It took one game in the 2016 season for the feel-good period following Les Miles’s survival of an attempted coup to end. It took four games for the LSU head coach’s approval rating to dip so low that speculation about Miles’s future will loom over the rest of the Tigers’ games.
To say that No. 18 LSU’s 18–13 loss at Auburn on Saturday will put more pressure on Miles would be a huge understatement. He reportedly came close to losing his job last season. The Tigers kept him around for at least one more year, presumably in the hope that—with a Heisman Trophy contender in Leonard Fournette and so much talent on both sides of the ball coming back—he could help them unseat Alabama in the SEC West and reach the College Football Playoff.