The Miles/Michigan Mating Dance Begins

ESPN says the Wolverines want to talk with Les Miles (Michigan would likely have gotten the LSU coach -- and UM alum -- three years ago, if not for the arrogance and incompetence of its then athletic director).

The eccentric Mad Hatter is again the Darlin' of the Bayous after the Tigers went 11-2 (including wins over Florida and Alabama and a dismantling of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl). LSU promises to do everything it can to keep him (Miles is already one of the best-paid coaches in the country.)

There's some scar tissue here. LSU watched Nick Saban walk away in 2004, then walk back into the SEC in 2007 at hated Alabama.

Miles is the Anti-Nick: jovial, loose and willing to go for broke at anytime during a game. But even with his 2007 National Championship, Miles labored in Saban's shadow, seen by many of his own fans as an eccentric goofball benefiting from what Saban started in Baton Rouge.

When LSU beat the Tide at home this year, with Miles chewing grass on the sideline and again relying on wildly inventive plays at key moments, he may have won over the last holdouts. Until now.

If he walks away . . . ah cher.

mg