Mike Leach (Texas Tech)

#729
#729
Leach will never build a defense, his view is to line up the best athletes on offense and outscore opponents. When he was OC at KY they led the SEC in offense but they could not stop anyone. The Big 12 does not have a single team in the top 30 in defense because they have become a pass happy conference. If TT was in the SEC they would not be ranked in the top 10 and would of had seveal loses. Kirk Herbstreet last night said Florida Gators would take them to the woodshed because their defense could match TT offense speed and Tebow and company would dust them.
 
#730
#730
DeepSpringsVol said:
i have mixed feelings about Leach. Can his offense work in the SEC? I think so but I cannot see it working consistently. Gotta be Physical and have a running game to be competitive in this league
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his offense set several sec records while he was oc at kentucky.
 
#731
#731
GmanTN said:
Leach will never build a defense, his view is to line up the best athletes on offense and outscore opponents. When he was OC at KY they led the SEC in offense but they could not stop anyone. The Big 12 does not have a single team in the top 30 in defense because they have become a pass happy conference. If TT was in the SEC they would not be ranked in the top 10 and would of had seveal loses. Kirk Herbstreet last night said Florida Gators would take them to the woodshed because their defense could match TT offense speed and Tebow and company would dust them.
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if texas tech was in the sec west they would be on the road to playing florida in the sec championship. florida would not take them to the woodshed. it would be a high scoring, competitive game.
 
#733
#733
GmanTN said:
Leach will never build a defense, his view is to line up the best athletes on offense and outscore opponents. When he was OC at KY they led the SEC in offense but they could not stop anyone. The Big 12 does not have a single team in the top 30 in defense because they have become a pass happy conference. If TT was in the SEC they would not be ranked in the top 10 and would of had seveal loses. Kirk Herbstreet last night said Florida Gators would take them to the woodshed because their defense could match TT offense speed and Tebow and company would dust them.
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Oh Herbstreet said so, must be true.:no: Come on, have you watched them play? Not saying TT would beat every SEC team but they would be in every game. Herbstreet thinks Ohio St. will win every year and we have seen how that works out. Tech is just the kind of team that would give SEC teams fits. They are multiple on offense and aggresive on D. I don't want Leach at UT, but I wouldn't want to play him either.
 
#734
#734
thagodfather said:
if texas tech was in the sec west they would be on the road to playing florida in the sec championship. florida would not take them to the woodshed. it would be a high scoring, competitive game.[/QUOTE

If they were in the West, Alabama and that hard hitting defense would have already beat them. Alabama wins ugly games because their defense and in case you do not know Nick Saban was once HC at Toledo for 1 year then went to the NFL as DC for the Cleveland Browns for 4 yrs before returning to college and Michigan St.
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#735
#735
TheVol said:
Oh Herbstreet said so, must be true.:no: Come on, have you watched them play? Not saying TT would beat every SEC team but they would be in every game. Herbstreet thinks Ohio St. will win every year and we have seen how that works out. Tech is just the kind of team that would give SEC teams fits. They are multiple on offense and aggresive on D. I don't want Leach at UT, but I wouldn't want to play him either.
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Big 12 and aggressive on defense don't go together.
FOX Sports on MSN - COLLEGE FOOTBALL - Defense in the Big 12? We'll pass
 
#736
#736
thagodfather said:
if texas tech was in the sec west they would be on the road to playing florida in the sec championship. florida would not take them to the woodshed. it would be a high scoring, competitive game.
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The last time they faced Bama, Mike Shula's boys held them under 14 points. I've got to think Saban's squad could take them. Florida would obliterate them.
 
#737
#737
I was doing some research on Leach and ran across this from 'Tenacious D' on another thread within VolNation. He says it better than I can and backs it up with facts; so if you want someone who can quickly and consistently turn our program around with great excitment to boot then please continue to read.

Admittedly, Mike Leach did not jump firmly in the middle of my "possible next coach" radar until I watched his team in the win over Texas, last Saturday, and as he had been mentioned as a possible candidate at Tennessee.

In doing some cursory research, I ran across an article on him, originally posted in the NY Times in 2005. After reading the article, and doing some additional research, I believe that he's the next best coach for the University of Tennessee - bar none.

A link to the article can be found, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html

In short, here are my reasons for supporting Mike Leach:

He was the O-Coordinator at KY, but Mumme was the nut job there, not Leach. In fact, when Bob Stoops left UF to go to Norman, guess who he tabbed as his O-coordinator? Mike Leach. In that single season (Leach left the following year for Tech), Oklahoma went from 100+ in total offensive ranking, to #8 in one season. He not only installed his prolific offense in one season, but he did it with the existing Oklahoma talent base, which was less-than-average when he and Stoops got there. Oh, the next season, while still running the Mike Leach offense, the Sooners won it all. Two years, total.

He makes mediocre QB's look like absolute superstars - the last I checked, the Tennessee cupboard is not barren of mediocre quarterbacks.

I see similiarities between Leach and Bruce Pearl - both are unconventional, from small schools, are aggressive, unique personalities, generally disliked by their coaching brethren for their unconventional - and wildly successful - style of coaching.

He also reminds me of a Spurrier, a la, 1989 - pass-happy offense that "would never work in the SEC". That turned out pretty well for Florida, I think.

His offense is not just prolific - it's explosive. His teams score TD's in bunches, and he wants to score as many of them as possible. His passing attack is complimented by a potent rushing attack, too. He would never, ever, ever complain about only having 4-5 possessions per game. It wouldn't occur, so there wouldn't be anything to complain about.

What about defense? Well, Texas Tech's D currently leads the Big 12 in total defense, allowin a paltry 349 yards per game. Need I remind anyone that the Big 12 is currently widely regarded as having several of the top offenses in the nation, too?

In the article, his post-game remarks on the Texas A&M game are telling, "There was 23 seconds on the clock," he told me later. "That's more than enough time. I think we all had a level of disappointment we didn't score one more touchdown." At that point in the game, Tech was beating the Aggies by 39 points. Do you think that Urban, Sabon, Miles or Spurrier would hang 30+ on UT, everytime, if they could? Would you like a coach that would reciprocate the favor?

His coaching philosophy is absolutely unconventional, but after hearing more about it, it makes the most common and complete sense as you'd ever expect. The article goes into greater detail, but pay close attention to the section(s) on how to confuse a defense, and his "odd" o-line formations. You would never, ever, ever hear that a new recruit couldn't get on the field because he couldn't learn the offense.

He's not a job-hopper, now in his 9th season as Tech's head coach.

At only 47 years of age, he's young, but well-established.

His current contract can be bought out for a mere $500K, and he only makes somewhere between $1.7 - $2.0M per year as it stands (with their AD, just today, promising to re-negotiate it at the end of the season). Think that $3M per year would do it? Me, too.

He recruits in Texas, against two giant in-state schools who dwarf him in size, stature, money, facilities and every other imaginable criteria - and another, in Oklahoma, who is just along the border. If he can convince a kid to come to Lubbock, TX, one could reasonably assume that Knoxville wouldn't be a problem. Maybe even better, most of what he's done at Tech has been with throw-offs that the "bigger" schools didn't want - and he still gets this kind of productivity out of them, against the bigger schools. How do you think this quote goes over with recruits?
“Distributing the ball to all the different skill players is our biggest emphasis. We're not a team that hands it to one guy and throws it to two. We want all five skill positions to touch the ball.”

He gets mad and fiery - for sure - sometimes to his own detriment, but in support of his team, his players and his school. After calling the refs out in a post-game press conference following a loss to Texas, he was fined some $10K by the Big 12. At his weekly press conference a few days later, he refused to apologize, believing that he was correct in his criticism. The fans of Lubbock began a grass-roots campaign to raise the money to pay the fine on his behalf. Instead, Leach paid the fine himself, and used the donated money to buy (and personally distribute) hams to underprivelaged families for Thanksgiving. Sometime later, he was asked about criticising officials during a television interview, where he remarked, "I don't criticise officials, I just give out hams." How could an AD with the nickname of "Hammy" not love that?!

He is a character, promoter and energizing force - again - just like Pearl. He would be instantly exciting to the fan base that has long suffered with running 3 yard hitches on 3 and 9.

He wants to have as many WR's on the team as possible, and wants them conditioned to run twice as far and twice as fast as their counterparts. What better fit for us at WR U?

He is his own O-coordinator, QB coach and play-caller - so, no extensive stringing of the now-committed recruits along while we try to find one, even after the new head coach is named, it's the same guy.

I will stop the love-fest, here, albeit a bit belatedly.

If you would like to read a much more well-written account of Coach Leach, please see this link at the 3rd Saturday in Blogtober link:
Better Know a Candidate: Mike Leach Third Saturday in Blogtober

Although the article on 3rd Saturday takes a shot at him for "threatening" to never run the football, it just ain't so. Pass-heavy? Absolutely. However, so far this season, Tech is averaging about a 70/30 split between passing and rushing. Of the 64 offensive plays against Texas in their upset this weekend, Tech rushed the ball 28 times for 105 yards - or 44% of the time.

I think that this guy is Steve Spurrier, circa 1989. Remember, when the Gators snatched him up, he had already experienced some success, but had not yet crossed the cusp of becoming the "institutional" coach, or they never would have allowed him to leave. I think that Leach is right there, too. At least for the moment, and he's ripe for the taking.

I don't know what it will take, but I would love to have this guy as the next coach at UT.
 
#738
#738
Wow, that is one long post. Can't even reply to that, Gman or others, just like Bama's offense, I was bored into defeat.
 
#739
#739
GmanTN said:
Leach will never build a defense, his view is to line up the best athletes on offense and outscore opponents. When he was OC at KY they led the SEC in offense but they could not stop anyone. The Big 12 does not have a single team in the top 30 in defense because they have become a pass happy conference. If TT was in the SEC they would not be ranked in the top 10 and would of had seveal loses. Kirk Herbstreet last night said Florida Gators would take them to the woodshed because their defense could match TT offense speed and Tebow and company would dust them.
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I disagree again. To say Leach will never build a defense is ridiculous. Yes the Big 12 is statistically, key word statistically, not the leading conference in defense overall and that is because the conference, as a whole, is scoring alot of points. That does not mean Big 12 schools can't play defense.

Look at these stats from the same site you linked to from another post:
FOX Sports on MSN - COLLEGE FOOTBALL - Stats
Look at some of the teams who lead in defense and offensive statistics, especially the defensive ones. Stats don't mean everything.

Just because Kirk Herbstreit said a team would win don't make it so now does it? I think not.

I think you are letting personal preference influence your decision. Mike Leach is a good coach and we would be lucky to get him.
 
#741
#741
Mike Leach should be in orange by tomorrow if at ALL possible....he is an absolute genius. We have and will continue to get enough atheletes to play offense & defense. At Kentucky, there are only so many atheletes on the football team & most have found their way to the offensive side of the ball. Such is not the case with the Vols. This guy is exactly what we need.
 
#742
#742
GmanTN said:
Leach will never build a defense, his view is to line up the best athletes on offense and outscore opponents. When he was OC at KY they led the SEC in offense but they could not stop anyone. The Big 12 does not have a single team in the top 30 in defense because they have become a pass happy conference. If TT was in the SEC they would not be ranked in the top 10 and would of had seveal loses. Kirk Herbstreet last night said Florida Gators would take them to the woodshed because their defense could match TT offense speed and Tebow and company would dust them.
Click to expand...


Excuse me, Florida is taking everyone to the woodshed this year or have you not been paying attention!!!
 
#744
#744
I hope this guy comes here. Just watching his team play the other day and his qb/ol/w/r play convinced me he could win here.
 
#745
#745
im sure its been covered and recovered in this thread, but what would the defensive coordinator situation be, if Leach were hired? would it be his call strictly? would we possibly keep Chavis? Leach's offense sure is fun to watch, but i hadn't really heard anything about TT before last year. makes me wonder if he is just this year's Jim Leavitt of Volnation.
 
#746
#746
I'm not sold on Leach either-- but folks from his camp say he's interested in Tennessee.

On my list of wanted coaches, he's #4.
 
#747
#747
I was on my way to work this morning in the cool tri-cities area and was listening to the sports monster and there supposedly is an article from the news sentinel saying that someone was contacted and told that Mike Leach is very interested in the job on the hill...Not sure where he got the info but I would like to see it myself...I think he wants us too so you never know...I think we will keep Chavis and then him on offense...I can see this possibly working in the SEC myself
 
#748
#748
Everybody should read the entire article posted by bkham84@aol.com

I think it would be infinitely more fun to watch UT football with this guy running the show. This guy is Spurrier 2.0
 
#750
#750
kptvol said:
The last time they faced Bama, Mike Shula's boys held them under 14 points. I've got to think Saban's squad could take them. Florida would obliterate them.
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I'll take a Saban and Steele coached defense over a Shula defense any day.
 
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