MORE MILES: Recruiting impact | Recruits react

This is the right move for LSU.

Let me get that succinct statement out there before I go into any sort of explanation. After a season-opening loss to Wisconsin and yet another last-second loss where clock management and overall coaching came into play at Auburn, it was time to send Les Miles packing.

And let me make this clear: I am an old school guy who despises the firing of head coaches during a season, especially just four games in. But this simply had to happen.

So now what? I was a Miles defender for years and one of the few national voices who felt he should be given another chance at the end of last season when it appeared clear he was out the door. But you’ll notice a few things. Miles was not on my list of the top five coaches in college football and to be quite honest he wasn’t even close to the top 10.

And, to the surprise of many, Miles was not on my list of the top 10 head coaching recruiters either, although he was just outside the list. The former likely doesn’t surprise anyone as Miles has never been known as a great game coach or clock manager and his conservative ways have often held back his teams even though he compiled a 114-34 record at LSU and won a national championship. The latter was questioned mainly because LSU continued to bring in top 10 classes year after year, but I will easily explain that away below.

The bottom line is this: Les Miles is a good coach and a good, perhaps very good, recruiter. He’s one of the few head coaches who can claim a national title on his resume. But he was also the reason LSU hasn’t moved forward on and off the field the last five years or so since taking the Tigers to the title game in 2011. There has simply been too much talent, a top-five roster this year alone, with too many disappointing results and too many recruits lost in state. The wins and losses are what sealed Miles' fate, but the recruiting losses are what irked me and why if I’m an LSU fan and the program makes the right hire, then I’m very excited.

LSU, despite being the only power in a state loaded with talent, doesn’t simply recruit itself, although many could make that argument. I’ve known staffers at LSU who have worked their collective butts off to keep top kids in state over the last many years. However, LSU does have a massive recruiting advantage. When elite prospects like Leonard Fournette are discouraged greatly by everyone in the state to even take visits out of state, you have an amazing recruiting advantage. That’s why I found it puzzling when players like Landon Collins, Tim Williams, Cameron Robinson, Speedy Noil, Laurence Jones, Shyheim Carter and others got out of state. And all of them except for Noil landed in Tuscaloosa with Nick Saban. That’s not only embarrassing but unacceptable.

However, there is good news on the horizon, because I don’t think that will happen, at least not to the extent that it has since 2012, with the right coach in place. Of course I’m talking about a home run hire like Tom Herman or Jimbo Fisher, who are not only great coaches but great recruiters.

If LSU can land someone of that caliber, and it doesn’t have to be one of those two, who loves recruiting and can coach on game day, then the sky is the limit for this program.

LSU has, in my opinion, the single greatest home-state recruiting advantage in college football. LSU has a tremendous brand name with an amazing fan base and plenty of big-time donors and alumni. LSU has a great game-day atmosphere, they play in the SEC and they border two states also loaded with talent in Texas and Mississippi. They already do very well in Houston, but with the Big 12 on the slide, the right coach could also dig deep into Dallas and pull more kids out of that hotbed recruiting area. The right coach can also march into Mississippi and steal big-timers away from Ole Miss and Mississippi State. And here’s the most important part: The right coach can head into Alabama, Georgia and Florida and compete until the bitter end for stud after stud.

Take a look at the LSU recruiting classes since 2011 (not including this year), and you can count on two hands the number of Rivals100 standouts taken from outside of Louisiana – Frank Herron, Hayden Rettig, Ethan Pocic, Clifton Garrett, Travonte Valentine, Edward Paris, Jamal Adams, Kevin Toliver II, Maea Teuhema and Toby Weathersby – and half of them haven’t developed. And only two of them, Valentine and Toliver II, hail from Florida. It’s one thing for LSU to beat out schools for kids from Illinois like Pocic and Garrett who want to play SEC ball or for Texas kids, but the Tigers need to hit Florida and Georgia, two of the top four talent-producing states in the country, much harder.

The home-state talent must be taken care of and protecting the borders is crucial, but it’s time for LSU to take the next step and broaden its recruiting scope. They have the brand name, facilities, fan base, conference and swagger to do so. Now they just need to find the right coach to do it as well.

If it all comes together as it could? A run like Alabama’s current dynasty is not out of the question. That’s how many advantages there are to sell at LSU.