"I'm telling my boss that Arkansas just made me an offer," wrote a commenter on ESPN.com's story about LSU Coach Les Miles signing a seven-year contract extension today, after the New Orleans Times Picayune reported yesterday that Arkansas had offered him a five-year, $27.5 million deal. The Mad Hatter strikes again.
How does an athletic director fall for a ploy like this?
Though, according to CoachingSearch.com, Miles and Arkansas did talk.
Miles did confirm that there were talks with Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, but said they were only "preliminary.""The Arkansas issue was a sincere one," Miles said. "There's a colleague and friend of mine over the years that is the athletic director there, so I have a great respect for how he conducts business. Our conversations were very preliminary, and fell short of any major interest. I kind of recommended other candidates and spoke to him. I did not speak to Jerry Jones. The view of five years and $27 million is not true.
"I can tell you that I very much respect those Razorbacks and how they played in that last game, but I'm an LSU head coach and will be an LSU head coach for as long as I can be. We've done some special things here, and it's nice that the administration recognize that and say, 'Coach, we want you to be here.'"
As polarizing as he would've been as Arkansas's coach I'm a tad sorry we won't get to enjoy quotes like this on the regular:
"I get the same thing for Christmas for probably the last eight years: socks and underwear. That doesn't change," he said. "The comfort that I have of where my car is parked and how I drive to work and how I get to the airport, that doesn't change. I have four children heading to college. I need a raise."