Les Miles led LSU to the 2007 BCS national championship.

He led the Tigers back to the January 2012 BCS national championship game, where they lost to Alabama.

RELATED: In the end, Miles couldn’t dethrone Saban

As Nick Saban’s decade of dominance gained traction, the Tigers have slipped farther and farther from those glory days.

Sunday, hours after another disappointing loss, LSU fired Miles four games into his 12th season.

Here’s a sample of how various media members reacted to the firing:

From Stewart Mandel, FOX Sports

“The clock ran out on Les Miles twice in one weekend. It’s hard to imagine a national championship coach’s 12-year tenure ending more cruelly yet fittingly than that.

“If Danny Etling had one more second to throw his ultimately nullified touchdown pass to D.J. Chark against Auburn, Miles would almost certainly still be the coach of LSU on Monday. But it also would have been delaying the inevitable.

“Miles, despite winning one national title and playing for another, despite averaging double-digit wins per season, and despite a Hall of Fame stable of quirky quotes and mannerisms, had to go. You might say it’s mean and abrupt for LSU to fire such an impactful coach four games into the season, but that’s what college football coaching has become. …

“Five straight losses to the Tide later, Miles is out in large part because Saban’s program continued to evolve while LSU continued to regress.”

From Chris Low, ESPN.com

“For all of Les Miles’ good qualities, the way he related to his players, the way his players swore by him and the way he made college football fun with his quirkiness, it was his stubbornness that got him. …

“Miles loves physical, shove-it-down-your-throat offense. He loves fullbacks and tight ends and running the football. And there was a time during his career, when that style was good enough to remain nationally relevant, particularly with the way the Tigers recruited under Miles.

“But as the college game started to change, Miles dug his heels deeper in the Louisiana soil, and while everybody else was spreading it out, running tempo, finding ways to be creative and scoring points, Miles was still trying to do it his way.

“The hard way, and it cost him his job.”

From Zac Al-Khateeb, Sporting News

“Congratulations, LSU. You finally got rid of Les Miles.

“So what’s next? You fire arguably your program’s most successful coach and, what? Expect your season to pull a 180? …

“The very least LSU could have done is allow Miles to announce his departure from the program himself. Or, perhaps even more absurdly, allow him to finish the year before thrusting the remainder of this season into uncertainty. But whatever — keep doing you, LSU.

“Maybe your next coach will be granted a greater measure of courtesy. Goodness knows what he’ll need to accomplish to earn it.”

 

From Barton Simmons, 247Sports.com

“Sustaining can be a tougher task even than building and Miles has absolutely sustained. This program is healthy and strong. But there’s more building to be done in Baton Rouge.

“The problem with Les is that we’ve seen his best. Defensively, his best is other-worldly. LSU recruits aliens, freakish creatures that can run, jump and hit better than anyone in America. Bo Pelini, John Chavis, Kevin Steele, Dave Aranda; it doesn’t matter who’s coordinating it, LSU will play good defense.

“But many forget Les Miles is an offensive coach with an offensive background and it’s that side of the ball that has the Tigers stuck in neutral. There is no evolution.”

From Tony Barnhart, Gridiron Now

“Under Les Miles, LSU won a lot of games. But it also has failed to diversify an offense in an age where everybody – even Nick Saban – knows that offenses must be more dynamic. My intel tells me Miles and his staff actually were fired in November, only to get an 11th-hour reprieve. There will be no such reprieve this time.

“I saw this situation with Phillip Fulmer (17 years at Tennessee) and Mark Richt (15 years at Georgia). There comes a time when the fans grow tired of the same explanations and want something new. Miles has won 114 games in his 11-plus seasons at LSU. That’s really good. He has contributed a great deal to the Baton Rouge community. He is a good man and we in the media will miss his insights and rare sense of humor.

“But the time has come for Miles and LSU to part ways and wish each other well. I understand why the move had to be made now because after what we saw Saturday night, there was a pretty good chance that this team was going to unravel.”