coach with a National Championship under his belt.

Furthermore, while quarterback Jordan Jefferson's mental meltdown was the primary contributor to the debacle that ensued, someone on the LSU sideline had to be held accountable for not getting a play off.

In any event, most believed this was an isolated incident and something that the LSU coaches and players would learn from.

Fast forward to this afternoon's Citrus Bowl where LSU found themselves trailing Penn State 19-17 with 57 seconds remaining. After a remarkable kickoff return in swamp like field conditions by speedster Trindon Holliday, the Tigers were set up on nicely on their own 41 yard line. 

The next play quarterback Jordan Jefferson ran the ball down to the Penn State 49 yard line and more importantly got out of bounds. At this point there was reason to believe that LSU had solved their porous clock management skills. Think again!

On the ensuing play, Jefferson throws a 5 yard crossing pattern over the middle on a muddy field. Not only was this the dumbest play call with no timeouts, LSU got flagged for a personal foul penalty as a result of their offensive lineman trying to pull a Penn State player off the receiver.

While this call was an atrocity and Penn State should have received a delay of game penalty, this issue here was the play calling and lack of common sense demonstrated by head coach Les Miles. After being marched back 15 yards, LSU players and their coaches on the sidelines collectively looked like "a deer in headlights".

Jefferson allowed the clock to wind down to 11 seconds before heaving up a desperate pass that went incomplete. Finally on the games last play LSU tried some trickery in the form of a hook and lateral. Net Result: LSU loses 19-17.

Penn State came into this game better prepared and should have put the game away in the third quarter. However, when given the opportunity to steal this game, both LSU's quarterback and more importantly, their head coach came up short. While mental mistakes are part of the game, this is becoming a disturbing trend for the Tigers.

While Les Miles  inherited the keys to one of the premier programs in all of college football, his recent game management has been abysmal. With the aforementioned BCS National Championship on his resume, Les has bought himself some goodwill.

However, this is LSU and going 9-4 with the type of talent they have is not going to be acceptable year in and year out.

A few more years like this, LSU will no longer be attracting top tier talent and Miles will find himself wishing he took the Michigan job when his stock was at an all time high.