LITTLE ROCK — The polite lady in the 225 area code told a caller that Les Miles’ weekly luncheon began at 11:30, but it would be noon or so before the LSU coach talked with the media.
Why wait? Given 42 hours to prep, Miles still wouldn’t be able to come up with a plausible explanation for the Tigers’ series of blunders vs. Ole Miss.
For Arkansas fans, the crux of the matter is how the LSU players will react to the errors made by their coaches. If the game was today, the Razorbacks would have the advantage just because the Tigers would still be in a funk. There is also the Dallas trip for the winner — a desired prize for the Razorbacks and something less for an LSU team that blew a week in Orlando by losing in Oxford.
There has been much ado about quarterback Jordan Jefferson spiking the ball, but the bumbling was full tilt prior to that and the play-by-play says the final play was Jefferson’s 42-yard pass to the Ole Miss 6.
The quagmire began when the Tigers had a first down at the Ole Miss 32 and Josh Jasper, who had kicked a 50-yard field goal earlier, warming up on the sidelines. On second down, Jefferson was sacked for a 9-yard loss. Miles said the coaches talked about running the ball, but that he thought Jefferson could manage the situation. “That was my mistake,” he said.
Wonder how Jefferson felt when he read that?
From there, a screen pass was good for 7 yards. There were 26 seconds left when Stevan Ridley was tackled and the clock stopped 17 seconds later.
Miles said he thought he heard timeout being called.
Calling timeout is not a genteel request, it is a demand. It is not, “Hey, ref, when you get a chance, we’d like a timeout.”
A head coach who makes millions, assistant coaches pulling down well into six figures, eagerto-please grad assistants galore, and nobody bothered to check the clock. Unbelievable.
Miles said the timeouts “were being called verbally” — is there any other way? — and “I didn’t relate that to the official apparently and that was the mistake.”
It gets worse.
The LSU coaches decided Jefferson should fling for the end zone and, apparently, there was no backup plan in case the pass was completed shy of the end zone.
Somehow, the LSU radio crew persuaded strong safety Harry Coleman to do some post-game stuff, and he was subdued when the man with the mike suggested 9-3 would be a good record. For most teams, that’s true. Not so much for an LSU team that started the season thinking about an SEC championship.
HARRY KING IS SPORTS COLUMNIST FOR
STEPHENS MEDIA’S ARKANSAS NEWS
BUREAU.