LSU AD tells board member he knows who leaked info

BATON ROUGE – An email trail involving LSU athletic director Joe Alleva and a LSU Board of Supervisors member may confirm again that the final decision to not fire LSU football coach Les Miles was made during the third quarter of the Tigers’ victory over Texas A&M on Nov. 28.

In emails revealed through a public records request by WVUE/Fox 8 TV in New Orleans, Alleva says he has identified someone leaking information to media.

“Leak. I know where. I told you on phone,” Alleva emailed to LSU Board of Supervisors member Blake Chatelain of Alexandria on November 29 – the day after LSU defeated the Aggies, 19-7, in Tiger Stadium to break a three-game losing streak and, according to media reports, save Miles’ job.

The emails referenced and seemed to confirm an ESPN story that said LSU President F. King Alexander decided in the third quarter of that game that LSU would be retaining Miles, whose team had become the first at LSU since 1966 to lose three straight games by 14 points or more. The Tigers, who had trailed in their last two games by 21 and 24 points in the first half respectively, took a 13-7 lead over the Aggies midway in the third quarter on Nov. 28.

“That leak has caused problems throughout this ordeal,” Chatelain, the president and chief executive officer of Red River Bank in Alexandria, said in response to Alleva’s email in an email on Nov. 29. “Put us all in tight spots. Would not do anything about it. Just be careful. Will discuss in person when we can.”

LSU officials were apparently careful not to discuss too much in their emails concerning Miles’ future as public records requests for emails by Alleva and other athletic department members and board members have been made more routinely in recent years by the Baton Rouge Advocate, Gannett Louisiana and other media outlets.

When Alleva first came to LSU in 2008 from Duke, a private school, he was not completely aware of the information that a state school like LSU has to provide by law through public records requests, a Baton Rouge attorney said.

On Nov. 17, an email from Chatelain discussed a column in the Baton Rouge Advocate that said Miles was coaching for his job. “That’s pretty much it,” Chatelain said to Alleva in the email. On Nov. 24, Chatelain asked Alleva through an email to send him a copy of Miles’ contract.

A column in Tiger Rag Magazine prior to the Baton Rouge Advocate’s column also said Miles was coaching for his job as did pieces in TigerBait.com on Nov. 14 after LSU lost 31-14 to four-loss and unranked Arkansas.

Chatelain, reached at his office in Alexandria on Wednesday, had no comment.

President Alexander confirmed his final decision to keep Miles was made in the third quarter of the Texas A&M game in an interview he did with the Baton Rouge Business Report last week.

The decision to keep Miles, who has a 111-32 record in 11 seasons at LSU for a .776 winning percentage, had “pretty much been made” the previous Wednesday, Alexander said in the interview. But he added that the final call was not made until after a halftime meeting that included Alexander, Alleva and several board members.

“Thanks for a great 11 years. I’ll always be a Tigers,” Miles had said at a Gridiron Club boosters meeting the day before the Texas A&M game and added that he would not be coaching the Tigers’ bowl game.

Then in the press conference just after the win over the Aggies, Miles said that he did not know he was not fired until Alexander told him so immediately following the game, which featured several signs by fans in support of Miles and against Alleva and ended with players carrying the victorious Miles off the field.

“I would say it was after the game,” Miles said when asked when he knew he still had a job. “King Alexander said, ‘I want you to be our coach. You are our coach.’”

Other emails released by LSU revealed a conversation about the Gannett Louisiana story picked up by USA Today on the morning of Nov. 28 that contained the first direct quote from an LSU official somewhat in support of Miles since reports of the coach’s possible firing began shortly after that loss to Arkansas on Nov. 21.

“There has been much speculation that Les Miles is coaching his last game tonight,” Stanley Jacobs, a LSU board member since 1997, told Gannett. “For that to happen, there would have had to have been a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. No recommendation has been made. He is our coach, and I wish him well.”

Jacobs, a New Orleans attorney who was heavily involved in the hiring of LSU football coach Nick Saban in 1999 and that of Miles after the 2004 season, told Gannett at the time that he was only speaking for himself – not the board. Jacobs then said on the day after Miles was retained that when he spoke to Gannett before the A&M game that he did not know the fate of Miles.

Upon seeing that Gannett story on the morning of the LSU-A&M game, Alexander sent copies of it to several board members, according to the information released by LSU on Wednesday. Alexander said in an email that, “Stanley felt compelled to do his own press release on behalf of the board.”

Board member Ann Duplessis of New Orleans responded, “I agree … not cool.”

Also on the day of the game at 12:31 p.m. – six hours before kickoff - Alleva received an email from LSU’s sports information department about a press release in the works that would start with, “Les Miles will remain the football coach at LSU.”

Alleva emailed back requesting an addition to the release that would say “adjustments to our team” were needed and that he and Miles had discussed it. LSU never issued such a release after the game. Whether or not LSU’s sports information office had also worked on an alternate release was not included in the emails released by LSU.

Miles has not said if such a meeting about changes ever happened with Alleva in the days before the game. Miles discussed what he called his only meeting with Alleva during his imminent-firing ordeal at a press conference on the Wednesday night before the A&M game.

“It was a business matter,” Miles said of his meeting with Alleva on Nov. 22. “It was not to do with anything pertinent to these questions. I expect to talk to him when it’s appropriate to talk to him at whatever time.”

Miles did huddle with Alleva after the A&M game. And Alleva spoke after the game and said, “Les Miles is our football coach and will continue to be our coach. Les and I have talked. We have talked about this program, and we are committed together to work and compete at the highest level.”

An email by board member Stephen Perry on the Tuesday before the Texas A&M game revealed that Miles’ job status was still up in the air at that time. “Whatever our decision, let’s do it right,” Perry said. “And let’s get it right.”

Chatelain responded on Nov. 24 with financial concerns about a Miles’ firing, which would have cost $10.7 million to buy out the coach, according to his contract, in addition to another $2 million in assistant coaches’ contract buyouts, should they not be retained by the new coach, and potentially a contract worth $5 million or more a year for a new coach. Chatelain said Alleva and Alexander need time to evaluate.

LSU also released information that said Alleva had email contact with Omnia Coaching Search and Collegiate Sports Associates – both coaching search firms - in November about a locating a new coach.

On the day after Miles kept his job with the victory over the Aggies, LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Raymond J. Lasseigne, president of TMR Exploration in Bossier City, wrote an email of summation to other board members.

“A protocol or policy for future coaching changes needs to be developed with the biggest lesson being that extreme confidentiality along with quick and decisive action will be key,” Lasseigne said.

“We can leave from this and be better prepared in the future,” Chatelain said in an email. “I will say that most of the feedback I have received from fans sounds like this, ‘It was probably the right decision to keep Les, but I sure hope he was given the message that the program has problems that need addressing.’ This, my friends, was one of the most fluid, complex, confusing situations I have ever seen.”

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