Mike Leach and Miss St

[Hoophound]

Anyone watching LSU vs Miss St? Leach is putting on an offensive clinic. His QB has passed for 623 yards and may get the ball one more time.

 

[formerlurker]

Leach's most brilliant play was taking the grad transfer QB from Stanford with him to MSU. Earlier in the game they mentioned the kid never beat Leach at Washington State but he had played so well in the losses that he was his 1st phone call when he took the SEC job.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[Hoophound]

Costello was great. Still, Leach put guys in position to gain yards all over the field against a very good and athletic team. Great coach.

 

[UConnJim]

LSU had something like 5 starters back from last year and they were missing their top CB. It was LSU’s first game and they will get better. Still, hats off to Leach and it will be interesting to see how the SEC deals with a Big 12 offense.

 

[formerlurker]

LSU had something like 5 starters back from last year and they were missing their top CB. It was LSU’s first game and they will get better. Still, hats off to Leach and it will be interesting to see how the SEC deals with a Big 12 offense.

You can't use that bulls$t excuse when you're a professional program like LSU .
.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Watched the game at the house of a LSU fan.

His reaction was Miss St and Some Miss are going from check boxes in the W column to PITA programs who will each get a scalp or two every season.

SEC West with Kidding and Leach is interesting football.


LSU got good pushes from their DLine early, got pressure and was looking good on D. But Leach never waivers and kept pressing the D until he broke them.

 

[coachcap]

Ah, what could have been. When HCRE carpetbagged off to Maryland, Leach was the hands down best available coaching candidate for replacement but was deemed too toxic to touch because of the Texas Tech situation. UConn had credibility due to 2 Big East Co-championships in a short period and, (like most everyone else in college football) didn't want to blemish its reputation. Jeff Hathaway's shortsightedness & conservatism set the path for the last decade of misery. Had he been bold enough to grab Leach, I surmise that gamedays at the RENT would have been MUCH more entertaining, the house would be packed, & there would be no posters calling for deep sixing the football program.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Ah, what could have been. When HCRE carpetbagged off to Maryland, Leach was the hands down best available coaching candidate for replacement but was deemed too toxic to touch because of the Texas Tech situation. UConn had credibility due to 2 Big East Co-championships in a short period and, (like most everyone else in college football) didn't want to blemish its reputation. Jeff Hathaway's shortsightedness & conservatism set the path for the last decade of misery. Had he been bold enough to grab Leach, I surmise that gamedays at the RENT would have been MUCH more entertaining, the house would be packed, & there would be no posters calling for deep sixing the football program.

I couldn't agree more. Mike Leach was exactly what UConn needed. Said it then. Saying it now. Imagine how exciting UConn football could have been.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Ah, what could have been. When HCRE carpetbagged off to Maryland, Leach was the hands down best available coaching candidate for replacement but was deemed too toxic to touch because of the Texas Tech situation. UConn had credibility due to 2 Big East Co-championships in a short period and, (like most everyone else in college football) didn't want to blemish its reputation. Jeff Hathaway's shortsightedness & conservatism set the path for the last decade of misery. Had he been bold enough to grab Leach, I surmise that gamedays at the RENT would have been MUCH more entertaining, the house would be packed, & there would be no posters calling for deep sixing the football program.

I was one of those that said Uconn should have taken a chance on Leach. We ended up with Coach P. Uconn football been downhill ever since. Even if he stayed just for a few years, Uconn would be at much place today.

 

[JohnFSilver]

I was one of those that said Uconn should have taken a chance on Leach. We ended up with Coach P. Uconn football been downhill ever since. Even if he stayed just for a few years, Uconn would be at much place today.

Would have never have worked at UConn. LOL. Hathaway went P because he was scared of Whipple's personality. He would have rather have folded the program than hired a guy like Leach,

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Would have never have worked at UConn. LOL. Hathaway went P because he was scared of Whipple's personality. He would have rather have folded the program than hired a guy like Leach,

And that's why UConn football is in the sorry state that it is. Leach was the right guy at that point in time.

 

[DoctorWho85]

And that's why UConn football is in the sorry state that it is. Leach was the right guy at that point in time.

No way Leach would have worked here. UConn doesn't pay assistants enough to get a coach like Leach.

 

[Hoophound]

We could have gotten him easily with the same money as PP was getting, he was trying to get back in the game then.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Would have never have worked at UConn. LOL. Hathaway went P because he was scared of Whipple's personality. He would have rather have folded the program than hired a guy like Leach,

Was Leach ever discussed? Would he ever have considered UConn?

I do agree Leach is the type of coach UConn needed...and needs. He doesn't need five star recruits to win.

 

[UConnJim]

IIRC, UConn didn't consider hiring Leach as a replacement for Edsall. Remember, in 2011, Leach was still suing Texas Tech, ESPN, Craig James, as well as others. And, he had been accused on mistreating James' son. Washington St. was desperate and took the risk on Leach almost a year later.

Hathaway's reported finalists were Mark Whipple (frontrunner), PP, Hank Hughes, Tom Bradley, and Garrick McGee. That is a terrible list of candidates. In hindsight, Hathaway should have hired Joe Moorhead. He was already on the team and he had 5 years of experience as an Offensive Coordinator.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Hathaway is a fool, but Leech was toxic at that time.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Was Leach ever discussed? Would he ever have considered UConn?

I do agree Leach is the type of coach UConn needed...and needs. He doesn't need five star recruits to win.

I think Leach was discussed, at least in media, and I think he would have been interested TBH. No interest on Hathaway's end IMO. He was also caught in the issues at Tech that knocked him out of Maryland running, which Randy got.

Bizarre career for the Pirate.

 

[Chief00]

Would have never have worked at UConn. LOL. Hathaway went P because he was scared of Whipple's personality. He would have rather have folded the program than hired a guy like Leach,

That sums up our perpetual mess. The wrong guys, making decisions for the wrong reasons.

 

[JohnFSilver]

IIRC, UConn didn't consider hiring Leach as a replacement for Edsall. Remember, in 2011, Leach was still suing Texas Tech, ESPN, Craig James, as well as others. And, he had been accused on mistreating James' son. Washington St. was desperate and took the risk on Leach almost a year later.

Hathaway's reported finalists were Mark Whipple (frontrunner), PP, Hank Hughes, Tom Bradley, and Garrick McGee. That is a terrible list of candidates. In hindsight, Hathaway should have hired Joe Moorhead. He was already on the team and he had 5 years of experience as an Offensive Coordinator.

Let's not get me started on that one.

 

[the Q]

Let's not get me started on that one.

You won’t do it...

 

[JohnFSilver]

You won’t do it...

Bait! No vision in that search. A former colleaue of mine, and old editor comes to me and says -- they got a consulting group for that? I have a better list.

PP and Whipple? Ridiculous considering how attractive that job was coming off a Fiesta Bowl berth and still in the BCS. Adazzio would have left Temple after 2 weeks for the job. Hathaway wouldn't engage. That's probably why you had the Burton stuff at the time.

Water under the bridge, LOL. Mistakes were made. Not as bad as Diaco hiring, which I think Warde surprisingly messed up. In retrospect, should have kept Paul until end of the third year too, not fired after Buffalo. The program fell apart when they fired Paul, structurally. Discipline went away too, People wanted blood. But they should have let him bleed out.

I don't think they ever got the discipline back. The Diaco era was weird. I only covered him that first year, left local media that summer, But, when I look back there were signs immediately that it wasn't going to work.

 

[uconndogs]

I always suspected something happened in P's third season that precipitated the firing (discipline issues, major falling out with Warde, whatever). I have no inside knowledge of any of that. It just seemed so bizarre to fire him four games into a season. That all said, his performance was horrific. I could have coached those teams to bowls those years. He inherited an NFL defense for goodness sakes.

Diaco simply was not ready and then I think he became unhinged. I was at the Husky Walk for the Virginia game immediately after the Navy game debacle. The poor guy looked absolutely petrified. Later that year I was at the BC game when the score was zero-zero in the first quarter and he tried a fake field goal on fourth and goal from the BC 20. No one in the place could even comprehend how anyone at that level of football could make such a ridiculous call.

It's all very sad and shows what happens when programs and organizations lose leadership.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Whipple would have found a quarterback. Don Brown would likely have come since he didn’t want to coach with RE.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

IIRC, UConn didn't consider hiring Leach as a replacement for Edsall. Remember, in 2011, Leach was still suing Texas Tech, ESPN, Craig James, as well as others. And, he had been accused on mistreating James' son. Washington St. was desperate and took the risk on Leach almost a year

Mike Leach was exactly what UConn needed. Too bad UConn didn't react to their despiration the way Washington State did.