No. 8 LSU Tigers

LSU fans expect (another) big season from Miles

In what is always a fun debate, try to name the currently-employed coach that has won a national championship but is on a hot-seat.

While this is always relative, the answer is a little more difficult to come up with then in year's past. Just a few seasons ago, the answer would've been Lloyd Carr, who won a pre-BCS AP National Title in 1997 (splitting it with Nebraska). Prior to that, Larry Coker would have topped the list, after he won a national title in his debut season at Miami. Both of these coaches have been run out though, leaving the question more difficult.

And national titles generally buy a coach a good bit of time to work through rough patches; further, some coaches have become such iconic figures for their universities (e.g. Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Penn State's Joe Paterno), that they seem to be immune from even the mention. However, one sure fire way to get to the top of the list is to win a national title with another coach's players, which leads us to...

Les Miles. Less than two seasons removed from a national title, Miles certainly isn't on a hot seat, but with the title coming with mostly Nick Saban's recruits, how much credit do Tiger fans give Miles for bringing home their second title this decade? Further, being the only BCS champion with two losses (and the first consensus champion to have two defeats since 1960) takes a little more shine off of Miles' image.

But most importantly is last season's 8-5 record, which makes fans wonder whether Miles is really a national title coach or just a Larry Coker-type babysitter who was able to lead a pre-assembled team through the season.

That worry will be answered in 2009, when Miles enters his fifth season in Baton Rouge. Now, the entire roster is made up of mostly Miles recruits and any success or failure will be on his shoulders. And Miles has toed the line of failure during his tenure - multiple times in 2007 alone, LSU narrowly escaped defeat and lost to two inferior opponents (Arkansas and Kentucky). This season, the Tigers travel in the opening week to play a much improved Washington team, have back-to-back games at Georgia and hosting Florida, travel to Alabama, and end the season with revenge games at Ole Miss and Arkansas.

While all SEC schedules are difficult, LSU needs a defining season to continue it's image as an elite of the elite program. LSU is in one of the best situation's in college football - the lone BCS program in a football rich state (even Ohio State and Penn State have Big East members Cincinnati and Pitt). But Miles is beginning to lose out on Louisiana recruits. And with Alabama and Florida becoming SEC superpower programs, Miles has to show that he can re-build that Saban-recruiting wall around the state. If he doesn't have another breakthrough season in 2009, then there's little chance of continuing to hold in the recruits, and Miles will become the debate's easy answer.

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Part of a two-week long look into the 2009 Preseason Southern Fans' College Football Poll. New posts released each day, culminating with the No. 1 team on September 2.