- Over the course of the usual perusing of stories covering Wazzu football today, ran across an interesting background on the season opener this coming Saturday in Martin Stadium at 6:30pm. For the first time in six years, the Battle on the Palouse will be on display for both Idaho and WSU. The Cougs have dominated their neighbors to the east over the years, holding a winning edge in the series at 71-17-3. Here's a fun fact about this latest edition of the rivalry.
Both Idaho and Washington State begin this season with new head football coaches. Wazzu fans are familiar with Jake Dickert who took over as interim head coach midway through last season. He was promoted to permanent head coach on the heels of a resounding defeat of the Huskies in Seattle to bring the Apple Cup back to Pullman. Unless you live in Moscow, ID, you probably don't have a clue as to who is the head coach of the Vandals. His name is Jason Eck. Who? Jason Eck. Eck comes to Idaho from his recent stint with South Dakota State. Who? If you follow FCS football you would be familiar with the Jackrabbits. SDSU (South Dakota State, not to be confused with San Diego State) is a powerhouse program at the FCS level. They compete for the national title year in and year out.
Dickert and Eck were not only on the same staff at SDSU, but they have also been friends through paths crossing on the coaching trails dating back to Dickert's time at Augustana. When Eck was at Minnesota State, Dickert was the defensive coordinator at Augustana when the teams met. MSU was ranked No. 1 at the time when the upstart team from Sioux Falls, SD nearly upset them. As the story goes (reported by Peter Harriman), Eck went searching for Dickert after the game to both congratulate him and met a coach he earned immense respect for due to the performance of the Augustana defense. The two have been good friends since then.
A coaching goal for both Dickert and Eck is to lead a program at the Power 5 level. Dickert has checked off the goal while Eck is still on the hunt.
When it comes to coaching philosophies, the two are polar opposites. While Dickert is very process-oriented, Eck is more of a "creative" guy. The Vandals are a 28-point underdog to Wazzu. Fans will get a chance to see how that plays out on Gesa Field. It's going to take a bit of creativity for the Vandals to take down the resurgent Cougars on their own turf, but that's why we play the game.
*This story was inspired by the brilliant piece written by Peter Harriman for the Spokesman-Review
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 ...
