Why Les Miles would make the most sense

Cougar Football
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It should be Les.

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This is UH. We perfected the Run 'n Shoot and then then taught Texas Tech how to run the Air Raid. We were the lab where Art Briles perfected his “whatever” offense. Hell, UH is where Bill Yeoman invented the veer which went on to become the most widely copied offense in college football. Yeoman’s teams put up unthinkable numbers like 400 yards a game. And yet with players like Elmo Wrright UH set records in the passing game when the conventional wisdom was when you pass only 3 things happen. And 2 of them were bad.

Field the world’s best defense and put a mediocre offense on the field and watch the fans stay home and watch the games on TV. UH fans come to the game to scream and shout “First Down” as the team moves 80 yards in 5 plays while taking 58 seconds off the clock.

The defense’s role is to get the other team’s offense off the field so our offense can score more points. This was perfected by Jugular John Jenkins and defines out fan base. Ignore it at our program’s peril.

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Sources: Lane Kiffin, Les Miles candidates for Houston opening

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What is Miles’ LSU buyout? Will what LSU owes him be reduced by what we end up paying him? I’m curious if we could not only get him but get him at a reduced rate (for a couple years). That would leave dollars available to pay top notch OC and DC.

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Maybe I’m not looking at it correctly, what do you think our offense would have done this year against SEC defenses? It seems like Miles offense was fine in OOC games, put up 56 against Tech in a bowl last year, over 40 in every OOC game in 2015. Put 37 on that strong TCU defense in 2013, 41 on Washington in 2012. they just always struggled against Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn.

I’m not saying he shouldn’t get a good OC that can have an exciting offense, but we wont have issues like they did at LSU with the schedule. It seems like the main thing he would need to do is bring in a good QB developer (maybe Major would stay?). The guy averaged over 10 wins a year with a national championship. I’m sure his offense could have put up more than 16 against SMU.

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We just had possibly best year attendance wise in the program’s history, and our offense and defense numbers nationally look like this:
36th Total Offense
87th Rushing Offense
15th Passing Offense
22nd Scoring Offense

14th Total Defense
2nd Rushing Defense
44th Passing Defense
27th Scoring Defense

It ain’t high-flying offense that brought those people out this year, it’s WINNING. I don’t care if we score 20 points a game, if you win, people will come.

Edit: I checked, and according to box scores, this year was the 5th best year in program history from an average home attendance standpoint, NOT counting Oklahoma, the best non-Astrodome attendance year ever, and highest average home attendance since 1978.

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Keep in mind the the SMU game could be called Deflate Gate. UH and its fans and coaches were flattened by the unthinkable and totally unscrupulous behavior of the 3-ring clown show otherwise known as the Big 12. And never forget that behind the scenes the University of Texas was the Ringmaster pulling all the strings. That was only a shadow of UH that played SMU.

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I’ll bet Miles has a pretty big chip on his shoulder after getting dumped by LSU


I’m glad I don’t have to make this decision.

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Jay, you can try to rewrite history if you want, but we finished 9-3 with an offense that declined as the year unfolded. Winning counts of course but putting points on the board counts as well. How many sellouts did UH have this year? I mean real sellouts with fans in the seats. Two. OU and Louisville. Too many low scoring, close games and the air goes out of the fan base.

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Or he’s just looking for a place to finish out his career.

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Anyways, I doubt if it is Miles or Holgerson the next UH coach. I’ll be shock if it’s any of them two. UH is just starting their coaching search and there is a long way to go.

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The really good coaches are self motivated and ultra competitive because it is in their DNA. They would do their best to beat their grandchildren at Candy Land. I think Miles may be that kind of guy. But who knows?

I just wonder about his Old School Michigan offense that worked in Old School Michigan because they had top notch linemen. But, we won’t get a solid 4 & 5 star OL like he had at LSU – and still had a sorry offense. They won on defense and grinding down lesser opponents’ DL’s.

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@pray10 posted an article on another thread about how Miles has used his time off to study more prolific offenses. If he’s truly committed to bringing in an OC with a high flying offense and letting them work their magic, I’m much more on board with him coming here.

I’m much less enthused about Lane Kiffin as a HC candidate. He was not good as a HC at Tennessee or USC. He’s a great coordinator though. If we were going to go the Les Miles route, the dream scenario (and completely unrealistic one) would be Kiffin as OC and Orlando as DC. The only chance that could happen is if the dream team wanted to get together and wreck shop. Kind of like when Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte came to Houston. I know, I know, it won’t happen, but it sure can be fun to dream.

Realistically though, does anyone think Orlando would stay on as DC if Miles was hired as HC? What other great options would there be for OC besides Applewhite?

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I missed that article. Would love to read it. What thread was it in?

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Here you go:

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I much rather prefer to see opposing QB’s on their a$$es than some gimicky offense that gets pummelled by a good secondary.

Con eso y un dolar puedes compar una coka.

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Clearing up one misconception: Miles isn’t a defensive coach. He came up as an OL coach and OC before getting the head job at Okie State. He’s mainly had good defenses because 1) He ran a grind em out, ball control offense at LSU, 2) He was able to bring in talented DC’s, and 3) He had one of the most talent rich states to himself at LSU (sort of why we’ve had success for years in Louisiana - too much talent overflowing). Doesn’t mean I’m against his hiring, could be very good. Could also be the 2nd coming of Kim Helton if he doesn’t change his ways; Helton brought in some decently talented recruits at first as well.

Current Coaches having some success after they were fired:

  • Bob Davie (New Mexico)
  • David Cutcliffe (Duke)
  • Bobby Petrino (Western Ky & Louisville)
  • Skip Holtz (La Tech)
  • Frank Solich (Ohio)
  • Rocky Long (SDSU)
  • Rich Rodriguez (Arizona - prior to this year)
  • Jim Mora (UCLA - prior to this year)
  • Mike Leach (Wazzu)

Leach and Petrino have been the most successful and we’re also fired for non-performance reasons.

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Wasn’t it Les Miles who used to say “High octane offense” as part of his pitch when he was at Oklahoma State or was that someone else?

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Dites-le Ă  Art Briles ou Ă  Mike Leach.

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Miles would be the only hire that might be able to keep orlando and applewhite on board
he actually has more track record than herman
and as long a tilman is willing to pay the salary to keep cto why move on to UT?
major can’t go to ut but could go as a head coach to a lesser program
but i don’t think he wants that either. i think he needs a chance to show his own stuff, i think miles might let him get a bit more creative here than he was at lsu.
we don’t go up against sec defenses each week after all.

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