LSU's Miles responds to Spurrier
September 21, 2007
BATON ROUGE — Les Miles started out this week praising South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, whom he will match wits against for the first time Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on CBS when No. 2 LSU and No. 12 South Carolina clash in Tiger Stadium.
Miles mentioned that while he was an offensive line coach at Michigan in the early 1990s he and Michigan quarterback/receivers coach Cam Cameron visited coach Superior's spring practices at Florida. Spurrier coached Florida from 1990 through 2001 and revolutionized the passing game in the Southeastern Conference while winning six league championships and a national championship.
"Coach Spurrier's done a great job with that South Carolina team," Miles said Wednesday on the SEC teleconference. "I think Coach Spurrier has done a tremendous job through his career. And I think that anybody that's not followed the trend that he set really for years is not necessarily watching college football."
Meanwhile, in Columbia, S.C., Spurrier has been heaping praise as well. But for former LSU football coach Nick Saban rather than Miles.
"LSU, I don't need to sit here and tell you how good a team they are," Spurrier said Tuesday at his weekly press luncheon. "Everybody has said that. Their recruiting has been outstanding over the last four or five years. Any time your recruiting is ranked in the top five in the country, which I know Nick Saban's last three years there they were like 1, 2 and 2 in most of the polls in recruiting. So those guys are now in their third, fourth year, something like that."
Spurrier, who has long been one of the more candid and truthful coaches, is correct. Three of Saban's last four recruiting classes — 2001, 2003 and 2004 — were ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation by various national polls. Miles' first class in 2005, largely due to the fact that he could only sign 13 because the previous classes so filled the roster, drew a No. 22 ranking by Rivals.com. His 2006 and 2007 classes, which are starting to put players on the field, were ranked No. 7 and No. 4, respectively, by Rivals.com.
Signees from 2001 like Michael Clayton, Marcus Spears, Travis Daniels, Marquise Hill, Ben Wilkerson, Nate Livings and Andrew Whitworth weighed heavily in LSU's 2003 national title. Signees from Saban's last class in 2004 are all over the field in 2007 — Charles Alexander, Glenn Dorsey, Early Doucet, Marlon Favorite, Brett Helms, Jacob Hester, Ali Highsmith, Tyson Jackson, Herman Johnson, Tremaine Johnson, Luke Sanders, Curtis Taylor and Craig Steltz.
Ten of the 11 starters on the nation's No. 1 defense were signed by Saban.
"So they've got a big time football program at LSU," Spurrier said, "and again give Nick Saban credit for coming in there and doing a super job fund raising. Their academic center. Facilities really improved when Saban got there. They've got it rolling right now."
Spurrier couldn't remember Miles and Cameron visiting his spring practice back then. He also never mentioned Miles name in his press conference, which went about an hour.
"They've got excellent players, excellent coaches," Spurrier said. "Their coordinators — one of them (offensive coordinator Gary Crowton) has been a head coach and another one (defensive coordinator Bo Pelini) will be in a year or so."
On a teleconference on Sunday, Spurrier did mention Miles by name but only in relation to what Saban left for him following the 2004 season, which was a young team that was 22-4 over the previous two seasons with a national championship.
"I told Les Miles when he got that job, he got the best job ever in the history of college football," Spurrier said. "He went to a place and their recruiting was ranked 1, 1 and 2 or 1, 2 and 2 in the nation the prior three years, and he's coming there! How would you like to have that situation?"
When told of Spurrier's comments Wednesday after practice, Miles cut off the reporter asking the question and said sharply, "Oh, I don't care about credit, never really have. That's his call, not mine. You know what? It's interesting, it's never been about the coaches. It always appears to me to be about the teams."
Spurrier's ode to Saban came up later Wednesday night on Miles weekly radio show when a fan asked him about it.
"Well, I suspect that the old coach chose his words very tactically, and I have to admit that I expect that from him," Miles said. "I would not expect any different. And I look forward to him coming in our stadium and playing him."
At this point, applause and a lot of whooping and hollering broke out at the Walk-Ons restaurant where Miles holds his show.
"Certainly, it wasn't a mistake," said Miles, who has been starting 17 Saban signees in all this season. "You know certainly he knew what he was saying."
One fan then said, "Les is more than Saban will ever be," before asking a question.
