CRIME REPORTS
December 2, 2015
Joy Boudreaux
December 2, 2015
For years now, a poorly-kept secret has lingered around the halls of the LSU Athletic Department Building.
It’s a secret that doesn’t often leak out publicly among reporters because of the vast power of the LSU Athletic Department and their ability to make things really difficult for those in local media who don’t shine sunshine over the university’s athletic endeavors.
It’s also a secret well-known among LSU employees, but which can’t be spoken about or leaked because of fear for one’s position of employment.
But this week, I’m spilling the beans. I don’t directly cover LSU athletics on a week-to-week basis and don’t care if the powers that be there love me or hate me.
Today, I speak the secret that everyone knows, but few have the guts to put in print.
Joe Alleva is an awful – absolutely terrible athletic director. He, even moreso than Les Miles or any coach at the university, should be the one to be terminated and replaced, for his ineptitude has now been shown to the public.
Let us take a look at how Alleva handled the past few weeks.
After losing to Arkansas, rumors started to leak that Miles was in some serious trouble if things didn’t get right in a hurry.
That smoke turned into a five-alarm blaze once LSU lost the following week to Ole Miss. Media members speculated on the future, LSU football players wondered about what was to come and future recruits reneged on their pledge to Miles and started to pursue other options.
Alleva said nothing. He watched it all transpire and didn’t throw any water on the flame. He could have cooled the blaze. He could have saved some of the recruits who were worried. Instead, Alleva did nothing and hung his coach out to pasture – a coach who has had far more success in his career than Alleva ever has had.
Of course, the reason why Miles never got that public vote of confidence is because Alleva wasn’t the guy who hired Miles, so the two never had a great relationship from day one.
That disconnect was 100 percent apparent 12 months ago when Alleva let esteemed defensive coordinator John Chavis leave Baton Rouge for Texas A&M on a contract that paid LESS money than LSU did. That was the beginning of this entire mess and power struggle that culminated this past weekend in Death Valley.
Alleva wanted to hire Jimbo Fisher. By now, that’s no secret. It’s also no secret that Fisher had mutual interest in the LSU gig and was pretty dog-gone close to pulling the trigger and heading for Louisiana.
But somewhere between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, Fisher decided that he would remain put, which put Alleva in a bind.
The circus he created was now completely out of control in the media, and his No. 1 and only candidate to replace Miles was out of the window. There was no Plan B, and the situation on Saturday afternoon was 100 percent in flux with both parties having no clue how the future would unfold.
And then the fans showed up to Tiger Stadium for Saturday night’s game and the masses were heard.
The crowd on Saturday night was ridiculously pro-Miles. Fans gave the coach a standing ovation when he took the field. There were hundreds of signs expressing that Miles should stay for another season, and student section chants echoed those sentiments.
At the end of the game, the Tigers players also spoke loudly when they lifted Miles into the air and rejoiced the victory with him and his family.
The players thought he was a goner. Quite frankly, so did Miles.
He indirectly hinted as much in his postgame news conference when he said that he didn’t know if he would have the opportunity to coach LSU in the 2016 football season.
But because of Alleva’s ineptitude and buffoonery, it became public just a few minutes later that university officials had met on Saturday night and decided that Miles would be the team’s coach into the future.
It’s a future that remains uncertain, because if the AD wanted him gone in 2015, who’s to say that’s going to change in 2016 if the team has the same struggle in another season?
But at least for now, Les stays and it’s 100 percent because Alleva is too inept to execute an exit plan that makes sense and is done with class.
Hanging out Miles to dry for two-plus weeks, costing the university recruits and then keeping the coach all along at the 59th minute is an embarrassment, and everyone who covers LSU knows it.
The LSU fans know it, too. They showed that on Saturday night.
It’s just a shame that only a few have the stones or opportunity to stand up and say it. •
