Les Miles to stay put, says no to alma mater

For most, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Not for LSU football coach Les Miles.

The grass he has been chewing on for the past six years is just fine.

After days of speculation and even a late-night meeting with Michigan representatives last Monday, Miles spurned his alma mater and announced he’ll continue to be the Tigers’ coach now and into the future, signing a 7-year extension with the team.

“There is just too much here to leave,” Miles said at a press conference last Wednesday. “Certainly, it was important that I visited with my alma mater. I certainly wish Michigan the best. I will forever be and want to be, a supporter of that institution that invested so greatly in myself. But, I am an LSU Tiger and I look forward to being an LSU Tiger for quite some time.”

Miles played for Michigan as a player and served as an assistant coach there for 10 seasons.

But when pressed with the opportunity to leave Baton Rouge last Monday night by the school’s athletic director Dave Brandon, the national championship coach wasn’t able to pull the trigger, saying he and his family have grown too fond of the lives they’ve made for themselves in Louisiana n his new home.

“My family is extremely happy in the state of Louisiana. I can’t tell you how much we enjoy the people here in this state,” Miles said. “The opportunity to represent a great community, state and a magnificent school, there is just too much here to leave.”

Miles’ decision to remain at LSU will not come empty handed.

LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva announced he gave Miles a seven-year contract extension, following his 11-2 season in 2010 n his fourth 11-plus-win season in Miles’ six seasons with LSU.

“If you look at the great coaches in history, the great coaches in history are the ones who built their programs and sustained them,” Alleva said. “He has been here for six years. He’s built and sustained this program, and that is what we are going to do for the next seven years and hopefully beyond that.”

Neither coach, nor athletics director announced any terms to the newly worked deal, but Miles said money was never an issue in the negotiating process, calling his new deal “appreciably the same contract that I’ve had.”

“I promise you this; this was not a bidding war in any way,” Miles said. “I guess what I’m saying is I want to be here. We might have a bump here or two, but we are going to get to the top. … I think that long term this a place that can win and win greatly. To have a contract that should get you by a rough year will allow me to help get to the championships and the great times as we go forward. For me, the tenure has always been more important to me than the actual annual salary.”

Some speculated Miles would walk away from the job because of the intense grinds one faces in the Southeastern Conference.

When LSU wins, it’s sometimes not enough. When LSU loses, some fans boo, others tout they want Miles’ head.

Miles admitted he did struggle with that when he initially took the job in 2004, but added he’s since grown used to it and even fond of it.

The coach said any bad is enormously outweighed by good just by simply taking the field in Tiger Stadium n it’s a feeling he said he wouldn’t get any other place in college football.

“Six years ago when I got here, my eyes are wide, and I didn’t understand what I was about to run into. I was told, but it’s kind of like the first time you ride in a plane. They tell you this is how it’s going to feel like, and your eyes get big and however old I was, it was the first experience,” Miles said. “I want you to know that I went through a couple of plane rides here and taking the field at Tiger Stadium, the people that are so passionate, that was a word that was descriptive to me of what I was going to feel. … Six years ago I didn’t know what I was getting into. Now, six years later I really have enjoyed that ride, and I want that to continue. I enjoy, again, representing those people that have surrounded this program for time.”

The grass in Baton Rouge is just fine.