LSU fires Miles, Cameron, promotes Orgeron
LSU fired coach Les Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron on Sunday, and promoted defensive line coach Ed Orgeron to interim head coach.
The moves came less than 24-hours after Miles briefly watched his players celebrate what they thought was a last-second winning touchdown pass at Auburn, only to walk off the field with a loss after officials determined on video replay that time had expired before the ball was snapped.
It was the latest of several frantic finishes in which the clock management of a Miles-coached offense had come under intense scrutiny. It will go down as the last.
“Coach Miles has done a tremendous job here and he’s been a great ambassador for our University, which makes this even more difficult,” LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said in a written statement. “However, it’s apparent in evaluating the program through the first month of the season that a change has to be made.”
Miles’ firing, reported first by The Advocate of Baton Rouge, came hours after LSU (2-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference), which was ranked 18th last week, dropped out of the Top 25 in the latest AP Poll released Sunday afternoon.
Miles, who was in his 12th season, went 114-34 at LSU, the second-most victories in school history behind Charles McClendon’s 137 victories from 1962 to 1979.
Miles spent four seasons as Oklahoma State’s head coach from 2001-2004 before taking the LSU head coaching job in 2005. Miles went 28-21 in Stillwater.
Cameron, an old friend of Miles from when they were both assistants at Michigan in the 1980s, joined LSU in 2013.
Miles coached the Tigers to a national title in the 2007 season. The 2011 Tigers also reached the national title game, but lost to Alabama in what has grown to a fivegame losing streak against the Crimson Tide.
The 2012 Tigers were Miles’ best team since, but an early November loss to Alabama squelched that team’s title hopes while Alabama went on to a decisive national title victory.
Since the start of the 2013, LSU has gone 15-11 against SEC opponents. His recent struggles nearly led to his firing last season, when a loss to Alabama began the first three-game skid of Miles’ tenure at LSU and the Tigers once again faded from contention.
Orgeron is a Louisiana native and renowned recruiter. He was a head coach once before in the SEC with Mississippi, but never had a winning record there and was fired after three seasons. He fared better as interim head coach at Southern California in 2013, going 6-2 in place of Lane Kiffin, who’d been fired that season.