"The shame of it is, I picked the eventual national champion."

Heavy thunderstorms rolled across the Gulf Coast yesterday evening, preventing LSU Coach Les Miles from making the three-hourish trip from Destin to make his keynote speech to the DEX Imaging L’Arche Football Dinner at the South Alabama Mitchell Center.

So, he gave his address via Skype.

Seriously.

As Mike Herndon points out, the audio was spotty and we eventually lost the video feed altogether.

But not before Miles made the mixed fan crowd laugh, groan and cheer a little at the same time with this little tidbit:

---

"When we were an undefeated football team and they asked me who I felt should play in that (BCS championship) game, I felt very frankly it should be Alabama so the best two teams would be represented in that game," Miles said. "The shame of it is, I picked the eventual national champion."

---

Some folks in the crowd of about 700 were miffed that Miles didn’t show up personally. “He was the keynote speaker,” said one business leader whose company had bought three tables for the event. “He should have been here come hell or high water.”

I don’t have a problem with the decision to remain in Destin and address the crowd electronically. Those storms were very rough last night and probably kept some of those who bought tickets from braving the weather in town. So getting out on I-10 and heading west—right into the teeth of the eastbound torrents—is totally understandable.

But the line above would have been even more classic had it been delivered in person.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.