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Let's begin with the big news from Sunday. WSU football is headed to El Paso, TX to play Miami on New Year's Eve in the Sun Bowl. This guy covered the Cougs the last time they played in the Sun Bowl, which, by the way, was against the very same Miami Hurricanes. The game was a hard-fought contest with Wazzu going home with a 20-14 win in near-blizzard conditions. Both teams finished 7-5 on the season. Clearly, there are different expectations for these respective schools. Where WSU seems quite pleased by the performance of their team in a season marked with numerous challenges, including the firing of their head coach midway through their schedule, Miami is both frustrated and disappointed with the results of their football campaign. Several reliable sources assert that Hurricane head coach Manny Diaz will be fired any day. Those same sources are claiming he will be replaced by current Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal. If Diaz is fired before the bowl game, it's likely that an interim coach will be on the sidelines. It would be highly unusual for Cristobal to come in and coach the game. Heck, Cristobal is still in Eugene as of this moment. There will be plenty of speculation and predictions between now the 9am kickoff. That's not a typo. This game will begin at the ridiculous time of 9am PST.
https://news.yahoo.com/2021-sun-bowl-know-miami-165220353.html -
Coach Jake Dickert is bringing back two assistant coaches to the Palouse. Clay McGuire was part of Mike Leach's staff before leaving to return to Lubbock and Texas Tech. McGuire tutored as offensive line unit that was outstanding. Last season he was part of the USC staff in the same OL coach position. This hire is great for Wazzu in that it brings instant credibility to the recruiting trails. Guys who play for McGuire move on to the professional ranks. The other assistant Dickert is bringing back to Pullman is Eric Morris as offensive coordinator. These two coaches favor the Air Raid offense employed by Mike Leach. However, don't expect Morris to run Leach's Air Raid. His version of this offensive style features more running plays. Then again, almost any style offers more running plays than a Mike Leach offense.
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
