Team preview: Oklahoma State

Blue Ribbon Illustrated previews the 2004-05 college football season, exclusively on Insider.

Originally Published: July 28, 2004
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COACH AND PROGRAM

To say that Les Miles has made an impact at Oklahoma State would be quite an understatement.

The program was mired in quicksand when Miles took over for Bob Simmons before to the 2001 season. Just one winning season had been celebrated in Stillwater the previous 12 years, and campus spirit was at an all-time low.

The Cowboys were saddled with playing at aging Lewis Field and its capacity of less than 50,000-the second-smallest stadium in the Big 12-and worse, attendance had dwindled to less than 40,000 per home game during Simmons' final season.

But Miles jumped at the chance to kick-start the school he had come to know and love. He was OSU's offensive coordinator in 1997, the only winning season of the dubious dozen years before him, and didn't think twice about leaving his job as an assistant on the staff of the Dallas Cowboys.


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