Les Miles makes for a polarizing conversation whenever you bring him up among the LSU faithful.

Miles is entering his ninth season as head coach of the Tigers, and it’s one where expectations are a bit more tempered compared to years past. The Tigers just lost a handful of players to the NFL, several of whom weren’t even seniors when they declared.

Call it a rebuilding year, or a retooling year, or whatever you want, the fact remains that most expect Alabama and Texas A&M to fight it out for the SEC Western title this fall.

I wonder where that will leave Miles in the eyes of LSU fans if he were to have merely a nine- or 10-win season. Some schools would love to win that many games. At LSU, it’s expected that the Tigers will win more — and compete for a national title. If the Tigers are out of the championship race with several weeks left in the season, will they demand Miles’ head?

It’s doubtful that LSU would actually fire Miles short of the Tigers winning merely two games and having discipline problems galore, evidence that he would have completely lost the team. What’s more likely is that they would say, “National title in 2014 or bust.”

It’s a hard-knock life when you’re having to compete in the same division as your predecessor, who happens to be the one who took the LSU program out of mediocrity and made it into a perennial power. Nick Saban’s impact in Baton Rouge is still being felt to a degree, in that Miles has been able to build upon the foundation Saban laid.

Whether fair or not, Miles will always be compared to Saban, simply because Saban was the first to win a national title at LSU in decades and has done so again three times at Alabama. Whatever ill feelings LSU fans had toward Saban for leaving the Miami Dolphins and moving to Tuscaloosa seems to have been overruled by a begrudging respect for what he’s continued to accomplish as a college head coach. And given that he once coached in Baton Rouge, comparisons between Saban and whoever’s there now seem unavoidable.

Miles may not be Nick Saban, but no one is Nick Saban. Urban Meyer is probably the closest thing to him that’s currently coaching, but Meyer’s no longer in the SEC. Saban will eventually go down as one of the all-time greats. When you stop to compare Miles against coaches not named Nick Saban, however, Miles actually stacks up fairly well.

Miles arrived at LSU prior to the 2005 season. Since that time, let’s look at the other pre-expansion SEC schools. Steve Spurrier began at South Carolina that same season. Mark Richt has been at Georgia during that timeframe. Other than that, every pre-expansion SEC school has had at least one coaching change between 2005 and now.

What has Miles done in that timeframe? He’s gone 85-21, won two SEC titles, one national title and was a win away from another national title, all while consistently filling his roster with top-tier talent. When you’re comparing him to peers not named Nick Saban, that’s pretty impressive.

The Tigers under Miles have always had a strong running game and good defense. Miles’ Achilles heel has been not having a top-tier quarterback in recent seasons. With an elite quarterback, the Tigers probably have at least one more SEC and national title to their name.

Should Tiger fans expect to compete for national championships? Absolutely. But whether it’s Miles or someone else, if you keep comparing them to Saban, they’re only going to disappoint. Best to just be grateful for what Saban did but not evaluate the current coach through Saban lenses.