IRVING, TEXAS (AP) - LSU coach Les Miles is being asked again about a coaching vacancy at his alma mater while preparing his Tigers for a big game.
Miles said Wednesday during a Cotton Bowl news conference that he has had no contact from Michigan. He spoke just before the Wolverines fired Rich Rodriguez after three seasons.
“I’m really here to speak about no other school. I’m really here to speak about LSU,” said Miles, whose 11th-ranked Tigers (10-2) play No. 18 Texas A&M on Friday night at Cowboys Stadium.
“Speculation is not factual and the only thing I can say to you is my focus is complete,” he said. “We’re preparing to play a great A&M team, and that’s my want and desire.”
Miles was considered a leading candidate at Michigan when Lloyd Carr resigned three years ago. But Miles held an unusual press conference hours before the 2007 Southeastern Conference championship game saying he intended to stay at LSU, which won the national championship that season.
A two-year letterman at Michigan on two Big Ten championship teams for coach Bo Schembechler, Miles was also an assistant coach for Schembechler from 1980-81 and again from 1987-89. Miles then stayed for five more seasons on Gary Moeller’s staff.
“Michigan will be fine,” Miles said. “They’ll always be Michigan.”
Miles is 61-17 in six seasons at LSU and won the 2007 national championship with a 12-2 record. Both Tigers’ losses that year were in triple overtime.
The Tigers defeated Tennessee 21-14 in the 2007 SEC championship game that was preceded by Miles’ unusual pregame news conference. Miles signed a contract extension the next week to stay at LSU through 2012, but even after that had to deny interest in going to Michigan. He released a statement saying he had a conversation with Michigan officials in the role of a “loyal alumnus” helping them with their search for a new coach.
Michigan later hired Rodriguez, who went 15-22 before he was let go Wednesday. Asked about the situation, Miles again tried to shift the focus back on LSU.
“I very much enjoy where I’m at. I don’t think anybody has any reason to be concerned in any way,” Miles said.
“If you look back at things, speculation was terrible, the things that were said were without fact,” he said. “In my opinion it does not benefit us to go back and talk about speculation, which again is not based on any fact. So let’s put that behind us and focus on the Cotton Bowl, please.”
The Tigers play Texas A&M (9-3) in the 50th meeting of a rivalry that has been dormant since 1995.
Since a three-game losing streak that included a loss to Arkansas in Cowboys Stadium, Texas A&M has won six in a row. That stretch included home victories over Oklahoma and Nebraska, the two teams that played in the Big 12 championship game.
It will be six weeks between games by the time the Aggies kick off the Cotton Bowl.
“If you ask every coach and player on our staff, you would have loved to have played the next week because in the context of a season you can have momentum,” A&M coach Mike Sherman said. “We’re playing a great opponent. … Our kids are really excited about that challenge. I’m sure that will be enough fire for us to get going and play this game with a lot of passion and energy.”
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