There was misinformation on ESPN, and I think it's imperative that I straighten it out. I am the coach at LSU. I will be the coach at LSU. I have no interest in talking to anybody else. I've got a championship game to play, and I'm excited about the opportunity of my damn strong football team to play in it. And that's really all I'd like to say.I haven't read or listened to the whole text, but if that's the strongest "I'm staying" statement Miles offered, then like the ESPN report, this is still all conjecture to me.
Truly, I don't have much of a vested interest in whether or not Miles heads north. Certainly, it seems a poetic move. Former Bo disciple comes back home. He's a coach that would likely bring a more interesting brand of football than we've had in the last few years under Carr. (For the record, I liked Carr as coach. But it was time to move on.) I also think Miles would be willing to bring in a better staff than Carr. Seriously, how is Mike DeBord the OC of Michigan. How?!?! But there's something a little too storybook about Miles and Michigan and that stuff seldomly works out. (Helllooooo Charlie Weiss.) So if this falls through, I'll be a little disappointed, but far from crushed.
That said, if the rumor mill swings back to Kirk Ferentz, I think we Michigan fans should all run out and kill ourselves. As much as I liked Carr, we need a departure from overly conservative football and Ferentz's recent record at Iowa sounds to me like a recipe for a lot of 9-3, 8-4 years.
So if Miles is out (and I'm not convinced he is), who's left? I really can't say, but from a fan perspective, the name Brian Kelly is the most intriguing. Having gone to college at Western Michigan (I was born in Ann Arbor, raised on U of M football, but didn't have the grades to attend U of M), a stone's through from Grand Valley State, I'm well aware of Kelly's championship record there. And his record at Cincinnati speaks highly of his ability to raise the level of a program.
For those interested, the site to watch in the coming days is mgoblog.com. Brian, the guy who runs it, is almost always out in front of this stuff. I don't know from where he gets his connections, but he's got 'em. He was among the first to post the Beilein hiring for the basketball program and broke the story of Carr's retirement presser coming two days after the OSU game, days before any mainstream media (MSM) outlet would touch it. He doesn't have anything on the supposed Miles contract extension at LSU, but you can be sure he will. And it'll be reported in context (rumor/innuendo vs. fact), which will be a nice change of pace from what we're getting from the MSM right now.
