The Overview:
In December 2000, Les Miles addressed the Oklahoma State football team for the first time as its head coach. The players sat in theater-style chairs in the meeting room of the school's athletic complex looking down toward Miles, who spoke from behind a lectern.
"We're going to win and we're going to do things my way," Miles told the Cowboys. He then described what he meant. The program would become more disciplined. The talent would be upgraded. And the mediocrity of the past would no longer be tolerated.
At the time, any suggestion that Oklahoma State would join the elite verged on laughable. The Cowboys had just gone 3-8, their 11th losing campaign in 12 years. Miles was familiar with the struggles in Stillwater; he had been the school's offensive coordinator from 1995 to '97 before leaving to become the tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys. But he told the players that he was confident the program could redefine itself.
"We are going to win here," he stated flatly.
And they did. After going 4-7 in Miles's first season, Oklahoma State improved to 8-5 in 2002 and went to a bowl game for only the second time since 1988. Under Miles and then Mike Gundy -- who was promoted from offensive coordinator in 2005 after Miles, catapulted by OSU's success, was hired by perennial powerhouse LSU -- Oklahoma State has racked up 10 winning seasons out of the last 11. Two years ago the Cowboys finished 12-1, earning the school's first Big 12 Conference title, and ended the season ranked third in the nation. Miles's prediction had come true.
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Click here for linkPart I: The Money -
Click here for linkParts II-V to come:
II: The Academics
III: The Drugs
IV: The Sex
V: The Fallout
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