Firing Champions – Les Miles and a New Precedent In Crazy

How LSU’s imminent firing of Les Miles sets a new standard

LSU seems all but set to fire Les Miles this weekend. It’s potentially the biggest college football story of the next month outside the playoff results, and even that’s kind of close. It’s a decision of staggering proportions, considering that Miles won a National Championship in 2007, played for another in 2011, and was ranked in the top 2 this season. It got me to wondering – is there a precedent for this sort of move? Have any other schools who have ousted a national championship winning coach had as little reason to make the move?

Why?

The why isn’t that hard. Les Miles has always been a little kooky. The grass eating. The weird open handed clapping. The bizarre clock management, or lack thereof. That time LSU only needed a FG and instead threw into the endzone on what could have been the game’s final play. They’re all fun and folksy and endearing when everything goes LSU’s way. They get you nicknamed “The Mad Hatter”. They’re harder to stomach when the team is 3rd place in the SEC West and out of the race by December. There’s talk that he rubs administrative types the wrong way, and his handling of the Jeremy Hill situation was pretty embarrassing, even if it did what LSU seems to want from their coach – it was the closest LSU felt to Alabama in recent years, as winning proved to be more important than anything else. Aside from typically finding good times to call a trick play, Miles has never seemed a particularly great tactician. There’s something to be desired from his coaching.

Patience – The Old Normal

The more interesting question than “Why?” is “When?” As in, “When has this ever happened before?” Let’s delve into the topic. In the two-platoon era (1965-), Les Miles is the 36th national championship winning head coach to no longer be employed by the team he won the championship with. Here’s how each coaching tenure ended:

Duffy Daugherty – 1965, 1966 Michigan State – Daugherty had a pretty amazing run from his hiring through 1966, but after the Spartans sunk into decline. The records stunk (3-7, 5-5, 4-6, 4-6, 5-5-1), but MSU didn’t. They just played generally brutal schedules back then, and you had to be elite just to manage a 7-2 finish (like they were and did in 1961).  Using Sports-Reference’s SRS metric, Daugherty’s average SRS through 1966 was 18.04. Over his final 5 seasons, it was 8.91. Still, Daugherty wasn’t fired. He retired after the 1972 season and became a TV analyst.

Bob Devaney – 1970, 1971 Nebraska – Devaney retired from coaching after the 1972 season, becoming Nebraska’s Athletic Director, a position he’d hold through 1996.

Ara Parseghian – 1966, 1973 Notre Dame – Parseghian’s final year in South Bend, 1974, was marred by a scandal in which multiple Irish players were accused of rape and suspended off the team. Three close friends died in 1974, and his daughter began a struggle with multiple sclerosis. An emotionally exhausted Parseghian took a break from coaching at the end of the season, which turned out to be permanent. He worked as a color analyst for ABC from 1975-1981.

John McKay – 1967, 1972, 1974 USC – McKay left after the 1975 season to become the first head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Johnny Majors – 1976 Pittsburgh – Majors leveraged his national title into a head coaching job at his alma mater, Tennessee, immediately after winning the title.

Darrell Royal – 1969, 1970 Texas – Royal retired after the 1976 season and stayed at Texas as the AD for another 5 years.

Woody Hayes – 1968, 1970 Ohio State – Hayes was fired after the 1978 Gator Bowl, where he punched a Clemson player who had just intercepted a pass. It was his worst season in over a decade, but the Buckeyes were perennial major bowl participants, so it is very unlikely performance was an additional motivating factor.

Dan Devine – 1977 Notre Dame – Devine retired after the 1980 season to spend more time with his wife. The Irish reached the Sugar Bowl and were still very successful.

Bear Bryant – 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979 Alabama – Bryant considered his final coaching job in 1982 to be substandard, so he retired after the season. Given Bryant’s status in Alabama, there is 0% chance he was forced out. That said, there were rumors of senility on the sidelines, calling out players who had graduated decades earlier. Most likely, all sides agreed it was time for retirement.

John Robinson – 1978 USC – Robinson left USC after the 1982 season to coach the Los Angeles Rams.

Howard Schnellenberger – 1983 Miami – After winning the national title, Schnellenberger resigned to become the part owner and head coach of the USFL’s Spirit of Miami. Unfortunately, the team lost its financial backer and Schnellenberger’s owner support evaporated. Another investor moved the team to Orlando and declined to retain Schnellenberger. He would resurface in 1985 as HC for Louisville.

Vince Dooley – 1980 UGA – Dooley retired after the 1988 season, staying at Georgia as Athletic Director through 2004.

Jimmy Johnson – 1987 Miami – After the 1988 season, Johnson left Miami to join his former teammate Jerry Jones in Dallas.

Barry Switzer – 1974, 1975, 1985 Oklahoma – After the 1988 season, Oklahoma was placed on probation due to many player related incidents, some drug related, and rather than deal with the aftermath, Switzer resigned.

Danny Ford – 1981 Clemson – After a successful 1989 season, Clemson’s 3rd straight 10 win season, Clemson fell under NCAA investigation and Ford no longer got along with the administration, so he resigned.

Bobby Ross – 1990 Georgia Tech – Ross left after 1991 to become the head coach of the San Diego Chargers.

Don James – 1991 Washington – After the 1992 season, Washington was investigated and put under sanctions for “lack of institutional control” amidst a player paying scheme run by boosters. The school president allegedly negotiated with the NCAA to produce a penalty that hurt the team more than Washington’s revenue, offering an extra year of bowl ineligibility to get back a year of TV earnings. An infuriated James, slighted by the administration, resigned days before the kickoff of the 1993 season.

Dennis Erickson – 1989, 1991 Miami – Erickson became the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks after the 1994 season.

Bill McCartney – 1990 Colorado – After an 11-1 season in 1994, McCartney retired from coaching to focus more on his ministry.

Lou Holtz – 1988 Notre Dame – Holtz retired after the 1996 season, never giving a reason why, but it is believed he retired in advance of an NCAA investigation, which in 1999 determined Holtz inadequately handled a player-payment scheme, though he did not participate in it.

Gene Stallings – 1992 Alabama – After an NCAA investigation into Alabama’s 1993 season found the program guilty of major rules violations, Alabama lost 30 scholarships from 1995-1998. Stallings coached through 1996, guiding Alabama to the SEC Championship Game, but he retired after the season. It was likely a combination of being ready for retirement and not being ready for difficult sanction years.

Tom Osborne – 1994, 1995, 1997 Nebraska – After whipping Tennessee in Peyton Manning’s final college game, Osborne had won 3 of the last 4 national titles. Osborne retired with political aspirations, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 2001-2007.

LaVell Edwards – 1984 BYU – Edwards retired after the 2000 season. BYU wasn’t as consistently good in the 90’s, but as recently as 1996, the Cougars had gone 14-1 and won the Cotton Bowl.

Steve Spurrier – 1996 Florida – Spurrier resigned from Florida after the 2001 season under the guise of being ready for a change, but 10 days later the Washington Redskins made him the highest paid coach in NFL history.

Nick Saban – 2003 LSU – Saban left after the 2004 season to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

Larry Coker – 2001 Miami – After winning the championship in his debut season, Coker went 12-1 in his second season, losing the BCS title game. In year three, Miami “fell” to 11-3. After moving into the ACC, the Canes went 9-3, 9-3, and 7-6. The 2006 team was involved in an embarrassing brawl, and Coker was widely criticized for both program guidance and gameday strategy. He was fired at the end of the season.

Lloyd Carr – 1997 Michigan – Carr’s final team in 2007 was, by SRS, the worst Michigan team since 1984. They were still decent, going 9-4, but natives were somewhat restless. Carr felt the heat and announced he would retire at season’s end.

Phil Fulmer – 1998 Tennessee – After the ’98 title, and a subsequent very good ’99, Tennessee kept finding success under Fulmer, but it wasn’t consistent, and they could never build on a step forward. In 2001, the team went 11-2 and was a win at the SEC Championship away from playing Miami for the national title, but in 2002 they fell back to 8-5. The Vols went 20-6 over 2003-2004, but went 5-6 in 2005. They went 19-8 over 2006-2007, but 5-7 in 2008. The ’08 team, Fulmer’s last, was the worst in Tennessee since 1988. Some poor coordinator hires led to fan unrest, and UT informed Fulmer he would be fired, so he resigned to save face. Still, it counts as a firing.

Bobby Bowden – 1993, 1999 FSU – Beginning in 2005, FSU slipped into significant decline. There was a small bounce-back in 2008, but the 2009 team was disappointing, FSU’s 3rd 7-6 team in 4 years. Under pressure, and having already hired Jimbo Fisher as a head coach in waiting, Bowden announced he’d retire after the 2009 season.

Pete Carroll – 2003, 2004 USC – Carroll left USC after 2009 for two reasons – to coach the Seattle Seahawks and to avoid the coming Reggie Bush investigation.

Urban Meyer – 2006, 2008 Florida – Meyer famously retired after the 2010 season for health and family reasons. 10 months later, he became the head coach (beginning in 2012) of Ohio State.

Jim Tressel – 2002 Ohio State – The tattoo scandal was so lengthy and convoluted, with so many votes of confidence and back and forth and whatnot, it’s easier to just say Tressel resigned in 2011 after a scandal that he seems to have definitely taken part in.

Joe Paterno – 1982, 1986 Penn State – You know what happened here. Some of the specifics are a bit murky, but you know Paterno wasn’t fired for anything related to his job performance.

Gene Chizik – 2010 Auburn – Chizik was fired after the 2012 season in which Auburn went 3-9. It was Auburn’s worst season in nearly 60 years. The 2010 championship team was Chizik’s only great team, and it was one tainted by controversy and accusations of NCAA violations (although the NCAA found no evidence after they asked Auburn to just tell them whether or not they did anything wrong).

Mack Brown – 2005 Texas – From 2010-2013, Texas had two good years bookended by two mediocre ones. Fan pressure built, and Brown resigned after the 2013 season.

The First of His Kind

Les Miles – 2007 LSU – Finally, we have Les Miles. Miles hasn’t been embroiled in any major scandals. Sure, he chose wins over player discipline, but it’s not the kind of thing that gets NCAA attention. There’s also no significant decline for LSU to point at. It all just boils down to keeping up with Nick Saban. But the problem is this – Les Miles has been better in Baton Rouge than Nick Saban was. Sure, the Tigers have lost 3 or more games in 4 straight seasons. But Nick Saban also lost 3 or more games in 80% of his seasons in Baton Rouge. The 2011 team is probably the best team in LSU history. The 2012 and 2013 iterations were better than all Saban’s teams except the 2003 title team. 2014’s team was good, with 3 of the 5 losses coming by single scores. This year’s team isn’t great, but it’s better than 2014’s, and it’s on par with Nick Saban’s final team.

I don’t want to argue whether they should or shouldn’t fire Miles. Much of it depends on who the replacement is. Buying a coach’s firing is more about buying the AD and the decision makers. They could improve on Les Miles – he’s not the best coach on the planet. But whether they will improve or not is another question altogether.

The most interesting thing here is that of 36 champion coaches, Miles is a new precedent.
10 retired without pressure.
3 retired under some pressure from fans.
2 quit temporarily for personal reasons.
10 left for better jobs.
2 were fired for reasons other than quality of play.
5 resigned amid off-field controversy.
3 were fired for a discernible drop in quality of play.

That leaves Miles, whose recent teams have been generally as good as his early teams, with the exceptions of 2006, 2007, and 2011. While you could argue that Miles hasn’t achieved enough success lately, you certainly couldn’t compare LSU to the end of the Gene Chizik or Larry Coker eras. Those were significant. The best comparison is Philip Fulmer, but LSU is still much more relevant and competitive than Fulmer’s later teams were. Fulmer had two losing seasons. Miles is being fired for going 9-3.

College football fans and decision makers are crazier and less patient than ever. With that territory comes a groundbreaking decision. For today, it’s a new precedent, a new extreme. A year from now, it could be the new normal. For anyone in the coaching business, that’s a scary frontier.