30 best college football coaching hires this century

24. Les Miles – LSU

Les Miles is a really hard head coach to rank here. On the one hand, he brought a national championship to LSU, he took over for Nick Saban after he left for the NFL, and he led this team to prominence for more than a decade. On the other hand, Les Miles’ tenure is surrounded by controversy, and his transgressions with the Tigers eventually caused him to lose his job at Kansas.

Miles was accused of inappropriate actions towards female students while head coach at LSU. He was even recommended to get fired as head coach because of his actions. It really puts a cloud over everything he did as a football coach since this will be his new legacy.

Nobody can take away his success on the field. He had double-digit wins in seven different seasons. He led them to another championship despite being one of the few two-loss champs in history. There were massive highs in Baton Rouge with Les Miles at the helm, but it’s never good to have a leader of young men be someone who is surrounded by controversy.

It’s a shame what Miles did to his legacy, but this is what it is at this point. He seemed like a really good hire at the time, getting him from Oklahoma State.