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December 13, 2022
Wazzu News and Notes - December 13, 2022
- 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 he was a head coach at, Texas Tech, WSU, and Mississippi State, you might be struck by the frequency he was able to get a national spotlight shining on those institutions. Not only was Leach a huge element in an increase in student enrollment at every school he coached at, but he also managed such campaigns with ease.
What really stands out in my memory are a couple of things. Leach wanted nothing but the best for his student-athletes. Not only did his players graduate, but they also did so at one of the highest rates in college football. Year after year, there were improvements in the GPA of his roster. That was something Leach took great pride in. What's amazing in the context of the current culture of college football is that Leach did so without being woke. In fact, Leach was the very opposite of woke. An example of that might be his reference to soft play by offensive linemen caused by the pampering they received from their "fat little girlfriends".
From a writer's perspective, Mike Leach was a dream. Granted, he often dodged football questions from the media. However, he seemed to know the job we had to do and would give us stories and sound bites galore. Personally,, every one-on-one interview I had with Mike Leach ended when I was done, not when we wanted to end the session.
There's one thing about this news that does stick in my craw. Mike Leach would never give out health information about his players. His patented response to questions about injuries would be something along the line of "he's doing everything we ask him to do". Mississippi State officials honored that respect in the case of Leach being taken to the hospital. They didn't specify reasons, rather they asked for good thoughts and prayers for Leach and his family. Yet mere minutes after releasing the university statement, some lowlife writer was able to get someone from the hospital (University of Mississippi medical facility) to report Leach was admitted due to a heart attack. That's just wrong.
It's impossible to prove a counterfactual, but I don't think the state of the football programs at Texas Tech, WSU, and MSU would be where they are today without the leadership of Mike Leach. In the case of Wazzu, Leach resurrected a program that was near the bottom of all college football after a decade of floundering in the basement of the Pac-12 Conference. There probably wouldn't be the Football Operations Building to both train athletes and serve as a recruiting tool. Sure, Bill Moos put the plan together to make that happen, but it was adding Mike Leach to the football program that made the costs associated with the FOB possible. Year in and year out, the Air Raid attack had WSU in the national conversation. His tutelage of Connor Holliday, Luke Falk, Gardner Minshew, and Anthony Gordon placed each player in the Top Five quarterbacks playing the game. Heck, in the past two seasons MSU quarterback Will Rogers joins those rarified rankings.
Though Mike Leach passed way too soon, he was always be a man, a myth, and a legend in Pullman.
RIP Mike Leach
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/wsu-cougar-football/former-wsu-football-coach-mike-leach-dies-at-61/
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Wazzu News and Notes - December 14, 2022
- 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 ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 11, 2022
- 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 ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 9, 2022
- Both Wazzu men's and women's hoops notched victories this past Wednesday. The men turned in a very nice performance against Northern Kentucky at home in Beasley Coliseum by a final of 68-47. The Cougs got off to a good start and never looked back against the Norse. However, it must be pointed out that Northern Kentucky is a powerhouse program within the Horizon League. There's little argument to be made that the Horizon League is comparable to the Pac-12. But a win is a win and WSU looked good in the process despite missing the services of Jabe Mullins for a second straight game due to injury. As for the women, well, they got off to a terrible start against Portland. Early on the Cougs trailed by 27-8 to the Pilots, a team that has dominated Wazzu over the years. For the record, Wazzu has never come back from a 19-point deficit to win a ball game. Erase that record as WSU fought their way back to earn a 69-63 victory. In the end, a balanced scoring attack brought Wazzu all the way back ...
