Tigers win Chick-fil-A Bowl, 38-3

Say what you want about Les Miles, but the guy knows how to get his team ready for a bowl game. Just look at his bowl results at LSU:

• Peach Bowl: LSU 40 Miami 3
• Sugar Bowl: LSU 41 Notre Dame 14
• BCS Championship: LSU 38 Ohio State 24

Add to that the 38-3 beating LSU put on Georgia Tech on Dec. 31 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Miles is 4-0 in bowl games with an average margin of victory of more than 28 points. Not bad for a guy is is constantly criticized by his own fans and who, on more than one occassion, has looked to be moving on from LSU.

However, in true LSU fashion, fans can't simply be happy with the bowl victories. They want to know why the team didn't show as much effort all year long, why can Miles get his team ready when there's three weeks to prepare but not week to week, and the ever popular, why wasn't Jordan Jefferson starting all year? Fans will always complain.

There are many factors to why LSU shows up in bowl games. Miles is a good motivator. Some teams will have a let down in a bowl or simply look like they don't want to be there (i.e. Alabama vs. Utah in the Sugar Bowl), but Miles has avoided this. A big factor to LSU's bowl success is the three week layoff itself. The time off between the end of the regular season and the bowl game allows little nicks and other injuries time to heal. There's no time for these injuries to heal during the brutal SEC schedule, so players are playing hurt week to week. In the bowl games, LSU is at its healthiest since the opening game of the season.

So I give my congratulations to the LSU Tigers, the 2008 Chick-fil-A Bowl champions. Sure 8-5 isn't where fans thought this team would finish, but after their bowl victory, 2009 looks a lot more promising than it did a few weeks ago, especially with the announcement today of John Chavis as the new defensive coordinator. LSU fans expect no rebuilding years in the SEC, so its time to reload and go after the conference title again next year.