It's an important season for Les Miles.
You'll recall how bleak things looked in late November last year. The Tigers entered the month at 7-0 and ranked No. 2 in the polls, then suffered three straight double digit defeats -- 30-16 to Alabama, 31-14 to Arkansas, and 38-17 to Ole Miss. AD Joe Alleva gathered a posse, and they were coming for Les. For a while there, things looked so inevitable that Miles began alluding to the end of his era publicly.
But the winds changed before Alleva could carry out the coup, and LSU rallied for a 19-7 win over Texas A&M to close out the regular season at Death Valley. His players carried him off the field for what they thought was the final time. A 56-27 drubbing of Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl extended the good vibes entering this season.
Heading into this season, things could go either way for Miles and his Bayou Bengals. LSU is picked second in the SEC West, with a roster as talented as anyone, the preseason Heisman favorite at running back and, yet again, questions as quarterback. They could continue their trajectory from recent years, where LSU is 12-10 in SEC play since 2013. Or they could put it all together and win the entire thing.
Anything's on the table, and that's what will make this season so interesting.