Update> Following tonight’s win over Texas A&M, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva took to the podium and announced that Les Miles would remain on as head coach of the LSU Tigers.

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The whole world has watched it play out over the past few weeks. A seemingly well orchestrated plan from some within LSU to leak word and get the public to see that Les’ results against the rest of the SEC, particularly the West…and more particularly against a guy named Nick just weren’t acceptable. And you know what, that part worked. People did realize the numbers just weren’t very good. Beginning after Scott Rabalais’ initial “strong indications” article, more and more around Baton Rouge I began hearing, “It is true though that LSU does seem to be on the decline vs the SEC” more and more. The plan was working.

Over the past 10 days nearly everyone in and around the program believed the end was coming. Publicly, Les took it like a man…and became even more beloved for it.

Once the general public caught on to the leaks and plan…and watched Les endure this pain…and noticed the stunning silence of LSU’s athletic leadership something seems to have happened. The public outcry is real and it is coming from all directions. As late as yesterday it still appeared today’s game vs LSU would be Les’ final game leading the Tigers. But, as they say, sometimes facts change…

This morning, multiple sources have told FootballScoop that the “political forces” involved are weighing in unlike ever before. Multiple sources have said to FootballScoop today, “If LSU wins, there now is a very real chance Les hangs on.” To be clear, this was not the case just a few days ago. All sources agreed on that point.

When FootballScoop said to a source, “So perhaps Alleva played his cards too early?” the response was, “Perhaps; but maybe this was orchestrated above Joe and the ultimate goal was to force a change there.”

At this point we’re getting a bit too deep into to the grey. Fact is, Les and his Tigers need to show up tonight looking like the Tigers of the first 8 weeks of this season. Les needs to take care of business on the field. As he says, that’s his job.

On a related note, I thought this was an excellent discussion this morning regarding this situation from the guys on GameDay.

Update> I mentioned political forces swaying back in Les’ favor above. Now the Governor has come out in support of Les…very publicly.