When It Comes To Lee, Miles Speaks With Forked Tongue

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Either Zach Lee was the most up-and-down player in LSU history or Glenn Guilbeau of The Shreveport Times has revealed the duplicitous nature of Les Miles.

I’ll go with the latter.

Guilbeau simply took several quotes from Miles and placed them back to back.  Reading them will give you a darn good idea of why college coaches have a reputation for saying whatever they need to say to sign a player (or keep one in the fold in Lee’s case).

You can read the full version here, but below are some of the excerpts.  Just classic.

Miles on Lee on Tuesday, August 10th:  “Zach Lee is much further along in his approach and how he learns than really a number of quarterbacks I have been around.  He has a natural framework for understanding the passing game, where his reads should be and where he should go with the ball.”

Miles on Lee on Saturday, August 14th:  “He’s a team guy, understands what he needs to do.  He’s got a quarterback mentality.  It’s very difficult for me to predict where he might end up.  He came right in, is picking it up, is very bright and is one of those men who really expects himself to learn it and compete to learn it.  He’s in it (the mix for starter).  He’s been in it.”

And Miles on Tuesday, August 17th (after Lee had signed with the Dodgers):  “The issue is you’d have liked to have him progressing, but he’s not going to get any reps anyway.  So he’s really not going to be prepared unless injury takes place.  These other two guys (walk-ons Barrett Bailey and TC McCartney) would be just as capable as that.”

Miles was then asked if Lee had been slated for “mop-up” duty behind Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee.  “Yeah, it was going to be the back end of the game.”

Sounds like Lee went from “in the mix” to mop-up duty in the span of just a few days.


If you ever for one second believe that your friendly neighborhood football coach is an honest, well-meaning guy… slap yourself in the forehead.

Coaches are businessmen.  Their business is winning.  And they will say anything under the sun to insure that they have the best players on their roster.  Honesty’s got nothing to do with it.

So the next time you find yourself wondering why your local journalists don’t just believe every line your favorite coach tosses out, remember this little episode.

Believe them at your own risk.