Uniting Bedlam in hate<br/><span class='hl2'>Both sides loathe Les, but at least Pokes should thank him</span>

Thanksgiving Saturday, 1949, Oklahoma A&M football coach Jim Lookabaugh said good-bye to the job he held for 12 years, still the longest tenure in Cowboy history.

LSU coach Les Miles now has a national title under his belt and that's the reason he bolted OSU for the bayou. Associated press

Near the end of the Bedlam game, the public-address announcer reminded fans that Lookabaugh had resigned and this was his exit.

A crowd of 47,937 gave him a standing ovation.

But that crowd was in Norman. That game was at Owen Field. That ovation came from Sooners.

Times have changed. Les Miles won a national championship Monday night, and it's safe to say few on either side of Bedlam cheered LSU's victory in the Big Bowl.

Miles is the most hated man in Oklahoma sports.

The crimson crowd despises Miles because as Oklahoma State's coach he twice beat the Sooners and wouldn't cower to the Oklahoma football monster when the cameras flipped on.

The orange throng is anti-Miles, despite his resurrection of winning ways in Stillwater, because he absconded for the LSU job before the smoke had cleared on the 2004 Alamo Bowl.

OU fans paint Miles as an emotional buffoon. OSU fans call him disloyal.

Both depictions were proven wrong in this bowl season.

Miles is a heck of a football coach. Anyone could see that back in the ‘90s when he was Bob Simmons' offensive coordinator, and Miles kept his Dallas Cowboys job despite the coaching change from Chan Gailey to Dave Campo.

It's a dicey idea that Miles, in his third LSU season, won this national championship courtesy of Nick Saban's recruiting. Argue that, and what do you do with Urban Meyer (national title in Year No. 2), Jim Tressel (Year 2), Bob Stoops (Year 2), Pete Carroll (Year 3) and Larry Coker (Year 1)?

Miles can coach some offense and got out of the way for Bo Pelini to direct the LSU defense, and the Tigers had a special season: 12-2, with both losses in double overtime.

The theory that Miles loses close games doesn't wash, either. LSU won four SEC games by a touchdown or less.

Hate him if you wish, Sooner fans, for his high hat and his foaming proclamations and his 2001 Bedlam upset that knocked the Sooners off National Championship Boulevard. But forget that can't-coach nonsense. Miles is a big-time coach.

As for loyalty, well, Miles is ahead of the curve on that one, too. Yes, he bolted OSU.

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