(REUTERS/Sean Gardner)
NEW ORLEANS - Behind each door, there is a story. Funny stories. Sad stories. Inspiring stories. Perplexing stories. Stories that take you through the days when Les Miles was growing up in the quarry town of Elyria, Ohio, west of the Allegheny Mountains, 24 miles southwest of Cleveland, as an Ohio State fan, not surprising since Elyria was also the hometown of Vic Janowicz, the great Buckeye running back who won the 1950 Heisman Trophy.
Stories years later, when Miles became a Michigan man, under the sphere of influence of former Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler, first as a player and then as an assistant coach.
Stories that follow Miles through an early coaching odyssey that also included stops at Colorado, Oklahoma State, the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, and finally Louisiana State, where he was named to the head job in 2005.
Stories of Miles and the Tigers in the days following Hurricane Katrina, when the LSU campus served as a refuge for thousands left homeless.
Stories that show Miles's aggressive, some would say reckless, attitude toward coaching, in which such things as down and distance really don't matter. Such as the five times this season against defending national champion Florida when he gambled on fourth down en route to a dramatic 28-24 victory.
Stories about the drama of the final month of this season, when reports surfaced almost daily that Miles would soon be leaving LSU to return to his alma mater to replace Lloyd Carr, who had announced his retirement.
And stories that were less publicized, such as a series of tragedies involving Miles's friends and coworkers, including in the summer of 2005, shortly before Miles began his first season as coach of the Tigers, when he heard about the death of the 10-year-old son of former LSU lineman Chris Truax, in a tubing accident on Father's Day.
And more personal stories, such as in the winter of 2001, when doctors found a cyst on Miles's brain, which required an operation on Christmas Eve and eliminated the headaches that had been plaguing him for weeks.
Put them together and you have the tale of a coach who tomorrow night can write a chapter that could put him among the elite of his profession. When Miles agreed to a contract extension after the Michigan courtship ended late last month, he secured his future at LSU through 2012. A win in the BCS national title game against Ohio State will guarantee he will be no less than the third-highest-paid coach in college football, in the $3.2 million to $3.5 million range per season. Even with a loss, Miles will make a minimum of $2.8 million per year.
That was secondary yesterday as the 54-year-old Miles talked to the media about the journey in which he had been thrust into the limelight for a variety of reasons this season.
"I knew I was going to do this for a living," said Miles. "I left college. I got a degree in economics. I went to a small trucking firm in Ohio that my father was peripheral to and got a great opportunity and really enjoyed my time there. But I realized right along that I needed to be around athletic men that were ambitious, that had goals, and help them pursue those goals."
Over the years, he has developed a reputation for being a riverboat gambler on the sideline.
"I think that's unfair, to be honest with you," he said. "Shoot, I don't want to go on fourth down ever. I think it's specific to the situation. I can't imagine that there's not many coaches in America that don't see it the same way. I don't think you just walk up to a situation and say this is what you do. So, I'd be just as happy to have everything done on third down. So, it's really the game and the situation more than it is me."
But what stressed out Miles as much as anything this season - as well as the triple-overtime losses to Kentucky and Arkansas - was the soap opera of Miles possibly returning to Michigan, which culminated the day LSU beat Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference title game. There were reports on ESPN that day that claimed Miles was indeed going to take the Michigan job.
The problem was that as much as Miles said he loved life at LSU, he also let it be known that the only job he would consider leaving Baton Rouge for would be Michigan. But the years spent and the people Miles met in Louisiana changed him more than he thought. And when Carr announced his retirement, Miles realized his connection to LSU was deeper than he imagined. Still, he listened to Michigan.
Until the ESPN report forced his hand, Miles tried to dodge the issue by being less specific than LSU would have liked. When the issued boiled over hours before the SEC title game, Miles held a rare pregame press conference and emphatically stated he was staying.
"What it comes down to is you reach a point where you can say, 'What do I want to do? What do I want to achieve,' " Miles told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "I'm at a place I love and they made it clear they wanted me to stay."
So another door closed for Miles - for now at least. And tomorrow night another door may open for the kid from Ohio, the Michigan grad, the riverboat gambler, and finally the coach of the LSU Tigers who is doing what he what he wants to do at the place he wants to be.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
