Rabalais: No matter what, Les Miles cannot win

Saw former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer hanging out at the college football playoff meetings the day after the BCS National Championship Game in Miami.

Fleischer was hired to help the BCS with its image problem. Now that a playoff is coming, don’t know if Ari did an absolutely stellar job or is out of one, but you have to admit college football’s image has improved on his watch after the BCS dragged it down to lawyer/journalist levels of public approval.

Now that Ari is likely to have some more time on his hands, one wonders if he can help LSU coach Les Miles with his image issues.

Miles wins, but he can’t win enough or at the right times, it seems. A 10-3 season in which the Tigers suffered scores of injuries, defections, suspensions and generally bizarre situations — Alex Hurst doing a midseason Patty Hearst vanishing act comes to mind — wasn’t good enough. Not with Alabama hoisting another BCS trophy. A last-second Chick-fil-A Bowl loss to Clemson in which the offensive strategy left much to be desired also conspired to flip the collective mood on Miles from sweet to sour again.

Recruiting was supposed to help resuscitate Miles’ image, as he cast his hat out into the rough recruiting waters and scooped up yet another top-10 haul.

But again, Miles can’t catch a break.

University High defensive end Tim Williams committed to Alabama this week, resulting in much wailing and gnashing of teeth around Tigertown.

“How can Les Miles let the No. 1 recruit in his state, from the same city as his university ... wind up in Tuscaloosa?” one online scribe wrote. “Given the fact that LSU will have to replace their entire defensive line next season, the miss on Williams looks even worse.”

Oh, the Landon Collins of it all.

Williams is the No. 1 prospect in Louisiana according to ESPN. Tre’Davious White, a cornerback from Shreveport-Green Oaks, is ranked No. 1 by the other major recruiting services: Rivals, Scout and 24/7 Sports.

ESPN may be the Howard Stern-like self-styled king of sports media. But among recruiting zealots, um, devoted followers, it ranks behind the other three.

Of course, Rivals, Scout and 24/7 between them don’t have one 24-hour cable sports channel. ESPN had, as of the close of trading Friday on Wall Street, about 23.

There is no doubt Williams is a big-time recruit. There is also little doubt in recruiting circles that LSU cooled on him in recent weeks. Last year, you saw LSU continue to put the Frank Wilson full-court press on Collins all the way up to national signing day. It’s doubtful you will see Wilson or any other LSU assistant coaches camped on Williams’ front lawn.

LSU will have a great class. Williams could have a great career at Bama. The reality is both can win, but perception trumps reality, and the perception is Miles has lost to Nick Saban again.

Somebody get Fleischer on the phone.

Comments

1) Comment by destinfun - 21/01/2013

Absolutely positively RIGHT ON tigertex!!!!!!!

2) Comment by Milesthebest - 20/01/2013

Dawson, I have made that comment about Montgomery and stick with it. The combines are yet to come but unless he blows it up, Montgomery looks a 2nd day pick to me. Just because SOME draft people have him going higher doesn't affect my opinion. I don't know if you have watched a lot of the bowl games, but if you added up the SUPPOSED 1st round picks, the 1st round must have expanded to about 215 selections. I don't judge by hype but by performance. If Montgomery is such a hot shot player, then why did he only play about 1/3 of the defensive snaps in the final 4 games. It clearly looked to me that Edwards had passed him up...and I agree with that starter's change. Edwards was more effective than Montgomery.

3) Comment by Dawson - 20/01/2013

Speaking of evaluating talent, did one of the below posters say that Sam Montgomery would be lucky to go in the 4th round of the draft? In Chavis we trust, now go find an offense.

4) Comment by spqr - 20/01/2013

First sentence is a fragment.

5) Comment by Milesthebest - 19/01/2013

In an aside, sorry but hiring Ari Fleischer to rehabilitate any interest group's image is about equivalent to hiring Jesse James to polish up the image of bank robbers. But on to the Williams topic...ESPN is out ot whack with the rest of the services on him and certainly doesn't get confirmed by the video I've watched. IF LSU signed him, he would have been IMO the worst of the DE signees, including Patterson who I consider the better prospect. Williams is probably in the top 10 LA prospects but maybe right around the 10th best. White, Beckwith, and others are far above him in talent...not even close. And Rivals for example has been dropping the guy like a lead balloon...started about about 35th best in nation and the last I saw, he was barely ranked in the top 100 for the stargazers out there. LSU lost NOTHING with Williams and I certainly wouldn't trade any of the verbals at that position for Williams. Les Miles hasn't lost anything on Williams...anybody who says they did doesn't know squat about evaluating talent.

6) Comment by tigertex - 19/01/2013

Fix the offense and the rest will follow.

7) Comment by brrugby - 19/01/2013

Scott, Before people get too anxious over the Tim WIlliams departure, I would like to offer some information. LSU may have backed off of recruiting him because of several reasons - Les MIles has been watching him all the way through high school, practices, home games, workouts, etc. Les' son plays at University, as well as Kragthorpe's, Studrawa's. I assure you that he has more insight than the scouting services do. Much more than highlight films that Saban has watched. Let's don't overreact just yet. Not too many players from Class 2A schools excel at the D1 level. Les may be smarter than we think.