Read this Les Miles story

After 4 or 5 days of sitting on the pilot's lap while pretending to fly the Direct TV blimp over New Orleans, today is the day Les is expected to come back down and coach the football team. I know I've already said this earlier in the season but I've come the full 180 degrees with regard to Miles as we've gotten to know him better over the years. I'd even go so far as to say the guy is my favorite football coach of all time. (I still like Bum Phillips a lot, though.) Of course most of you realize that isn't saying a whole hell of a lot given the low esteem with which I regard football coaches in general but, still, it's the thought that counts. Or actually it's shit like this.

Inside a metallic practice bubble that late-summer day, sweaty young men listen to red-faced coaches bark orders and demands. Even praise comes at excessive decibels. Miles, 58, is dressed in a gray shirt, purple shorts and his standard-issue white hat. He bears an eerie resemblance to Kurt Russell. Miles doesn't yell. He doesn't say much. He's most concerned with the ice cream man.

Or this

The seamlessness with which Miles transitioned the program from the no-nonsense, bordering-on-miserable atmosphere Saban bred to the loose, happy air that permeates LSU today is among his greatest successes. There have been setbacks. Before the Tigers' first game, nearly half the team broke curfew, including quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who police charged with felony battery for allegedly kicking a Marine in the head during a brawl. In the middle of the season, Miles suspended three more players, including Heisman Trophy candidate Tyrann Mathieu, when synthetic marijuana showed up in their urine.

"Those were things this team needed," Miles says. "It's a distraction. You can call it what you want. And it was. But there were direct, correctable steps, and they made 'em. And it was wonderful. It was fun to work with. It's been a fun year."

Only Miles can turn a bar fight into a fun time and still manage to sound sincere.

There's a lot more to that article. Elevated presentation of tear-jerky stuff and whatnot. But the main point is this. What makes Les Miles successful is the fact that he specifically lacks that quality of ego-maniacal fastidiousness so many insufferable football coaches believe they are required to possess. Football is a chaotic and often absurd activity. The conventional approach to managing it is based on beating the chaos into submission through the iron force of one's own red-faced screaming micromanaging obsessive compulsive assholery. Most coaches do it this way. Some (Nick Saban, Tom Coughlin, Bear Bryant, etc) do so with some measure of success. Others (Bobby Petrino, Jim Mora, Curley Hallman) not so much. But win or lose these coaches are undeniably major assholes. Les Miles does something different. He doesn't try to beat down the wackiness he embraces it, celebrates it even, and finds the way through it smilingly. Win or lose, this is certainly the more honest way to apprehend and react to one's environment. Here... go read the article. It's all in there.

Miles ached for football. He would talk about it, Bubba would listen. It took a few years for Miles to convince himself. By then, Bubba's look had softened. Miles knew he should go, though not before a warning from Bubba: The inertia of this coaching life -- this mad concoction of perfectionism, testosterone, moral compromise and the potent drug of triumph -- can eat your soul. Don't let it.

I love that Les Miles has proven that you can do this.. that you don't have to sell your soul out and be an insufferable asshole.. in order to win football games. And so win or lose tonight, we can say that Les Miles is not at an asshole.

The Tigers will win anyway. Based only on a hunch I think it's advisable to take the over in this game. Something like LSU Alabama 27 maybe.