You’ll notice that I did not say anything about 2012. LSU fans never had such fun until they experienced the E-ticket ride provided by its current head football coach. Chances are they would be unwilling to sacrifice the excitement by sharing him with the rest of the country in the next presidential sweepstakes. By the way, the youngsters among you think of e-tickets as the document you print after making online air reservations on your computer. Back before you were a gleam in your parents’ eye, an E-ticket was the flavor of ducat least numerous in a book of Disneyland tickets and was what you needed to enjoy Space Mountain and other high-thrill amusements in the Magic Kingdom. That was in the day before day passes. I still have my first book of tickets from Walt’s enterprise, and I’d show you an E-ticket if I had any left. One other qualification regarding Disney nomenclature: They claim to be “happiest place on earth,” but obviously have not been in Death Valley on the right autumn day. I’m thinking their yard doesn’t taste nearly as good as the one marked by the Eye of the Tiger. Do you need proof? Les and his boys just won a big one, and no one in the sports media came forward with any quotes from a Tiger saying they were going to Disneyland.
Let’s get back to presidential talk. Think about it. Our federal government keeps falling short of what we want. Football coaches live with that. Their fans always want them to win the championship. More of them fail in that pursuit than the other way around. Even Les doesn’t ring the bell every time. Sometimes it seems that he has angered the spirit of John Cameron Swayze and in so doing caused the Timex to keep on ticking at the wrong time. (Yep, I’ll lose the youngsters on that one, too.) What Les does do more often than not is make decisions that will give victory every possible chance. Wouldn’t it be nice if our politicians in government service would do that? We should know that they won’t. They never tell us anything of substance in their campaigns. The only thing you’ll hear from them is platitudes and whatever flavor of nothing that sounds most like what they think people want to hear.
Les sets the example he wants his boys to follow. You know he tells those guys to extend their arms as far as they can to cross the plane of the goal line. He shows them how to do it every time he goes for it on fourth down, fakes the field goal, fakes the punt, or runs that end-around reverse. Most coaches play it safe. Les plays to win. There are no Pat Dye genes in Les Miles. (Bless Pat’s heart, though, you gotta love how he raised all that money for Auburn by autographing and selling all those ties people sent to him. As you may have noticed, I sometimes digress.) Each time Les embarks on one of those courageous paths, he’s saying to his charges, “Boys, I believe in you.” Filling the minds of those young athletes with belief is a powerful thing. Do you need proof again? Just take a look at LSU’s 2007-2008 highlight film. That was the year that LSU became the only team to ever win the BCS title with two losses. Take away just one of the gutsy decisions Les Miles made that year and history might be deficient a little of its purple and gold.
