Watching Ole Miss beat LSU is always an enjoyable experience, particularly when the Rebs do it by three touchdowns and preserve their outside shot at an SEC West title. But what makes Saturday night's 38-17 beatdown even more enjoyable is knowing that it might have been the final nail in Les Mile's employment coffin.
The Tigers, who just three weeks ago were 7-0 and No. 2 in the Playoff rankings, have now lost three consecutive games for the first time since 1999 and an already restless bunch in Baton Rouge is not pleased. LSU beat writer Scott Rabalais wrote last week that Miles had lost the support of the boosters and that there was a "serious threat" to his job. Hours before the game on Saturday, a member of the LSU Board of Supervisors said that Miles would be on the hot seat even if he were to beat Ole Miss and A&M to finish 9-2.
And that was all before Miles's team got embarrassed in Oxford.
"It's not just the number of losses, but the quality of the losses," is what the board member said. LSU has been outscored by a combined 52 points over the last three weeks, and the loss to Ole Miss was only as close as it was because of a blown coverage and a fluke fumble recovery in the end zone.
The Rebs held Fournette to 108 yards on 25 carries, the third straight time a defense has managed to shut down LSU's one-dimensional offense by slowing down their superstar running back. In a year where even Bret Bielema has embraced a pass-oriented offense, Miles's prehistoric power-run scheme is wearing thin among LSU fans.
Here's what the fellas over at SB Nation's LSU blog, And the Valley Shook, had to say about the play calling on Saturday:
As the Ole Miss lead kept climbing, LSU just kept feeding the ball to Fournette, as if they had no other idea of what to do. However, a patchwork offensive line couldn't open a hole. Still, doggedly ad persistently, this coaching staff kept trying to jam the round peg into the square hole, thinking that if they just hit it a bit harder, maybe the peg would finally fit.
Miles expectedly brushed off questions about his job security in the postgame presser.
"I'm so busy doing my job that that's secondary in my nature," he said. "Eleven years ago, I showed up here and we won our first game at Arizona State and lost our second game, and I knew we were soon to be fired. And so what I've always done, and it's strength and weakness, I put my head down and I go to work and I try to do the best things."
I can't entirely decipher that bit of Milesian poetry, but he's certainly hearing the rumors. He said he's planning on addressing his job status with his team on Monday.
LSU could still finish this season with nine wins. It's too early to bury a guy who's had the kind of sustained success Miles has had in Baton Rouge over the past decade, especially when you consider the $15 million it would cost to fire him. But nostalgia and a buyout clause can only keep him upright for so long, and we seem to be quickly approaching the tipping point.