How Les Miles’ record against Nick Saban and Alabama contributed to his demise at LSU

When LSU finally pulled the trigger and fired former Tigers head coach Les Miles, there were some mixed opinions. Some thought last season’s fiasco should have been the end of the Miles era to begin with. Others thought firing a coach with a national title, two SEC championships, a .772 win percentage, and countless star-stuffed recruiting classes was unwise.

But what ended the Miles era in Baton Rogue were a couple of important things: LSU’s record against Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide, and LSU’s offense failing to evolve.

Partly because of these two things, Saturday brings us the first LSU-Alabama game (8 p.m. ET, CBS) since 2004 to not feature Les Miles on the sideline.

But when you’re at LSU, you’re expected to win games and championships at a high level. Beating Alabama is a huge chunk of that criteria, especially when the Bama coach was previously at your school.

Since 2005, Miles’ first season as LSU’s head coach, he went 5-7 against Alabama. Three of those victories came in his first three seasons.

But Miles went just 3-7 against Saban. Last season’s 30-16 defeat marked the fifth straight loss for LSU against Bama, dating back to the rematch loss in the BCS Championship in 2012.

Imagine if you were the CEO of a company. Let’s call it Company L. Say you hired someone who drastically turned things around for your company.

Then imagine this employee, who gave your company so much hope of continued prosperity, later joined a company in the same exact trade of yours, Company A.

You hire a replacement for this employee, and things are going well, but you see that things are even better for Company A. So much better that you haven’t been able to out-sell Company A in five quarters.

That, in a nutshell is what LSU was dealing with while having to watch Saban’s four-championship dynasty. Bill Connelly touched on this last year.

Coaching changes are terrifying crap shoots. And LSU should know that as well as anybody. The Tigers have become permanent members of the ruling class because they nailed two straight hires: Saban in 2000, Miles in 2005.

This is college football we’re talking about. Lost perspective is assumed. When a rival — one coached by a man you used to employ — is doing better than you after beating you in a national championship rematch, you start to think crazy thoughts, like, “I’m so sure we can do better that I’m willing to pony up an eight-digit buyout to roll the dice.”

The Tigers succeed for a while on offense, using a loaded offensive line, flashy wide receivers such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Travin Dural, and power running backs paired with big quarterbacks.

But the Saban comparison between these to head coaches would continue, especially as the Alabama head coach drastically changed his offensive philosophy.

As more teams found success with the up-tempo, no-huddle schemes — most notably beginning with Auburn’s 2013 national title run featuring Gus Malzahn’s lightning-quick offense — Saban pushed back ... at first.

In the spring of 2014, Saban and other coaches met with the NCAA, which eventually resulted in a rule proposal that if passed, would require a 10-second delay before offenses could snap the football, allowing defenses time to substitute. Unsurprisingly, the proposal was withdrawn after a few weeks. Saban referred to hurry-up offenses as cigarettes.

Fast forward to Jan. 2014. Just nine days after Oklahoma beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Saban hired Lane Kiffin as his offensive coordinator, and then Bama’s offense evolved to become the thing he was unable to get banned.

In 2014, former spread critic Saban hired Lane Kiffin to update Alabama’s offense and include more spread sets, RPOs, and up-tempo pacing.

The message was clear: if the Tide couldn’t forever shut opponents down, Bama would be just as happy to outscore them. Years ago, Saban began to remake the roster and evolve the strategy.

Interim head coach Ed Orgeron, along with offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger, has made some positive changes to the offense.

They started mixing in more run/pass options than before:

You didn’t see a ton of RPOs in the Miles era, but here, you have one of their sweep plays paired with a backside slant route. It’s meant to exploit the backside LB’s hard pursuit of the run fake. That leaves the slot receiver facing man coverage.

Next, they’d set what’s believed to be a second school record, for yards per play, against Southern Miss.

“LSU is using more multiple looks since Coach O took over,” Saban said this week, “tying play-action passes with the running game.”

ESPN’s Marcus Spears also addressed these changes earlier this week, specifically how LSU has used Leonard Fournette on passing plays in recent weeks.

“I like the changes because they’re using guys more. Ability-wise its better. Throwing Fournette in the flat, getting him in the secondary without having to deal with the defensive line, that’s a big deal. We saw what he did to the guy from Ole Miss. You want him in the secondary. So if you can’t run it to get him in the secondary, throw it to him.”

Even Miles has come around to the idea, saying he’s studying wide-open Baylor and Western Michigan offenses while trying to land another job.