Tigers try to look past distractions
The LSU football team could play its second postseason game in three years knowing its coach will be leaving shortly afterward.
The result last time was not good as the Tigers fell to Iowa 30-25 in the Capital One Bowl on the last play of the game on Jan. 1, 2005. Soon after, Nick Saban was off to coach the Miami Dolphins
"Man, that was brutal," LSU senior tailback Jacob Hester said. "That was a bad ending. I don't even want to talk about that game."
Should LSU coach and Michigan grad Les Miles get offered and accept the Michigan coaching job, there is the possibility he could still coach the Tigers in the Bowl Championship Series national championship game on Jan. 7 should LSU make it that far.
"Not as much for me because I'm a senior, but for the younger guys, I mean that's definitely a distraction," Hester said, answering the hypothetical question. "You never know how much that guy's heart is into the game when he knows he's not going to be there the next day. So that's definitely a tough situation for the younger guys on this team. Hopefully, something like that won't happen. My freshman year when coach Saban said he was leaving before the game, it was kind of a distraction."
Hester said the Capital One Bowl didn't feel like a normal game because of Saban's lame duck status.
"You could feel it, even though you didn't want to," he said. "Coach Saban preached that it wasn't going to be like that. But you could just feel that it wasn't the same intensity that normally a Saban team had. It's definitely something that will be on people's minds when something like that happens, especially the young guys on the team. Because the seniors, you know they're moving on and it really doesn't affect them. But the young guys who are playing, it really affects them."
The BCS national championship obviously will have much more on the line than the Capital One Bowl had.
"Right, but I don't think coach Miles is the kind of guy, who even if he did take a job, I think he'd wait and just keep all his focus on LSU," Hester said.
LSU athletics director Skip Bertman said if such a scenario develops he would want Miles to coach the Tigers in the national championship game before leaving for Michigan.
"If it were to be a national championship and the advantage for LSU to win, it would be my opinion that I'd want the coach (Miles) there to win the game," he said. "But I think that the decision to be made is too premature to even talk about for something like that."
LSU is a senior-laden team as 25, including 14 starters, will be honored on Senior Day during the Tigers' last regular-season home game Friday at 1:30 p.m. against Arkansas. Quarterback Matt Flynn agrees with Hester that thes eniors won't get distracted.
"At this point, we've come too far," Matt Flynn said. "Nothing's going to distract us at this point. I've said it before, we've got a lot of seniors on this team and a lot of leaders."
"I don't see it as a major distraction," Bertman said of the Michigan situation. "Les has been through the most distractions of any football coach in the history of the NCAA with two hurricanes and did it very nobly. His attention and focus and ability to really zero in is really terrific. It's a great coaching trait that he has, and he really means it when he says that he won't allow any distractions that he can control.
"He's a special kind of guy. I think what he did through the two hurricanes was incredibly noble. I don't think people realized. It's one of the greatest things I've ever seen in sports what he did during the hurricanes. The pressure that he was under, and he was unflappable. I think the kids adore this guy and love this coach."
Miles has not addressed the Michigan opening with his players as he did with the world on Monday at his weekly press luncheon.
"I don't think he needs to," Matt Flynn said. "He doesn't think it's necessary. He hasn't been any different. He's had the same attitude. Nothing's changed. No one's talking about it."
Matt Flynn and Hester will play their last LSU home game Friday. They each hope it's not Miles' last one, too.
"I hope he stays," Hester said. "I'd tell him you got a great thing going here. You got one of the best recruiting classes every year. You got the talent next year, on offense for sure, to come back and repeat for a national championship if we win it this season."
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