Mike Leach

[Las Panteras]

First, last and best choice.

Can light up any scoreboard in america. Perhaps the only program in P5 more challenged than Pitt and they are respectable to sometimes pretty good

Will have the local media falling in love with him and his personality.

Mike Leach

The end

 

[thebadby2]

First, last and best choice.

Can light up any scoreboard in america. Perhaps the only program in P5 more challenged than Pitt and they are respectable to sometimes pretty good

Will have the local media falling in love with him and his personality.

Mike Leach

The end

I like Leach. But he has one double digit win and conference title season in his career, and it was 10 years ago at Texas Tech. He's 42-39 at Wazzou. He has stated many times that he hates recruiting and he isn't willing to work very hard at it.

I love his simple philosophy--“throw it short to people who can score”--maybe someone should write that at the top of Watson's white board.

The guys is a great character and is truly innovative, but no way we want him at Pitt.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

42-39 at Washington State is a success. That's a historically really bad football program. He is 27-14 there the last four years, so it has trended up. The previous coach was 9-40 overall! Mike Price was the coach who was there for like 15 years and he was 49-63 in conference (though to be fair had a few way up years.)

Maybe even more impressive is two Cotton Bowls from historic bottom dweller Texas Tech. Even more impressive is no losing seasons and five ranked teams at Texas Tech during his 11 years there. Five upsets of top 5 teams. Basically the growth of 7 on 7 football relates pretty strongly to the growth of the Air Raid and copywrighted Tony Franklin system in places like Texas.

But it is true he doesn't really like recruiting, and possibly doesn't even particularly like football. Luckily he has a very large coaching tree of young guys like Holgerson (57-37, ranked #8 in the country) under him. Just former players alone are their own tree, never mind former assistants like Babers:

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I do think if we had an air raid coach at Pitt, we would need to recruit more wide receivers from Florida, the Carolinas, whatever. So many teams in the ACC are already "multiple" spread/pro hybrid, or like "smash mouth spread" that we should not duplicate what they will do with better players. I think it makes more sense to bring in a head coach who can run the air raid offense (save money on coordinators) and recruit/tutor an effective quarterback than try to beat opponents in the trenches. Then the rest of the assistant money should be focused on a DC who compliments the Air Raid, which might mean someone who can get by doing more with less trying to create turnovers even if it means taking risks that give up some big plays. If the HC is a young hot shot, the DC should be a more veteran assistant head coach who can roll with that and have autonomy over the D.

 

[phxpanther]

42-39 is a little misleading. He inherited a mess, and his record after three years was awful.

Years 4-6 he went 9-4, 8-5, and 9-4. This year they are 4-1.

With that said, don't think he's the answer here

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

One thing I love about Mike Leach is while his proteges at Oklahoma and WVU are doing all this crazy RPO stuff with with traps and pulling guards and backside adjustments on the fly...he is running his offense the same way he was in like 2002, and it still works. He is the only one I know of who has kept the "unusually wide line splits" thing from the original Air Raid. He has like two formations. Nine plays. Why mess with it?

 

[steel_curtain]

-The Mike Leach Washington State non conference consists of Rutgers, Portland State, Idaho, Idaho State, Eastern Washington State, Montana State, Nevada, etc....


-Should Mike Leach have to play Notre Dame, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Central Florida yearly or the typical Pitt non conference suicide schedule, surely his record would be around 4-5 wins per year


-If these are the new teams on Pitt's non-conference, sign me up

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

-Should Mike Leach have to play Notre Dame, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Central Florida yearly or the typical Pitt non conference suicide schedule, surely his record would be around 4-5 wins per year

They play 9 conference games per year to our 8, so they will typically only have one P5 opponent beyond that per year (Wisconsin and Kansas State are their next two I believe) -- the same as our 10 P5 teams per year. This year's schedule for Pitt is a meat grinder, but in a typical year it's not nearly as different as you're making it out in your latest attempt to shoehorn your pet issue into every single thread.

 

[Jakey_John]

His advice last year about preparing for a wedding was absolutely classic.

 

[HailtoPitt]

The time for Pitt to grab Leach was BEFORE he went to WSU. There would be no way he comes to Pitt now.

 

[wicker]

He is a huge pirate fanatic. Real ones, not the Parts. I think he'd be good for a few years til the schtick wore off

 

[revampedpanthers]

The time for Pitt to grab Leach was BEFORE he went to WSU. There would be no way he comes to Pitt now.

Agree Pitt probably should have hired him when they picked PC.

 

[HailToPitt725]

42-39 at Washington State is a success. That's a historically really bad football program. He is 27-14 there the last four years, so it has trended up. The previous coach was 9-40 overall! Mike Price was the coach who was there for like 15 years and he was 49-63 in conference (though to be fair had a few way up years.)

Maybe even more impressive is two Cotton Bowls from historic bottom dweller Texas Tech. Even more impressive is no losing seasons and five ranked teams at Texas Tech during his 11 years there. Five upsets of top 5 teams. Basically the growth of 7 on 7 football relates pretty strongly to the growth of the Air Raid and copywrighted Tony Franklin system in places like Texas.

But it is true he doesn't really like recruiting, and possibly doesn't even particularly like football. Luckily he has a very large coaching tree of young guys like Holgerson (57-37, ranked #8 in the country) under him. Just former players alone are their own tree, never mind former assistants like Babers:

There’s Neal Brown on that visual. Another reason why I think he’d be a great hire.

 

[HailToPitt725]

Also, this should be required anytime Leach is mentioned

 

[fairgambit]

First, last and best choice.

Can light up any scoreboard in america. Perhaps the only program in P5 more challenged than Pitt and they are respectable to sometimes pretty good

Will have the local media falling in love with him and his personality.

Mike Leach

The end

Leach is making nearly 4 million a year. Pitt would have to pay him more, plus deal with the Narduzzi buyout. Seems unlikely.

 

[BFo8]

When there was talk about Leach coming to Pitt before there were multiple people on here who said his system wouldn’t work at Pitt because of “the weather”.

Like Pullman, WA is some garden spot.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

The "air raid won't work in this weather" stuff has a long history. You'd think Morgantown is close enough to Pittsburgh to dispel it by now. As a former (mediocre) defensive player and coach, I always thought slick conditions favored the offense because they know where they're going.

 

[Las Panteras]

Leach is making nearly 4 million a year. Pitt would have to pay him more, plus deal with the Narduzzi buyout. Seems unlikely.

Possibly,

But it should be noted that Stallings was bought out not with donor money, not with existing athletic funds,

But with Heather going into gallagher's office and demanding 10 mill from the university fund.

Truth.

She has a bigger pair than Pederson, Barnes, Peterson all rolled into one.

If Pitt goes 3-9 with more blowouts quite likely, I would not bet against termination / buyout.

It's a different athletic department today. Just now starting to see evidence of this but it is real.

 

[upj87]

First, last and best choice.

Can light up any scoreboard in america. Perhaps the only program in P5 more challenged than Pitt and they are respectable to sometimes pretty good

Will have the local media falling in love with him and his personality.

Mike Leach

The end

Will have the local media falling in love with him and his personality. .. why in the hell would that be the case?

 

[HailtoPitt]

Possibly,

But it should be noted that Stallings was bought out not with donor money, not with existing athletic funds,

But with Heather going into gallagher's office and demanding 10 mill from the university fund.

Truth.

She has a bigger pair than Pederson, Barnes, Peterson all rolled into one.

If Pitt goes 3-9 with more blowouts quite likely, I would not bet against termination / buyout.

It's a different athletic department today. Just now starting to see evidence of this but it is real.

I think there is a difference. Pitt football attendance won't change much if a new coach does better. But Pitt basketball attendance could vastly improve with a better coach. And Stallings was in a different class of terrible.

 

[fairgambit]

Possibly,

But it should be noted that Stallings was bought out not with donor money, not with existing athletic funds,

But with Heather going into gallagher's office and demanding 10 mill from the university fund.

Truth.

She has a bigger pair than Pederson, Barnes, Peterson all rolled into one.

If Pitt goes 3-9 with more blowouts quite likely, I would not bet against termination / buyout.

It's a different athletic department today. Just now starting to see evidence of this but it is real.

I can envision a Narduzzi buyout, especially because I think she was smart enough to make it manageable during the extension discussions. What I can't see is paying a guy like Leach 4 million+. She may have to go higher, but not for a Leach class coach. If she dumps Narduzzi, her next hire absolutely must be a home run, so she may need to dig deep and get in the 5 million dollar+ class, or roll the dice for some assistant who may, or may not, pan out.