Skip Bertman was asked before speaking at the Louisiana State University at Alexandria athletics banquet Monday night if it was fair to say that LSU football coach Les Miles is on the "hot seat" for the 2010 season.
"No," said Bertman, the Tigers' former baseball coaching legend and former athletics director. "Criticism? Absolutely, positively, because he's making a lot of money. But hot seat? No."
Before speaking to the LSUA baseball and softball teams, other school officials and fans, Bertman tried to put in perspective the most recent decade of extraordinary success in LSU football compared to, say, the 11 previous years when LSU's record was 58-65.
"Then came (Nick) Saban, and then came Miles," he said. "These are the best 10 years we have ever had -- five years with Saban and five with Miles. When you win two national championships and you're winning 10, 11, 12 or 13 games a season, the fans expect that annually.
"And the problem with the (Southeastern Conference) today is that it's better than it was 10 years ago. Not to take anything away from Saban, but when Nick did it, it was easier to do than when Les did it. All the schools in the league have expectations that are so high so that you've got schools paying coaches $3 and $4 million, and they all have better facilities."
Miles's salary is $3.95 million, and he has drawn criticism from fans, media and former LSU players over the last two seasons, when the Tigers went 8-8 in the SEC. Much of the criticism has been for time management problems and persistent offensive penalties.
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