Recruiting Forum Football Talk XLIX

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#4,852
#4,852
BigZiti09 said:
Here's my concerns:

Everyone is talking about his DC being great. They gave up 58 to Arizona, 37 to 3-3 Cal, 41 to Washington. Other than those games he did pretty well though. But does it translate to the SEC?

Can he recruit with the big boys in the SEC? I say no. He's going to have to add some big time recruiters to his staff.

His team got to #8 in the country and then no showed against Cal. (this is a little nit picky I admit)

16 seasons as HC - only 6 with 9+ wins

He's never won a conference title and has only won his division one time and it was a 3 way tie.

I think his offense would work here well enough to win some games. But if you want to hoist a trophy in Atlanta you better have an awesome defense with some beasts on the defensive line and you better be able to run the ball. Huge question marks for him and evidence doesn't point towards him getting those things done well enough to win big here.

I think this is a 7-5 to 8-4 type hire.
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I share all of your concerns, but what keeps me intrigued is seeing if he can do better at a program with more resources and a higher profile. I also genuinely love him because he's hilarious.

It very well may not work but I'm at least intrigued to watch it. It'll suck when we lose to ETSU next year but we'll feel better after we drill Florida.
 
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#4,855
#4,855
Vol8188 said:
Leach runs less mesh and a lot more four verts. But I agree with the rest. It also creates massive inside running lanes. Instead of driving the defensive end a yard, just increase your split by a yard and you already have a great hole to run through
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I didn’t say he ran more
 
#4,857
#4,857
So wait a minute... If we make this hire and he brings his DC with him, our coaches will be a Pirate and the Grinch?

We will be one scary team.
 
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#4,861
#4,861
BleedorangeinGA said:
Wow. A caller just called into the sports animal. Said his wife is friends with Curries wife.

Caller stated Curries wife was an emotianl wreck yesterday crying telling her, " He just did what they told him to do".

Pat Ryan said, "Yes, it's not a good situation for John or his family".
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I do have some sympathy for Currie. But as the leader of the AD, you have to control this and make people realize it's not just about one person. He has done more damage to his image now than if he resisted Haslam, listened to others, and hired his own guy. If Haslam fired him after that scenario, then it would have been quiet and made Haslam look like the bad guy.
 
#4,864
#4,864
GoBigOrange86 said:
I share all of your concerns, but what keeps me intrigued is seeing if he can do better at a program with more resources and a higher profile.
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Ok - regarding this point......

He absolutely MUST recruit better here and he will be given more resources here for sure. But recruiting in the SEC is a tough grind. You have to love doing it. I don't know that he fits that.

Also, I think he's done really well at smaller places because he doesn't really need the flash that a program like UT offers. He is a really good coach but I don't think having the UT brand really helps him reach new heights.
 
#4,867
#4,867
Ya'll are crazy if you don't want Leach, the dude is so much better than Butch Jones.

He actually built programs at Texas Tech and WSU. Give Leach some of the players that Tennessee can recruit and just watch him dominate College football.

Mike Leach will save our program no doubt about it. Don't screw this up Bahama John
 
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#4,868
#4,868
Kingston Vol said:
He's going to have to be committed to running the ball more. That's just a fact.

His staff, besides the DC, does not impress me at all. He'll have to replace more than half those guys to be successful recruiting in this conference.

I don't think elite high school players are going to want to play for him. He'll get good players, I have no doubt. But the cream of the crop? I have my doubts.

I asked around and I don't think the current players are happy about it at all after Sumlin's name was floated.

Listen, I like Leach and think he's a very good X's and O's coach and I will support him. I just hope he'll be able to get the talent to succeed here. We'll need a very deep defensive roster in order to keep up with our offense. The defense will be on the field a lot vs. a lot of power running teams.
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I appreciate your input and I'm not as enthusiastic as most others here on Leach but that's okay. I don't have to have my guy and I'm willing to let others get their guy.

I did want to point out in response to one of your comments that Washington State leads the PAC-12 in Time of Possession this year (33:11). His offense has run 958 plays while his defense has run only 750 plays. This all translates to ranking #11 Nationally in TOP. Only Miss State of the SEC teams had a higher TOP ranking for 12 regular season games. Now of course, as you note, this may change against some of the teams on our schedule. I looked at their game against Stanford thinking maybe that would be an outlier - but it wasn't, at least not for TOP. Leach's offense contolled the ball for 33:10, running 77 plays vs only allowing 47 plays for The Cardinal.

# of plays for 2017 regular season by game

WST 73 MT ST 44
WST 94 Boise ST 72
WST 74 Ore ST 70
WST 84 Nevada 54
WST 81 USC 58
WST 67 @ Ore 72
WST 74 @ Cal 70
WST 78 Colorado 74
WST 101 @ AZ 51
WST 77 Stanford 47
WST 86 @ Utah 76
WST 69 @ Wash 62
 
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#4,869
#4,869
Leach doesn’t excite me too much, but a step in the right direction from DD. Did I miss some news on Sumlin? Is he out of the picture?
 
#4,870
#4,870
BigZiti09 said:
Ok - regarding this point......

He absolutely MUST recruit better here and he will be given more resources here for sure. But recruiting in the SEC is a tough grind. You have to love doing it. I don't know that he fits that.

Also, I think he's done really well at smaller places because he doesn't really need the flash that a program like UT offers. He is a really good coach but I don't think having the UT brand really helps him reach new heights.
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Keep coach G, if he doesn't bring the Grinch, try and see if Steel is interested in coming, especially if Malzahn goes to Arkansas. That's two fantastic recruiters.
 
#4,872
#4,872
Currie met with Leach around noon pacific time yesterday for two hours yet he was in LA all day..

There's more here than we know.
 
#4,874
#4,874
BigZiti09 said:
Ok - regarding this point......

He absolutely MUST recruit better here and he will be given more resources here for sure. But recruiting in the SEC is a tough grind. You have to love doing it. I don't know that he fits that.

Also, I think he's done really well at smaller places because he doesn't really need the flash that a program like UT offers. He is a really good coach but I don't think having the UT brand really helps him reach new heights.
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You may well be right. I agree with you on this more than I disagree.

But at least we'd have fun, and given how far this search has fallen, I'm running out of things to be optimistic about.

I would still prefer Sumlin or Miles, but yeah, I can ride (sorry, sail) with Leach.
 
#4,875
#4,875
New-Vols-Fan said:
Ya'll are crazy if you don't want Leach, the dude is so much better than Butch Jones.

He actually built programs at Texas Tech and WSU. Give Leach some of the players that Tennessee can recruit and just watch him dominate College football.

Mike Leach will save our program no doubt about it. Don't screw this up Bahama John
Click to expand...

Honestly, after researching more, I'm thinking Mike Leach is the best candidate we've talked to in this search not named Jon Gruden.
 
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