I can understand the call of home.

Many is the time that I have, for lack of a better word, yearned to go back to Eunice. After all it is the place where I grew up and went to school and where a majority of my friends still live.

It hits hard especially after I traveled home to do a story about a local athlete at LSU-E or have followed Delcambre or Hanson as they went to Eunice to play St. Edmund.

I’ve even met old friends when Eunice High came to Lloyd G. Porter earlier in the football season to face Westgate.

The point is not whether or not I would pack up and go home to Eunice if given the chance, but the fact that I still have feelings for the old home and probably always will.

I bring this up only because as of the writing of this column, LSU head football coach Les Miles is apparently debating whether of not to return to the University of Michigan to take over as head football coach or to stay in Baton Rouge at LSU.

There is no disputing the lure of Michigan for Miles.

He grew up in the midwest, he played football at Michigan and was an assistant coach there under legendary Bo Schembechler. Probably most importantly, his wife was born and raised in Michigan.

Trust me on this one, I know from experience that if the wife wants to do something, it gets done whether the husband really wants to do it or not.

To return home and be head football coach at the old alma mater is a very strong inducement to go back.

And there is something else also, for all of his success at LSU (62-17 record, a BCS national championship and a 5-1 bowl record), there have been times that the Tiger faithful haven’t fully embraced him as head coach and have wanted him gone.

When he was named head coach at LSU, Miles was given the keys to the top football program in the state and one of the top 10 or 15 jobs in the nation, and he has produced.

His methods leave more than a few question marks (eating grass? last second wins? going for it on fourth down?) but no one can argue with the results — the ‘Mad Hatter’ has won more than his share of games and more than enough respect throughout the nation.

And with Auburn’s win over Oregon Monday night, he works in a conference that has won five straight national championships, and is the best college football conference in the nation

Miles has everything at LSU, so why would he want to leave?

It all goes back to what I said at the beginning, the call of home is very powerful. Sometimes, you just can’t say no.

Neal McClelland is assistant sports editor of The Daily Iberian.