Les Miles, Louisiana State’s always eccentric, sometimes frustrating and never boring football coach, was fired four games into his 12th season, the university announced Sunday.
Miles, 62, was as much a mascot of L.S.U. football as Mike the Tiger. His most famous quirk was tearing up a handful of grass from Tiger Stadium’s turf and eating it. But he was also wildly successful, with an overall record of 114-34, five top-10 finishes, two national championship game appearances and, after the 2007 season, one national title.
But Miles’s teams, which were always made up of many of the country’s best players according to national recruiting rankings, were seen as disappointments, particularly over the past two seasons, when the Tigers finished 8-5 and 9-3.