Les Miles restlessly walked across the stage as a baffled audience of Oklahoma State football players waited to see what he would do next.
It was Nov. 30, 2002, and a storm of emotion and adrenaline was brewing inside the Student Union Theater. This wasn’t part of coach Miles’ usual pregame routine. Typically, he scrawled out a few keys to the game on a whiteboard and reviewed them with his players. Sometimes, he spoke in a murmur so soft that someone sitting on the row farthest from him could barely discern his message. Although his team knew him as a quirky, passionate coach, his speeches in the theater weren’t flashy or over-the-top.