Smiley Anders for Dec. 14

• By SMILEY ANDERS
• Advocate columnist
• Published: Dec 14, 2005

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Since I've had to drive out to our new office in the suburbs from my downtown home, I've been spending a lot more time in the car. (Not that I'm complaining, boss …)

This means I've been listening to the car radio a great deal.

Usually I listen to blues on the Baton Rouge Magnet High station or news on public radio; but once in a while, I catch a sports talk station.

The other day I got into the middle of a caller's rant about a college football coach.

The caller not only didn't like the way the coach coached, he didn't like the way he wore his hair, the kind of shirt he had on at games, his headphones, his accent, his weight or anything about the poor guy.

"Get rid of him!" shouted the caller. "Buy out his contract! Send him packing!"

I assumed it was about some coach with a 1-10 record, stuck in some losing program at some Podunk college.

But I was shocked, shocked to learn that the caller was talking about LSU's Les Miles -- whose team has won, at last count, 10 games despite the massive disruptions of two hurricanes.

In most college towns, a 10-win season and a nice bowl trip would be considered a very successful campaign, and the coach would be something of a hero.

I kept listening, trying to determine what this guy had against poor Les, and figured out his main gripe was that the team's margin of victory was too narrow in some big games, which they won due to "luck."

Of course they did.

In a tough conference like the SEC, some games are bound to be close, and in some it'll come down to the way the ball bounces.

One rainy night in 1958 I sat in a stadium in Jackson, Miss., with water up to my ankles and watched LSU beat Mississippi State 7-6, on a missed extra point.