Article on Miles saga.....
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:36 pm
In case there's anyone who isn't tired of this story, check out this article...........
Where there's Maize and Blue smoke ...
By Pete Fiutak
1. To clean up one of my favorite sayings, don’t whiz on my back and tell me it’s raining.
My man Richie Cirminiello got inside word on the Friday before the SEC Championship that the Tiger players knew that Les Miles was going to take the Michigan job and that Bo Pelini was off to Nebraska. This was a big-time inside tip, but doing our due diligence, we held off on the story (trust me when I say almost any other outlet would’ve gone with the info we had) until we could get absolute, 100% confirmation. By that time, other media outlets had heard the same thing, and from different sources. Then on Saturday morning, ESPN and Kirk Herbstreit went public with it causing LSU to react swiftly with great vengeance and furious anger.
Again, this wasn’t exactly exclusive insider knowledge to Herbstreit. So even after the cat was totally out of the bag that Miles was at least thinking about Michigan, what does Miles do? He has the temerity, the unmitigated gall, to hold a press conference just before the SEC Championship game and feign righteous indignation by basically suggesting that the story was made up. The LSU official web site had in the SEC Championship game story that Miles had “debunked an ESPN rumor,” like the story came from a Tennessee fan on a message board. Just because someone yells and acts all mad, that doesn’t mean what he’s saying is necessarily true.
What possible good would it do ESPN, or any reputable media outlet, to lie about something like this? It’s not like GameDay is at the forefront of investigative journalism, and it’s not like it’s known for being anything more than a very, very good Up With College Football show, so if Herbstreit is going to report on something that big, it’s going to be relatively rock-solid. Remember, ESPN could've gotten it right, and then the story changed because of it.
Again, we didn't have the story cold and didn't go with it, but all indications were that Miles was at least mentally in Ann Arbor and thinking about the opportunity, LSU stepped up to squash the situation before the biggest game of the year, and the marriage in Baton Rouge apparently remains intact … for now.
Now this gets really, really interesting because Miles is stuck. He can't go take his dream job and he has to be Mr. LSU, even though he's a worse actor than Keanu Reeves when it comes to talk about the Michigan gig. Now that his team actually won the SEC title and is playing for the national title, he can't go after the job, Michigan needs to move on, and LSU fans are left wondering if they really have an LSU guy coaching their beloved team.
Here's the deal. If Miles actually signs the long term contract with LSU, then the situation is squashed and life goes on. But if Miles ends up taking the Michigan job, he has to go to each and every LSU player and fan and personally apologize for yanking their chain. Let's wait until Michigan actually
Where there's Maize and Blue smoke ...
By Pete Fiutak
1. To clean up one of my favorite sayings, don’t whiz on my back and tell me it’s raining.
My man Richie Cirminiello got inside word on the Friday before the SEC Championship that the Tiger players knew that Les Miles was going to take the Michigan job and that Bo Pelini was off to Nebraska. This was a big-time inside tip, but doing our due diligence, we held off on the story (trust me when I say almost any other outlet would’ve gone with the info we had) until we could get absolute, 100% confirmation. By that time, other media outlets had heard the same thing, and from different sources. Then on Saturday morning, ESPN and Kirk Herbstreit went public with it causing LSU to react swiftly with great vengeance and furious anger.
Again, this wasn’t exactly exclusive insider knowledge to Herbstreit. So even after the cat was totally out of the bag that Miles was at least thinking about Michigan, what does Miles do? He has the temerity, the unmitigated gall, to hold a press conference just before the SEC Championship game and feign righteous indignation by basically suggesting that the story was made up. The LSU official web site had in the SEC Championship game story that Miles had “debunked an ESPN rumor,” like the story came from a Tennessee fan on a message board. Just because someone yells and acts all mad, that doesn’t mean what he’s saying is necessarily true.
What possible good would it do ESPN, or any reputable media outlet, to lie about something like this? It’s not like GameDay is at the forefront of investigative journalism, and it’s not like it’s known for being anything more than a very, very good Up With College Football show, so if Herbstreit is going to report on something that big, it’s going to be relatively rock-solid. Remember, ESPN could've gotten it right, and then the story changed because of it.
Again, we didn't have the story cold and didn't go with it, but all indications were that Miles was at least mentally in Ann Arbor and thinking about the opportunity, LSU stepped up to squash the situation before the biggest game of the year, and the marriage in Baton Rouge apparently remains intact … for now.
Now this gets really, really interesting because Miles is stuck. He can't go take his dream job and he has to be Mr. LSU, even though he's a worse actor than Keanu Reeves when it comes to talk about the Michigan gig. Now that his team actually won the SEC title and is playing for the national title, he can't go after the job, Michigan needs to move on, and LSU fans are left wondering if they really have an LSU guy coaching their beloved team.
Here's the deal. If Miles actually signs the long term contract with LSU, then the situation is squashed and life goes on. But if Miles ends up taking the Michigan job, he has to go to each and every LSU player and fan and personally apologize for yanking their chain. Let's wait until Michigan actually