Chick Fil-A Kickoff: Is the North Carolina-LSU Game a No-Win for Les Miles?

With apparently none of the North Carolina Tar Heel players under suspicion for NCAA wrong doing being cleared for this Saturday's contest in Atlanta with LSU, has that made it a no-win situation for LSU coach Les Miles?

Had Miles won the game against a potent NC team at full strength, he could have taken a lot of heat off himself with a win against a team many predicted to be a contender in the ACC this year.

Now, will he get the same credit for a win against a team that is gutted?

Should he have lost the game, but fought closely, against the Tar Heels he could have still survived.

If he loses the game now, he's done.

This is not the situation that Miles wanted.

A win is still a win and now this could eliminate a lot of heat until later in the year when they start another murderous SEC schedule.

Miles needs as many quality wins as he can this year.

He needs to keep from stumbling against lesser talented teams as he has in the past.

Even beating an opponent while he's down is still a win. It's certainly not Miles fault that North Carolina will be coming into the game without the services of so many starters.

North Carolina didn't run a tidy ship. For all his other well-documented faults, Miles seems to run a clean ship and instilled a sense of honor and integrity on his players that have kept them out of trouble and out of the headlines.

So while it may be unfair to say it's a no-win situation, it will be less of a win now with the opponent being so hamstrung.

If North Carolina had players lost to injury, you might have said Miles got lucky with the way the ball bounces, but he kept his team clean and North Carolina has problems doing that, or at least keeping them from investigations. So luck has little to do with it.

Should Miles and LSU win this game, it will not only be because they are a better team, which usually goes without saying, but they're also a team that knows better than to place themselves under an NCAA microscope.

Should anyone say after this game that LSU and Miles got lucky, they simply don't understand the definition and how it applies in football.

Luck has little to do with it, taking care of business does.

This time, Les comes out ahead of another well known name, Butch Davis. Maybe he's finally deserving of a little credit for doing something right.