LSU coach Les Miles talks to the media about the Tigers' upcoming college football season.
LSU coach Les Miles talks with Alabama coach Nick Saban before a game in 2012. (Photo: Marvin Gentry, USA TODAY Sports)
HOOVER, Ala. - Les Miles had a busy summer.
He repelled down a building, did some hyperbaric oxygen therapy research in relation to chronic concussions in football, went to his kids' respective sporting events and watched TCU film. No time for vacation, he said.
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Now he's ready for the season to start.
"It's one of those things that you, as a football coach, can't wait to get to because it's why you're here," he said Thursday on the third and final day of SEC Media Days.
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One of the issues brought up during Miles' press conference was scheduling. With the way the SEC is arranged, each team plays two teams from the other division, one being their designated rival. Alabama will always play Tennessee, Auburn will always play Georgia, LSU will always play Florida and so on.
This year, the Tigers face Georgia and Florida from the East, teams that went a combined 14-2 in the SEC last season. In comparison, the Crimson Tide will play Tennessee and Kentucky, teams that went 1-15.
Miles was asked about it.
"A key piece to every conference is that we'd be able to describe the path to a championship in an equal and direct manner," he said. "In fact, scheduling should not in any way decide a championship repeatedly or throughout."
In other words, Miles said, a team should not continue to have the same type of advantage due to its schedule. Alabama, which has won consecutive national championships and the last three in four years, hasn't exactly played the toughest teams in the East, which is what Miles was passively hinting at.
Nick Saban was asked his opinion of Miles' comments and SEC scheduling later on in the day.
"There can never be an equal path to the championship," he said. "Unless everybody plays everybody, that's the only equal path to the championship."
Saban cited that everybody doesn't play everybody in the NFL, you rotate the schedule, which is what the conference is doing.
"I understand where Les Miles is coming from," Saban said, smiling. "I coached at LSU. We played Florida every year, too. So if anybody understands it, I understand it."
Miles said he's tried to bring up this issue with statistics at coaches meetings. Playing certain teams, like Georgia and Florida, he said, takes a toll on players and it provides a disadvantage to teams that do not have to play opponents of the same caliber.
"We're going to play the Green Bay Packers," he said. "We're going to play them 12 straight times. I promise you at the end of that, that team will have found that they're missing some talent, there's some skill guys that are injured, there's some bumps and bruises. I think that scheduling is a tremendously important piece.
VIDEO: ALABAMA'S NICK SABAN AT SEC MEDIA DAYS
"In the meantime, here is where I'm at: I can't hardly wait to play 'em."
Miles also hit on a few other key points regarding the Tigers, one being the team's leading rusher Jeremy Hill, who has been indefinitely suspended after pleading guilty to punching another man in the side of the head outside a Baton Rouge bar near campus in April.
Miles described Hill's situation as a "legal entanglement" and said he remains indefinitely suspended at this time.
Alabama coach Nick Saban addresses the media, discussing the Tide's chance a three-peat.
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