The Home Team

Cody McCrary

Smacker Miles stood on the field at Louisiana State University and smiled.
Swarms of people surrounded her as she tried to stay close to her father LSU head
football coach Les Miles.
Miles and the Tigers had just beaten Texas A&M University 19-7 on Nov. 28, 2015. This
game meant an 8-3 record for LSU.
It also helped Miles secure his job as the head football coach.
After losing three games in a row and failing to beat Alabama for the fifth time in five
years, there was speculation that this game might be Les Miles last with the Tigers. The
rumors about LSU buying Les Miles out in the middle of his 11th season were the talk of
college football.
This pressure, scrutiny and spotlight was nothing new for Miles, or for many other
families of Division I college football coaches.
Growing up as a coachs kid usually means moving around a lot, Saturdays spent
nervously watching a game instead of enjoying it and sometimes keeping the world at
arms length.
A successful football season brings talk of moving to a bigger program, while a losing
season sparks rumors of dismissal. For the families of coaches when the speculation gets
personal, often times there is only a small group of people to turn to.
I think we are all very family-oriented, Miles said. You find out who your real friends
are, and the family is always there. The family loves you even if you lost.
By early December there were 10 Division I head coaching jobs available, rumors were
running rampant and the coaching carousel continued to spin.
This is nothing new to Sydney Fedora, whose father is Larry Fedora, the head football
coach at the University of North Carolina.
After 15 years in the coaching business and a stint as the offensive coordinator at Middle
Tennessee State, Larry took a coaching job at Florida in 2002. A school known for its
spirited fans, the Fedoras stopped receiving the newspaper.
But for Fedora, it can be hard to ignore the talk about her dad. She studies journalism at
the University of Texas, a major that requires spending a lot of time on social media.

Over the years, she has learned to handle the critical opinions and negative comments
that come with her fathers job.
You kind of just build up a thick skin, so that stuff doesnt really bother me anymore,
Fedora said.
Fedora also learned that she could never stop the churning wheels of the rumor mill.
People would come up to me in high school sometimes and (say) I heard your dad is at
Tennessee looking at the school and I (would say), no actually my dad is at work, I saw
him this morning, Fedora said.
But she never would have guessed that these whispers were actually her dads greatest
motivation.
(One day), he pulled out this folder and it had all of these clips saved of all these articles
that were negative about him. Literally he had saved every single one of them, Fedora
said. He said they were motivation. He looks at those and is proving them wrong by
doing good.
When Greg Davis Jr., 44, was growing up newspapers were the most popular source of
news. Social media was non-existent and the Internet was just starting to take off.
From 1998 to 2010 his father, Greg Davis, was the offensive coordinator and quarterback
coach at the University of Texas. Greg Davis went 133-34 during his tenure, helped Texas
win a national championship in 2005 and took them to another in 2009. He coached
young phenoms such as Vince Young and Colt McCoy.
Even a resume like this could not please some demanding fans.
At Texas, they had started a website called GregDavisSucks.com. They were like 132
and 25 and yet they (kept) saying that, Davis Jr. said.
Used to ignoring the hate as many coachs kids are, Davis Jr. developed an even thicker
skin when he got into coaching. After almost 20 years in the family business, Davis Jr.
understood in a more individual way what it was like to take the heat.
Experiencing ridicule about him or his father never really fazed Davis Jr.
Until one day when it went beyond the game of football and got personal.
One time when he was at UT, a fan wrote on a fan sight I would like to slap his wife
and children, Davis Jr. said. That is not about your school, that is not about winning,
that is just trying to be personal.

Aside from people posting their grievances on fan sites, sitting in the stands at a game
can bring its own challenges.
There was one game at Florida, we (normally) sat in the stands there. There was a guy
right in front of us who was just being crazy and trash talking (my dad). I was 10, and to
me then it was kind of scary. He said something about wanting to put my dad in a meat
shredder or something. Fedora said.
The talk about her father becomes too much for Miles when it starts affecting her family.
Her 12-year-old sister Macy is a sixth grader at an elementary school in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, and often hears negative comments about their father.
The kids will repeat what their parents said. They dont mean it, but they just dont get it
and dont know that she lives with it and its serious to her. I think thats tough for her,
Miles said.
The families of coaches experience their hectic lifestyle first-hand.
(My dad) is not working a nine-to-five job, Fedora said. He is going in before we
wake up for school in the morning and coming home when we are already in bed.
College football is unpredictable. Moving across the country for a new job is not
uncommon.
Fedora attended all four years of high school in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where her father
was the head coach at Southern Mississippi for three years. But having lived in seven
different cities over the last 21 years, she does not have one specific place she calls home.
Growing up I feel like I kind of became addicted to change, Fedora said.
Fedoras familiarity with change is what led her to Austin for college and helped focus
her priorities.
It helped me see things that were important, like people and family, Fedora said.
Fedora flew to North Carolina to see her fathers Tar Heels play five different times this
football season alone.
Win or lose, and in football or in life, coachs kids really are their dads biggest fans.
I think people forget that they are people and that they have lives. They sacrifice a lot
already for the game, but they still have other stuff going on, Fedora said.
That sacrifice is something that comes with the territory. In 2012, before Fedoras senior
year in high school, her dad moved to North Carolina to start his new job while the rest of
the family stayed in in Mississippi so she could graduate with her friends.

Harder parts of (having a dad as a coach), would be, the time consumption it takes and it
always has. Just realizing that he is kind of chasing his dream and that does interfere with
him being a dad. But it doesnt make him a worse dad, Fedora said.
Davis Jr. knows this as well as anyone. In 2010, after a 5-7 season at Texas, Greg Davis
was fired.
Iowa hired him a year later to be the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. Iowa
finished the regular season 12-1 and ranked No. 5 in the CFB rankings. The Hawkeyes
will face No. 6 Stanford in the Rose Bowl on New Years day. Davis is nominated for the
Broyles Award, given to the countrys top assistant coach.
Davis Jr. is grateful to see things come full circle.
To have him sit out and go to another program, take them to bowl games three out of
four years and ultimately this year being 12-0, its some satisfaction, Davis Jr. said.
Larry Fedora is 32-20 in four years at North Carolina and agreed to a new contract that
runs through 2022.
The persistence it takes to start at the bottom and stay at the bottom for a long time. It
was probably 20-plus years before he became a head coach, Fedora said.
Miles understands the dedication her fathers job requires.
He outworks people for sure. He stays in there until he thinks that every aspect is going
to be perfect, Miles said.
As she followed her father across Death Valley that November night, Miles continued to
smile.
His wisdom took him this far. It would keep him here for a while longer.