This is bowling recruiting, there are rules. And Les Miles doesn’t always care for them.

In previous years, head coaches could contact recruits from December through NSD in February, then there was a dead period, then contact could resume in May. Recent changes in policy at the NCAA (read: paper tiger) prevent head coaches from contacting recruits in the month of May, but still allow assistant coaches the same privileges as the past.

Miles missed the coaches’ convention when these changes were discussed, but that doesn’t stop him from whining about them. He believes the changes are a result of coaches violating the old restrictions and the NCAA should have simply punished them, rather than re-writing the rules. He was even nice enough to give examples.

“Without throwing names out, there was a guy last spring who worked a kid out when he was at the high school,” Miles said, when asked to cite an example of violations. “There were countless reported interviewing violations by certain coaches, and I think that has cost the rest of us an opportunity to do this.”

Some are referring to the new restrictions as “the Saban rule,” due to Nick’s rep as an overly aggressive recruiter, but Miles had a different coach in mind…

“I can tell you this, there were head coaches who were violating the rules, tremendously so,” he said. “And I think the guy who pushed this was Mack Brown, because Mack doesn’t have to leave his office ever, and that’s an advantage for him. That’s just him because it’s Texas.”

You’re goddamn right, Les. It is Texas. But let’s not get carried away. Mack doesn’t have the clout to get the NCAA to change their rules. The NCAA has literally hundreds of awful rules that most coaches would love changed, but that doesn’t mean they’re taking meetings on how to run their internet tough guy like operation. And since when is Lester worried about the rules? And why does he think the NCAA will even enforce them? Unless you’re a student-athlete at a school no one cares about or a skier trying to return punts at Colorado, they really don’t give a shit what you do.

But most importantly, Lester, if you don’t like the new rules, maybe you should start showing up to the fucking convention when they’re being discussed. Just a thought.