DID LSU'S LOSS COST MILES HIS DREAM?

Like many other Michigan fans, I had mixed emotions watching the LSU-Arkansas game yesterday. On the one hand, I wanted LSU to win because I would smash a lamp shade over my head if Ohio State gets to play for the national championship. On the other, a loss to Arkansas might be the only thing keeping Les Miles from the Michigan job.

We're sticking to our guns that Miles will be the next Michigan coach for all the aforementioned reasons but what a difference a day makes. Bill Martin must have shit his pants as Arkansas tried to give the game away over and over again, just to come out on top in the end. Miles once again had no concept of clock management (insert clip of last year's Tennessee game here). And the entire LSU coaching staff looked like fools after R-Kansas (seriously Les, you can't be that stupid... can you?) converted a 4th and 10 in the first overtime in which there was zero pressure and a complete mixup in the secondary.

So now Martin is in the unenviable position of deciding whether the coach of the top-ranked team in the country is worthy of Michigan (as we've said before, in our minds it's a foregone conclusion Miles would take the UM job).

Miles' resume still looks great. He's still 32-5 at LSU and presumably headed to a second straight BCS bowl game. If Martin has already picked Miles as his man, he's got plenty of stats to support the hire.

But - as we all know - this hire will be Bill Martin's legacy and two (Amaker, Burnett) of his major three hires since taking over as AD have been failures (the other, Rich Maloney, was an absolutely genius move).

Aside from running a clean program, the Michigan basketball program is no better off after his five years in Ann Arbor. Let us clarify that. Winning the NIT was a huge step for the program, but now we're back at square one.

Amaker's lack of success reflected extremely poor on Martin because he ignored huge red flags by hiring T.A. Coming off a trip to the Sweet Sixteen in 2000 and signing superprep Eddie Griffin, he was annointed the hot young coach in college hoops (much like Billy Gillespie now) and people expected The Hall to make the 2001 Final Four.

Instead, all hell broke loose once they started conference play. The Hall went 5-11 in conference before rallying for a decent run in the Big East Tournament. Along the way, Griffin punched Ty Shine in the face in the locker room and many wondered if Amaker had lost control of his players (obviously, in retrospective, controlling Eddie Griffin was an impossible task).

Martin also chose to ignore the red flags that accompanied Cheryl Burnett before he hired her. After a curious resignation in 2002 from Missouri State, rumors started flying after she couldn't find a job for two years (she covered it up by claiming she was "on a sabbatical").

After a miserable four-year run at Michigan, now people are talking about how many players had the same issues with her that led to Sue Guevara's ouster. I think it's fair to say Bill and Megan McCallister didn't learn from their mistakes that time.

So here Martin sits, deciding whether to go the classic Michigan route: Hire Miles, slap his LSU accolades on the front page of the media guide and sit back while the majority of media and alumni applaud the decision. But Martin knows that if Miles comes in and proves to be all balls and no brains and gets eaten alive by Jim Tressel (and next year's game could get real ugly anyway), it's going to be Martin on the hot seat this time.

What puts Martin in an impossible position is that there is no one left that wouldn't completely overhaul the Michigan program. Bo would be rolling over in his grave if we ran the spread with - dare I say it? - a black quarterback (gasp!) (Note: everyone calm down, we aren't calling Bo a racist.)

Let's take a quick look at the names being thrown out right now:

Kirk Ferentz: Rule of thumb: Never hire a coach that is already on the hot seat at his current job (let's call it the Herm Edwards rule). Are we the only ones that have noticed Ferentz has gone just over .500 since winning the Big Ten in 2004?

Urban Meyer: This is so ludicrous it doesn't even deserve a snarky comment.

Brian Kelly: Why wouldn't Bill Martin hire the Cincinnati football coach? BECAUSE WE'RE FUCKIN' MICHIGAN! Oh yeah, and he's racist.

Gary Pinkel: This guy's the Wayne Fontes of college football. They've been calling for his head for years until he flip mctwerked it this season. Michigan's way too good for a One Year Wonder.

Rich Rodriguez: Offensive genius and slightly crazy (which we like), but the guy coached Pacman and Chris Henry. Or how about current LB Pat Lazear, who still got offered a scholarship to West Virginia after knocking off a Smoothie King outside D.C. Throw in the dirty reputation he personally gained last offseason while using Georgia to jack up the price on his alma mater. Let's just he isn't the prototypical "Michigan Man."

Greg Schiano: We won't even start talking about overhyped Schiano is. The man isn't going anywhere just like he proved last offseason.

Jeff Tedford: See Kirk Ferentz explanation above. A team that was ranked #2 in the country has now lost 5 of 6 including last weekend's loss to Washington. Hey, whatever happened to DeSean Jackson for Heisman????

Mike Trgovac: A well respected NFL coordinator with no coaching experience. Look how well that worked out for Charlie Weis.

John Cooper: OK, just kidding. You say old washed up hack, we say Michigan savior. How great would Cooper vs. Tressel I be?


In all honesty, the only way I see Miles losing this job is if Rodriguez wins the national championship making it just impossible for Martin to pass this guy over (we don't know about you, but we are suddenly huge Mountaineers fans),

Other than that, get the Les Miles countdown clock started.