6 p.m. ET Update: The school has made the news official. Says AD Joe Alleva:
“Decisions like this are never easy ones to make,” Alleva said. “Coach Miles has done a tremendous job here and he’s been a great ambassador for our University, which makes this even more difficult.
“However, it’s apparent in evaluating the program through the first month of the season that a change has to be made. Our commitment to excellence and competing at the highest level is unwavering, and our goals for the remainder of this season haven’t changed. We have an obligation to our student-athletes to put them in the best position to have success on the football field each week and we have great confidence that coach Orgeron will do just that.”
LSU will hold a 12:30 CT press conference Monday to discuss Miles's ouster and the promotion of Orgeron.
LSU has fired offensive coordinator Les Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, sources confirmed to FootballScoop on Sunday. Ed Orgeron will serve as interim head coach. Ross Dellenger of The (Baton Rouge) Advocate first reported the news. Multiple outlets have reported LSU will fill the staff by tapping Steve Ensminger to serve as interim offensive coordinator and Pete Jenkins as interim defensive line coach.
The move comes less than 24 hours after the Tigers fell 18-13 to Auburn, dropping a season that began with championship aspirations to 2-2 after one month.
Miles survived a coup attempt last November, which ended with the beloved coach carried off the Tiger Stadium field on his players' shoulders after a regular-season ending win over Texas A&M. But a renewed enthusiasm could not fix a broken offense; LSU's two losses -- the Tigers also fell 16-14 to Wisconsin on Sept. 3 -- came while allowing only one touchdown combined. As it stands, LSU ranks 21st nationally in scoring offense and 110th in scoring defense.
Miles was due a reported $12.9 million buyout but, according to Dellenger, that figure should be reduced to portions of the $4.3 million in salary the coach has already collected this year. LSU pays Miles's staff a nation-high $5.471 million annually.
Miles will be remembered as one of the most successful coaches in LSU history. In 11 plus seasons, he posted a 114-34 record with two SEC championships, three SEC West crowns, five top-10 finishes and the 2007 national championship. However, the most recent of LSU's conference or division championships came in 2011; the Tigers were 15-11 in SEC play since 2013.
LSU hosts Missouri on Saturday; the Tigers will face ranked teams in five of their final seven games, three of them on the road. The Bayou Bengals have not missed a bowl game since 1999, and their 16-year postseason streak is the fifth-longest in college football. Orgeron famously went 6-2 as USC's interim head coach in 2013. His populist bid for the Trojans' full-time head job failed when then-USC AD Pat Haden opted to hire Steve Sarkisian instead. Orgeron spent the 2014 season out of coaching before joining LSU's staff as defensive line coach in 2015. With the move, LSU becomes the second opening officially on the market -- joining FIU -- and will stand as one of the most sought after jobs in college football. Miles's ouster also means Mississippi State's Dan Mullen, hired in 2009, is the second-longest tenured SEC head coach.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.