Michigan and Miles: What Happened?

Reason No. 1 why Les Miles is not going to Michigan: Money. Miles is expected to be paid $3.45 million a year under terms of his new deal, which would tie him with Bob Stoops for the second-highest coaching salary in college football.

Reason No. 2: As we've been telling you all along, Lloyd Carr and others at Michigan did not want Miles to become coach. Writes Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press: "Carr was not the only influential person at U-M who felt that way. Others had voiced reservations about whether Miles was the right fit."

OK, maybe Miles wasn't the right guy for Michigan. Writes Mitch Albom of the Free Press: "Personally, I saw all I needed to see of Les Miles in his hastily called news conference Saturday. He affected a barking, angry tone, hands by his hips, at one point tugging emphatically on his sports coat."

Albom continues: "We've put up with a lot of baloney this past week in the Michigan coaching search. But getting belligerent about a process he [Miles] encouraged, he invited — and he ultimately parlayed into a jackpot? Sorry. Not swallowing that meatball."

So where does this leave Michigan? At this point, the block M currently stands for "mess." The Freep lists Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, California's Jeff Tedford, Rutgers' Greg Schiano, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe and Missouri's Gary Pinkel among the possibilities. A coach not considered not in the mix (and one that the Wiz thinks is a perfect fit for the job) is Cincinnati's Brian Kelly.

Reporters' Notebooks

Bud Withers, Seattle Times: Washington State's list of candidates to succeed Bill Doba is down to seven, with Texas El Paso's Mike Price leading the list and former Michigan State and Louisville coach John L. Smith also among the finalists.

Marty Cook Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: New Mississippi coach Houston Nutt received permission from Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles to borrow at least two Razorbacks assistant coaches for one week to help with the Rebels’ recruiting.

Randy King, Roanoke Times: Another dismal turnout means Jacksonville's chances of continuing to play host to the Atlantic Coast title game appear to be slim and none.

Buck Harvey, San Antonio Express-News: Oklahoma's Bob Stoops lobbied well into the night that his team should play for the national title because it had beaten the No. 1 team — Missouri — on a neutral field.

Natalie Meisler, Denver Post: Possible candidates at Colorado State: Oakland Raider assistant Brian Schneider, South Florida assistant Dan McCarney, Bowling Green's Gregg Brandon, Akron's J.D. Brookhart and Montana's Bobby Hauck.

Ed McGranahan, Greenville News: A billboard bought by a Clemson fan to poke fun at the South Carolina and Steve Spurrier came down after less then three days when some folks didn't see the humor. View billboard by clicking here.

Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News: What led to California's fall? The Golden Bears won their first five games, then dropped six of seven.

Greg Hansen, Arizona Daily Star: A sorry decade of Arizona football continued with a season-ending loss to Arizona State.

Dwain Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Former Southern Methodist coach Phil Bennett might be joining the Baylor coaching staff of Art Briles.

Pete Pelegrin, Miami Herald: At least Florida International knows how to close out the Orange Bowl. It stunned North Texas and ended the nation's longest losing streak at 23 games.

Power of the Press

A look at how Saturday's games were played on front pages of Sunday's newspapers:

Guru: It's Ohio State and LSU in Tltle Game

Louisiana State, allegedly the best two-loss team in the country, will get the chance to be the best team in the country.

The Tigers will play one-loss Ohio State in the Jan. 7 Bowl Championship Series title game in New Orleans, according to projections by the BCS Guru. The official BCS standings will be released Sunday afternoon.

So why not Virginia Tech, Georgia, Oklahoma or USC, the other two-loss teams? Why will LSU get the nod over these teams?

Here's what the Guru says regarding each of those teams:

Virginia Tech: "Virginia Tech got blown out by LSU early in the season and was already behind LSU in the Harris poll and barely in front in the coaches poll as of last week. That's an easy fix for voters."

Georgia: "The bottom line is the voters will rearrange their ballot because LSU routed Virginia Tech and beat Tennessee with a backup quarterback after the Volunteers blew out Georgia earlier in the season. Those reasons will put LSU back on top."

Oklahoma: "As for Oklahoma, the computers pretty much did the trick, and also its weak loss to a 6-6 Colorado team really doomed its chances."

USC: "USC's problem is that it had the worst loss among two-loss teams — to Stanford. And USC is being hurt big-time by the computers because its three nonconference opponents — Nebraska, Notre Dame and Idaho — all turned out to suck big-time."

Hawaii is still playing and the Guru will be updating his projections. As he updates, so will the Wiz, so check either the Guru's site or this post later in evening/morning.

Update: Hawaii, behind a Heisman-like performance from Colt Brennan (42 of 50 for 442 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions) rallied from a 21-0 deficit to stun Washington, 35-28. The victory should earn Hawaii a berth to a BCS bowl.

Here are the Guru's BCS bowl projections:

Rose: USC vs. Illinois
Sugar: Georgia vs. Hawaii
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia
Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas

If this is how the BCS bowls break down, at least two teams and a conference are going to be ticked off.

The first team is Missouri, which was No. 1 in the BCS entering the final week, yet is likely to be passed over in favor of Kansas, a team it defeated a week ago. But a loss to Oklahoma has likely knocked the two-loss Tigers out of the BCS picture.

And Arizona State, with losses to Oregon and USC, is also in danger of being left off the BCS bandwagon. Compare the Sun Devils' two losses to LSU's two losses: Arizona State lost at Oregon (8-4), which at one point was No. 2 in the BCS, and at home to Rose Bowl-bound USC (10-2). LSU lost at Kentucky (7-5) and at home to Arkansas (8-4), yet will be playing for the national title. Go figure.

The Pacific 10 has reason to be upset. In 2001, Oregon (10-1) was passed over for the BCS title game in favor of Nebraska, which failed to win its division in the Big 12. The Cornhuskers were pounded by Miami, 37-14, in the BCS title game and the Ducks defeated Colorado, 38-16, in the Fiesta. The Buffaloes, champions of the Big 12, defeated Nebraska, 62-36, to win the Big 12 North.

In 2005 after lobbying from Mack Brown, Texas edged its way into the Rose Bowl ahead of California. The Pac-10 was not happy about this and now it appears the conference will once again be shortchanged by the BCS.

Miles Out of the Running at Michigan

Les Miles will not be Michigan's next coach. He has agreed to a multi-year extension, which he has yet to sign, to remain at Louisiana State.

Miles angrily denounced an earlier ESPN report — by Kirk Herbstreit — that he was going to take the Michigan job.

After Michigan asked for and received permission earlier in the week to talk with Miles, LSU summoned George Bass, the coach's Dallas-based agent, to Baton Rouge. It was reported that LSU was prepared to offer Miles a deal in the $3.5 million a year range, a significant bump from his current deal of $1.8 million. Michigan was reportedly willing to go no higher than $3 million, so it's going to be interesting to see how much Miles will get under the new contract.

Michigan Camp Remains Split Over Miles

Although the Michigan job is Les Miles' to lose, the Louisiana State coach is far from a unanimous choice among ranking members of the Wolverine community.

As we told you Tuesday, Miles is said to have used questionable tactics to recruit against Lloyd Carr in recent years.

Carr is believed to be stepping down because he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, perhaps as early as 2001. Through medication, Carr has been able to function normally, but Miles found out and was aggressive in telling recruits about Carr's condition and impending retirement. Carr, of course, heard about this and the relationship between the men deteriorated.

Not surprisingly, Carr has yet to endorse Miles' candidacy. Writes Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press:

"And the longer Carr goes without officially endorsing Miles, the more obvious it becomes that he has issues with the LSU coach becoming his successor.

"Carr has denied publicly having any preconceived reservations regarding any potential candidates. But that doesn't stop the speculation that perhaps Carr wonders about Miles' recruiting practices in that nest of nefarious conduct — the Southeastern Conference with its long history of NCAA trouble, or in his previous job at Oklahoma State."

In other coaching-related news:

Arkansas: Tommy Tuberville is still Auburn's coach and has an offer of a two-year extension and $200,000 a year raise. That would make Tuberville the seventh-highest paid coach in Division I-A.

Georgia Tech: Connecticut's Randy Edsall has interviewed for the job.

Houston: Notre Dame offensive coordinator and running backs coach Michael Haywood has interviewed for the job.

Nebraska: Bo Pelini is expected to be named coach, perhaps as early as Sunday.

And on the speculation front ...

Louisiana State: If Miles becomes Michigan's coach, where do the Tigers turn? Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News raises the possibility of either Nick Saban or Tuberville becoming LSU's coach. Not as far-fetched as one might think.

UCLA: The buzz in L.A. is that if the Bruins don't upset USC, Karl Dorrell is out as coach. Possible replacements: Baltimore Raven assistant Slick Rick Neuheisel, Texas Tech's Mike Leach and Tennessee Titan assistant Norm Chow.

Washington: Could a blowout loss to Hawaii lead to Tyrone Willingham's ouster? Seattle Seahawk assistant Jim Mora would likely be at the top of the list to replace Willingham.

Reporters' Notebooks

National Public Radio: It's the 25-year anniversary of "The Play." A look back at that memorable Stanford-California game, with audio and links.

Greg Stoda, Palm Beach Post: Bobby Bowden, stubborn in his insistence to stick around a once-proud program he built but now sees crumbling all around him, won't walk away. So there is only one alternative for Florida State president T.K. Wetherell: He must tell Bowden, who just got a one-year extension, that 2008 is his last season.

Sara Ganus, Oklahoman: Oklahoma screen printers are gearing up in anticipation of the Sooners winning the Big 12 championship.

Elliott Blackburn, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech's caped mascot is riding the hot seat after the student violated school safety policy during a November pregame gallop.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A Q&A with Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive.

Rick Bozich, Louisville Courier-Journal: Louisville fans need to back off and give Steve Kragthorpe a chance to succeed.

Associated Press: In January, Division II is expected to approve a 10-year pilot program that would allow a limited number of international schools — most expected to be Canadian — to become NCAA members.

The Big Lead: And just because, an interview with Wiz favorite Wayne Drehs of ESPN, who gives a nice plug to the Wiz.

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