Strong leadership

• By CARL DUBOIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 24, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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HOOVER, Ala. — Les Miles said strong character and leadership helped his LSU Tigers win the 2007 national championship. The senior players he chose as travel companions Wednesday embody those qualities, he said.

Center Brett Helms and defensive end Tyson Jackson joined Miles in an upscale Birmingham suburb for Kickoff 2008, the short title for the college football preseason hype machine also known as SEC Media Days.

Less than a minute into his 39-minute visit with print and Internet reporters, Miles moved on from acknowledging the achievements of the 2007 team to setting the parameters for the discussion of the 2008 team.

“We’re not defending,” Miles said, sounding a lot like former LSU coach Nick Saban between the Tigers’ national championship season of 2003 and the start of their 2004 preseason camp.

“We’re not dealing with rankings. This is a brand new year.”

Saban’s message four years ago was it’s impossible to be charged with defending what one can’t lose. Miles used similar language Wednesday, noting no one can take away LSU’s crystal-ball trophy.

“If we’re defending,” he said, “come see the trophy. It’s in our trophy case. We’re not defending it; it’s there. We’ve got a brand new team.”

Well, not completely.

Helms and Jackson are among 13 returning starters and a core group of seniors Miles will count on for the type of leadership that enabled LSU to overcome a series of distractions and setbacks in winning its second national championship in five seasons.

During sessions with reporters, they spoke the party line with no hesitation.

“It’s out of our system now,” Jackson said of last season. “When we got our rings in June, Coach Miles told us to move on and put it behind us.

“It’s really not hard to move forward if you have a team that is hungry like we are. We know what we have to do.”

It’s up to Miles to pick the two players to accompany him to SEC Media Days each preseason. He explained the thought process he uses to decide.