Greg Hansen: While others rebuild, Mike Leach — the Palouse
Pirate — continues to win
By Greg Hansen Tucson
Citizen 11/12/2018
Nine days that changed Tucson’s football future:
--Nov. 21, 2011: Arizona hires Rich Rodriguez.
--Nov. 30, 2011: Washington State hires Mike Leach.
Given seven years of perspective, why did RichRod fail and
Leach prevail?
One critical variable Arizona missed in the process of
hiring RichRod was that his unacceptable 15-22 record at Michigan was far worse
than met the eye. Included in those 15 victories was an 8-0 record against
Bowling Green, Toledo, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Delaware State,
UConn, UMass and Miami of Ohio.
RichRod was very good against the Mid-American Conference,
but a gruesome 7-22 elsewhere.
“RichRod set Michigan football back eight or 10 years,’’
ESPN "College GameDay" analyst Desmond Howard said on the air three
weeks ago.
Leach not only wanted the Arizona job, he traveled to Tucson
on Nov. 2, 2011 under the guise of helping to promote his new book — “Swing
Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life’’ — and to help a friend
market the Casino del Sol College All-Star Game.
Leach told the Star he wanted to talk to Arizona about its
coaching vacancy. “This is a great place where a lot of people want to be,’’ he
told the Star’s Ryan Finley. Former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne talked
to Leach, but has never said publicly if it was a full-flown interview or just
a chat among acquaintances.
There is one asterisk that needs to be remembered: Some in
college football, 2011, considered Leach to be toxic. He was only two years
removed from allegedly mistreating a Texas Tech player who had a concussion, a
situation that Leach has consistently referred to as “a fraud.’’
It’s easy for me, seven years later, to say that Leach was a
far superior coaching prospect than RichRod. But it’s also painfully obvious.
Leach’s 10 seasons at remote and recruiting-challenged Texas
Tech were so successful that — had he never coached another game — he would
likely have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. One of the requirements of the
National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame is that a coach have a
career winning percentage of 60 percent.
That’s tough even for coaches at a place like UCLA. For 20
years, Terry Donahue was blessed with a remarkable recruiting environment and
won 66 percent of his games. That ties Leach’s winning percentage at Texas
Tech.
Yet somehow, playing in the same Big 12 division with Texas
and Oklahoma, Leach’s Red Raiders went 84-43. Leach’s teams were ranked as high
as No. 2 in the AP poll. Texas Tech went to 10 consecutive bowl games.
He never required a rebuilding pause. He just won.
Now Leach is doing the same thing at the Pac-12’s version of
Texas Tech.
His team is ranked No. 8. The Cougars lead the Pac-12 in
total offense. What you might not know (or believe) is that WSU is ranked
second in total defense. All of this while replacing quarterback Luke Falk, the
school’s career passing yards leader, and overcoming the offseason suicide of
presumptive starting quarterback Tyler Hilinski.
More? The Cougars lost six assistant coaches in the
offseason, as Ohio State, UCLA (twice) and Oregon raided Leach’s staff,
offering significant pay increases. He filled in with coaches from Bowling
Green, Utah State, North Texas, Minnesota, Nevada and Western Kentucky.
And here they are, 9-1 and the most feared team in Pac-12
football.
Leach took over a WSU program that had gone 4-32 in four
dreadful conference seasons. It took him three years dig out from under the
rubble, but since then the Cougars are 35-14.
That’s more victories in a four-year period than at any time
in Arizona history.
In my book, Leach has done more with less in modern college
football than any coach except Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, who has won 65
percent of his games there.
Leach isn’t for everyone. He can be unpleasant and
obstinate. He spends much of the off-season at his home in Key West, Florida,
and, like RichRod, who attempted to leave Tucson for a vacancy at South
Carolina, Leach appears to be a temp employee. He was involved in Tennessee’s
coaching search a few months ago.
No. 15 Arizona vs. Washington State college football
Two of the game’s great offensive innovators, Arizona coach
Rich Rodriguez, left, and WSU coach Mike Leach, will face off again Saturday.
Leach’s teams are generally pass-oriented; Rodriguez favors the run.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star 2014
When TV cameras are rolling, Leach plays up his
eccentricities, his love for pirates and other off-the-beaten-football-path
topics. During a TV interview Saturday at Colorado, Leach allowed WSU’s
beloved, come-from-nowhere quarterback Gardner Minshew to paste a phony
mustache on the coach.
ESPN must’ve replayed it a dozen times.
It’s no more than even-money Leach will return for another
year at WSU, and do you blame him? He’s 57. With his resume, it’d be justice
if, for his last act, Leach got a crack at one of those football-mad precincts
in the SEC or Big Ten.
As Arizona prepares for its Saturday night game against the
Pullman Pirates, remember this: In the last six recruiting classes, Washington
State has signed just five four-star recruits, according to Rivals.com’s
rankings. Stanford signed 42.
And somehow WSU has defeated Stanford three years in a row.
RichRod or Leach? Now it seems like a trick question.
:::::
WSU FOOTBALL First look: Arizona at #8 Washington State
Mon., Nov. 12, 2018, 11:44 a.m.
By Theo Lawson of the S-R of S p o k a n e
Three things to know
1. A brief stint at Washington State was partially
responsible for Kevin Sumlin’s foray into the coaching world. The first-year
Arizona was a graduate assistant for the Cougars in 1989 and 1990 under Mike
Price before moving on to become a wide receivers coach at Wyoming. Another
former WSU coach, Bill Doba, was an assistant at Purdue while Sumlin was a
linebacker for the Boilermakers.
2. The Cougars will have a chance to snag their 10th win of
the season against Arizona – something that’s only happened five other times in
program history. WSU went 10-2 in 1929 under Babe Hollingbery, then waited 68
more years to hit the double digit mark again, going 10-2 in 1997. The Cougars
won 30 games from 2001-03, going 10-2 in ’01, 10-3 in ’02 and 10-3 in ’03.
3. Gardner Minshew is still on track to become the Pac-12’s
career single-season passing leader with at least three more games left this
season. To break the mark set by former Cal quarterback Jared Goff before the
end of the regular season, Minshew would need to average 431 yards over his
next two games. The more likely scenario is Minshew breaks it during a Pac-12
Championship game or bowl game. Minshew is up to 3,852 yards on the year and
needs just 867 more for the record.
What is it? Coming off a bye week, Arizona (5-5, 4-3) will
look to lock down a bowl berth when it visits No. 8 Washington State (9-1,
6-1).
Where is it? Martin Stadium in Pullman.
When is it? Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where can I watch it? ESPN will carry the live broadcast.
Who is favored? Washington State was a 10-point favorite as
of Monday morning.
How did they fare last week?
WSU put together a dominant second half to run away from
Colorado 31-7 at Folsom Field in Boulder. Arizona had a bye week after beating
the Buffaloes the week prior.
Why Arizona will win:
WSU’s defensive players and coaches will obviously dedicate
plenty of film study this week to Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate, but they
ought to spent the same amount of time preparing for running back J.J. Taylor.
The Wildcats’ redshirt sophomore has been sizzling the last three weeks and
comes into Saturday’s contest having rushed for 558 yards on 89 carries and
three touchdowns in his last three games. Tate’s been hobbled by an ankle
injury most of the season and hasn’t scored on the ground since week two, but
WSU will see the Arizona QB as close to 100 percent as he’s been all season
coming off the bye week. Since resting against UCLA four weeks ago, Tate’s
thrown eight touchdown passes and just two interceptions. And he’s hurt the Cougars
before (see below).
Why WSU will win:
Nobody in the Pac-12 and few teams in the country have as
much momentum as the Cougars do, and now they return to a place where they
still haven’t lost since 2016. WSU carries a 12-game win streak into Saturday’s
matchup and frigid conditions at Martin Stadium – temperatures could drop into
the 30’s by the 7:30 kickoff – could hamper an Arizona team that’s traveling
from the Pac-12’s warmest climate. If anything hampers the Wildcats in this
game, it’ll likely be their miscues in pass coverage. Statistically, Arizona
ranks 10th in the conference in total defense (417 yards per game) and ninth in
pass defense (248.7 ypg).
What happened last time?
Washington State’s offense spent most of the game playing
catch-up when the Cougars and Wildcats met least season in Tucson. After
Arizona jumped out to a 20-7 lead, Mike Leach replaced Luke Falk with Tyler
Hilinski and the backup unleashed 45 passes for 509 yards and two touchdowns
while running for another two, but also threw four interceptions. But Tate and
Taylor were dynamic together in the Wildcats’ backfield and the two combined to
rush for 299 yards and three touchdowns. Tate had two more touchdowns through
the air and the Wildcats won it 58-37, handing the Cougars their second loss of
the year.
:::::::::::::::::
Expect coaching turnover at USC, Colorado and Washington
State: Issues & Answers
By Ken Goe, Oregonian, Nov 12, 2018 at 09:37 AM
We're getting near the end of college football's regular
season and near the start of that time when coaches look for greener pastures
and schools survey their football programs and decide to make changes.
The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
As of this writing, I see three Pac-12 jobs likely to open.
-- USC coach Clay Helton seems to be on borrowed time in the
wake of the Trojans' 15-14 loss to Cal. Helton made himself the offensive
play-caller prior to the game, and his offense got blanked in the second half.
Cal's head coach is Justin Wilcox, the guy Helton let go as
USC's defensive coordinator. None of that looks good for Helton, who already
was the subject of fan discontent.
He was booed off the Los Angeles Coliseum field on Saturday.
USC fans aren't patient, and expect more than a 5-5 season no matter what the
extenuating circumstances.
The Merc's Jon Wilner suggests USC has no choice, and will
have to fire Helton.
Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times calls USC's season
calamitous, He says the Trojans need to look outside the Pete Carroll bubble
when hiring a new coach.
-- Colorado's collapse has been dramatic. Once 5-0 and
nationally ranked, the Buffaloes have lost five consecutive games. Neither of
their last two games this season -- at home against Utah and at Cal -- look
like victories on paper.
Coach Mike MacIntyre's teams have finished last in the
Pac-12 South in four of his five previous seasons, and seem destined to land
there again. Worse, MacIntyre has begun making excuses, telling the Boulder
Daily Camera injuries are to blame for the Buffaloes' slide.
If so, that's a coaching problem too. Successful programs
recruit enough depth to withstand
injuries, and adjust game plans when necessary.
Utah, the team CU plays Saturday, lost its two best
offensive players -- quarterback Tyler Huntley and running hack Zack Moss --
prior to last week's game with Oregon, plugged in their backups and beat Oregon
anyway.
Colorado isn't an easy job. Long-time fans remember the Bill
McCartney glory days, but times have changed. The CU campus is a short drive
from Denver, a city filled with transplants who have no allegiance to the local
schools. It's a pro-sports market.
You have to win before you can compete for attention, and
winning is an uphill fight.
The next CU coach will need charisma to go with some serious
coaching chops to make it work.
-- Washington State coach Mike Leach tried his darndest to
get out of Pullman last year, and very nearly landed the Tennessee job.
I think he'll jump this year. Somebody will look seriously
at Washington State's record and the disadvantages a WSU coach labors under and
come after him.
I don't believe Leach ever had an intention of retiring as
the Cougars' coach. WSU was a convenient spot to land when he needed a job, and
then-athletic director Bill Moos was willing to break the bank to offer him
one.
He caught lightning in a bottle this season with
grad-transfer quarterback Gardner Minshew. It's a one-year fix. Leach won't
ever be as hot as he is now, and knows it.
(The story continues with “OK, more links:,” followed by
links which are not included here.)
……………………
::STORY FROM DEC 18, 2017, ABOUT COACH MIKE LEACH FIVE-YEAR
CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH WSU::
(Yes, the date is correct … December the 18th of
last year, 2017)
::Cougars Extended Mike Leach contract through 2022::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;;
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK: Coug fans find an understudy to
GameDay flag
By DALE GRUMMERT, Lewiston Trib Nov the 12th of 2018
Like all pirates, Mike Leach has a wary side to him. If I
show up a bit late for a post-practice group interview, he'll look away from
his questioners a moment and check out my voice recorder, just to make sure I'm
not going to plug him with a .45.
So Gardner Minshew shouldn't take Leach's first reaction
personally.
The Washington State Cougars had just defeated Colorado 31-7
on Saturday at Boulder, Colo., and Leach was reprising for ESPN sideline
reporter Allison Williams, against the evidence we had all just seen, his
often-stated opinion that possession time is a meaningless stat.
When a gleeful Minshew barged into the camera frame and
tried to plant a mustache on his coach's face, Leach reared back like Little
Miss Muffet.
C'mon, Mike. Trust your quarterback.
As all Washington State football fans know by now, Minshew
doesn't give up easily. He concisely explained to Leach what he was doing, and
his second stab at pinning the tail on the pirate succeeded. Then a delighted
Williams continued her interview.
"Minshew mania, the mustache sensation, has taken hold
of Pullman and much of the country," she told Leach, as the subject of
this mania scrambled away. "How can you describe what he has meant to the
team?"
"I don't know. I don't think he even had a mustache
when I recruited him - I don't recall," the coach said. Only someone
unfamiliar with Leach would consider this an odd response. Of course, the coach
was unaware that his own mustache was goofily crooked - that his initial
instinct to recoil had affected his quarterback's accuracy.
"And then, he's got more than a mustache too," he
continued. "I don't know why everybody only notices his. A lot of these
kids have mustaches. Anyway."
"And now you do too," Williams said.
"Now I do too."
Yes, Mike, your amazing grad transfer has more than a
mustache. Yes, there's nothing especially distinctive about it anyway,
especially when compared to his quick release, his sense of pass-rush and, in
this particular game, his ability to counter an off-day pulling the trigger by,
well, extending possession time.
And yes, Mike, the whole Mississippi Mustache craze is
monumentally silly.
But it's of a piece with Wazzu football. It's of a piece
with this uncanny season, in which the Cougars will now take a 9-1 record and a
No. 8 AP ranking into their final two regular-season games, both at home.
Also, it's of a piece with ESPN.
Among other things, 2018 will be remembered around Pullman
as the season that the monolithic TV sports network discovered the unique story
of Washington State football fans - how the school's alumni view their old
school as a state of mind rather than a particular place. Most of them live far
from Pullman. They often can't attend Cougar games, and the school's stadium is
too small to accommodate all of them anyway.
So they express their adoration of the Cougs through
symbols, most notably through the school flag they've insinuated into every
ESPN GameDay broadcast since 2003, hoping against hope the network would
someday anoint Pullman as a host school for the show. Last month, it finally
happened, to spectacular effect for everyone involved.
This mustache thing won't last 15 years, but it's cut from
the same cloth.
No, Mike, the stache wasn't there when you recruited Minshew
last winter. It wasn't there when he accepted your offer to add a bonus season
to his journeyman's career. He grew it as a lark during the summer, then began
playing football with such inspiration and acumen and joy, victory after
victory, that Cougar fans had no choice. They adopted a new symbol.
On second-and-1 early in the fourth quarter at Boulder, with
the Cougs looking to extend a 10-point lead, Minshew stepped out of the pocket
and began an approach-avoidance dance with Colorado defenders. By the time they
understood the game he was playing, the quarterback had glided toward the
sideline and leapt out of bounds, there to gracefully extend the ball over the
pylon for a 10-yard touchdown. ESPN commentator Brock Huard - a Husky, no less
- called it his Heisman moment and said he belongs in New York City next month
as a finalist for that award.
After the ensuing commercial break, the camera turned to
Huard and play-by-play man Bob Wischusen, whose sheepish expressions were
adorned with, yes, fake mustaches. Then the shot switched to the sideline,
where Allison Williams also sported one, along with a Minshewesque soul patch,
as she described the warm rapport the QB had established with Wazzu fans.
After the postgame hoopla, a print reporter asked Minshew
for the back story on his act of performance art with Leach. It would be hard
to imagine a college football player, even one as fun-loving as Minshew,
plotting such an act in advance- stashing a stache somewhere on his person
prior to kickoff, than hauling it out after the win.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't reveal his source.
"The mustache kinda found its way into my hands, and
then it found its way onto coach's face," he said.
Where did it come from? My bet is the folks at ESPN. By now,
this is their story too.
NOTES - The Cougars learned Sunday their home game Saturday
against Arizona will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Providing coverage for the third
straight week will be - naturally - ESPN.
:::::::::::::::
Controlling the clock was key for Washington State Football in
24-point rout of Colorado
UPDATED: Sun., Nov. 11, 2018, 10:14 p.m.
By Theo Lawson of the S-R of Spokane/Inland Empire
BOULDER, Colo. – The best offense is a good defense. The
best defense is a good offense. It’s been a little bit of both for No. 8
Washington State this football season.
Saturday, in a 31-7 thumping of Colorado, the two units
worked in harmony to cruise past the Buffaloes and earn their ninth win of the
season and their sixth in Pac-12 play.
That can manifest itself a few different ways on a football
field, but on Saturday the biggest indicator may have been the digits in the
time of possession column. The Cougars held onto the ball for nearly 42 minutes
– 41:16 to be exact – and the Buffaloes had it for 18:14.
Even during a sluggish first quarter – the only one that
didn’t produce points for 10th-ranked WSU – the Cougars probably played better
offense than what the box score reflected. No points, but WSU and Gardner
Minshew had possession of the ball for 12:05, reducing the workload for Tracy
Claeys’ defense, which only spent 2:55 on the field.
WSU coach Mike Leach comes from the Chip Kelly school of
thinking when it comes to time of possession. In other words, he isn’t a fan.
Why do what you can do in 10 plays if you can do it in five?
“It’s a stat that I take virtually no pride in whatsoever,”
Leach said last season. “It’s fun to have occasionally, just so you can beat
the ball-control people over the head with it.”
Leach hasn’t altered his opinion on the subject in the last
calendar year, but the Cougars are off to their best start in his seven years
on the Palouse and they’ve won the time of possession battle in seven of the 10
games they’ve played.
The largest discrepancy came Saturday versus the Buffs.
“I thought that in our case we just weren’t in really great
tempo,” Leach said. “We were OK, we did keep the ball away from them. We hogged
the ball the whole game, I thought we could have capitalized on more stuff. We
could have scored more points in the first half.”
WSU may not be moving down the field at warp speed this
season, but there haven’t been many wasted possessions either. The Cougars are
still the Pac-12’s best offense at 37.6 points per game and they came into the
weekend leading the country with 18 scoring drives of 10 plays or more.
WSU upped that number to 20 on Saturday. The Cougars used 10
plays to set up a 39-yard Blake Mazza field goal on the third drive of the
first quarter. Their final touchdown came on a 13-play drive that exhausted
6:24. Another 14-play drive in the first quarter culminated with a turnover on
downs, same with an 11-play drive in the third quarter.
“I think one of the biggest things was how good our running
game was today,” Minshew said. “Our O-line and our running backs hit it hard.”
It certainly factored in. The Cougars rushed the ball a
season-high 33 times and for a season-high 131 yards.
The defense worked quickly, too. The Cougars had eight
offensive possessions that lasted seven players or longer. The Buffaloes had
only two of those and six of their possessions were cut to three plays or
fewer. WSU constantly put CU in precarious situations on third down and the
Buffs were dismal there, converting just twice on 11 tries.
“Our defense was getting them off the field so fast, so hats
off to them for getting us the ball and having us a lot of possession,” Minshew
said.
Three of CU’s possessions were shortened because of
turnovers.
“When the defense does that, that’s a spark play for us,”
Williams said. “So when they get fired up, the energy flows through us and we
start going out there and doing our thing.”
And the Buffaloes’ only touchdown Saturday? It came on an
offensive possession that lasted just 48 seconds.
Not intentional, of course, but just another example of how
the Cougars were able to control the clock in the latest Pac-12 triumph.
:::::::::::::::::
Saturday Night Five: Cal rises, South clarity emerges, the
Helton Watch, WSU turns up the heat (on the conference)
By JON WILNER San Jose Merc News 11/11/2018
Insta-reaction to Pac-12 developments on and off the field,
with two notes at the top:
* Kickoff times for the Nov. 17 games were not released
tonight; look for them mid-to-late morning on Sunday.
* Times for the Nov. 24 games are expected Monday. (Both
ESPN and Fox have used their allotment of six-day selection options.)
Here we go …
1. Cal.
Let’s recap what just transpired on the Coliseum field,
shall we?
One week after a wrenching loss in Pullman, the Bears beat
USC for the first time since 2003. They did it by rallying from a 14-0 deficit
— and not just any 14-0 deficit, mind you, but a 14-0 deficit with USC in the
red zone and smelling 21-0.
Then came Amon-Ra St. Brown’s fumble, and everything
changed.
Not only did the Bears hold USC scoreless in the second
half, they held the Trojans to less than 50 yards in the second half.
USC’s yardage, by second-half drive:
-25 (safety)
14 (interception)
19 (punt)
0 (punt)
33 (punt)
-11 (fumble)
Justin Wilcox, who will be getting a contract extension any
day now, has now beaten two former employers, Washington and USC, in the same
season.
Think about what might have been if Cal had stuck with Chase
Garbers and never used Brandon McIlwain: The Bears might be sitting on two more
wins (Arizona and WSU) and be in control of the North.
After beating USC for the first time since ’03, they now
have a chance to beat Stanford for the first time since ’09.
Last thought:
One could reasonably argue that the best defense in the
conference resides in Berkeley, not Seattle or Salt Lake City.
Cal has allowed a total of 43 points in the past three weeks
against Washington, WSU and USC.
2. Clarity in the South.
Wins by Utah and Arizona State, combined with USC’s loss,
helps the division race come into much sharper focus.
Arizona State wins the South by beating Oregon and Arizona
(both on the road).
The Utes win the South with a victory over Colorado (road)
and a loss by ASU.
Arizona wins the South with wins over WSU and Arizona State
and a loss by Utah.
USC is done.
Yes, the possibility of a four-team tie (at 5-4) exists.
In that case, Arizona State would win the division based on
tiebreaker advantages.
Hotline call: Utah.
3. Washington State and the conference office is getting …
AWK-ward.
We mentioned the what-if game above with Cal playing Chase
Garbers, and only Chase Garbers, against Arizona and WSU. But the the No. 1
what-if currently belongs to Washington State.
Every victory by the Cougars increases the heat on the
conference office for the controversial outcome in the WSU-USC game.
It is the Hotline’s belief that you cannot separate the
ThirdPartyGate play (the targeting overrule on Logan Tago) from the
non-targeting on Porter Gustin, which was 1) egregious and 2) would have put
WSU in prime position for the winning touchdown.
In other words: The targeting overrule by general counsel Woodie
Dixon impacted the non-call on Gustin:
Either the Gustin decision was a make-up call because the
replay booth official knew there had been a screw-up on the Tago play, or he
expected to again be overruled by Dixon and didn’t bother.
The plays were similar and happened one quarter apart.
Absent any evidence to the contrary, it’s not unreasonable to think there was a
connection.
Either way, we’re inching toward an embarrassing situation
for the conference, if WSU finishes 12-1 and doesn’t make the playoff because
of that one, controversial loss.
4. The roads less traveled.
Let’s see …
* Washington State won not with its offense but its defense,
holding Colorado to one touchdown and 297 yards.
(The Cougars have played well on defense but yielded the
spotlight to Gardner Minshew and the Air Raid.)
* Arizona State won not with N’Keal Harry but with its
running game, churning for 281 yards against UCLA.
(The Sun Devils have run the ball well with Eno Benjamin,
but Harry’s dominance in recent weeks had grabbed all the attention.)
* Utah won not with its starters but its backups in the
backfield, as Jason Shelley threw for 262 yards (and no interceptions) in his
first start and Armand Shyne ran for 174.
(Shyne’s success should not be a surprise: He was the Utes’
top rusher early in the 2016 season but then sustained multiple season-ending
injuries.)
* And Stanford won with a 90-yard performance from Bryce
Love.
Yep, that’s a significant departure from the norm and
represents Love’s best performance since he rushed for 136 yards in Week Two
against USC.
(Love has 490 yards this season, approximately one-quarter
of the total he produced in 2017.)
5. The Helton Watch.
The Trojans were eliminated from the South race tonight by a
team that was 2-4 in conference play and hadn’t won in the Coliseum in 18
years.
Because they were officially eliminated, the Clay Helton
Watch is officially on.
No one knows what athletic director Lynn Swann will do, and the
absence of a permanent university president complicates the situation.
But this was a bad loss in a season of bad losses. It feels
like change is inevitable at this point.
Helton’s record as permanent coach against Power Five
opponents, without Sam Darnold:
2015
Lost to Stanford 41-22
Lost to Wisconsin 23-21
2016
Lost to Alabama 52-6
Lost to Stanford 27-10
2018
Lost to Stanford 17-3
Lost to Texas 37-14
Beat WSU 39-36
Beat Arizona 24-20
Beat Colorado 31-20
Lost to Utah 41-28
Lost to ASU 38-35
Beat Oregon State 38-21
Lost to Cal 15-14
Total: 4-9
Double-digit losses: 6
And one bonus …
6. Coordinator of the year? Hmmmm ….
Five Pac-12 coaches made the list of nominees for the 2018
Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top coordinator/assistant:
ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales
Cal defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter
USC recruiting coordinator Johnny Nansen
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley
WSU defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys
The Hotline will let the next two weeks play out before
compiling its list of the top assistants in the conference. We won’t take issue
with any of the DCs listed, but I do have one question:
Isn’t the Pac-12 supposed to be about offense?
This year, the best coaching has been on the other side of
the ball.
:::::::::::::::::::
The Good, Bad and Ugly of WSU’s 31-7 Buffalo suffocation
The Cougs are still the Pac-12’s best hope.
By PJ Kendall Coug Center Nov 11, 2018
It was the best of halves, it was the worst of halves, it
was a half of dominance, it was a half of frustration, it was a half with
several yards, it was a half with several empty possessions, it was a half with
lots of important conversions, it was a half with too few conversions, the
Cougars had everything in front of them, the Cougars had nothing in front of
them, they were staying in first place, they were going to the Redbox Bowl.
Then the second half started, and Jahad Woods decided he and
his team weren’t going to be a part of any Dickensian sequel. In what would
turn out to be a dominant performance, the Washington State Cougars dispatched
of the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder, turning in the kind of beatdown that was
both impressive and necessary. Impressive because going on the road and winning
by 24 is always noteworthy, and necessary because everyone else ranked near the
Cougs in the CFP standings also won.
How did everything unfold? Less importantly, what is our
interpretation of said unfolding? Let’s get to it.
The Good
Mike Leach is no
longer 0-for-Boulder.
I’m very rarely on
the time of possession bandwagon, but Saturday was an exception. Despite only
leading by three points, WSU held the ball for more than 20 minutes in the
first half, and ran 49 plays to Colorado’s 23. When you’re playing at a high
altitude with a defense predicated on speed over size, that is a huge
advantage, and it set the tone for what would be a dominant second half. It was
clear that, by the fourth quarter, the Buffaloes were cooked, and wanted
nothing more to get back to the locker room.
A week after
struggling mightily on third down, the offense converted 11-20 in this game.
Much, much better.
EDIT: Thank you to
klokkins and Jesse Cassino for unwittingly pointing out my dereliction. Max
Borghi’s touchdown was a thing of beauty, but what I liked most about the play
was Easop Winston, Jr.’s hustle to lay out a potential tackler.
+3 in the turnover
battle. Winning games is much more likely with a ratio like that.
The Cougs were
also +3 in sacks, getting to Steven Montez three times and, once again, not
allowing any. There were several plays where Gardner Minshew II stood in the
pocket for what seemed like minutes.
Speaking of sacks,
that Dominick Silvels blitz in the fourth quarter was a huge one. I’m sure
Colorado was going to go for it on fourth down until Silvels got to Montez.
Goodnight, Buffs. Goodnight.
Aside from one
explosive run in the first quarter, Colorado averaged 4.4 yards-per-play. That,
my friends, is some dominant defense.
Fumble luck may
not have been with WSU in the first half, but it sure was in the second. That
Renard Bell recovery was kind of important!
One fumble that
didn’t require luck occurred early in the third quarter. Jahad Woods turned in
a man’s play, just deciding that he wanted the ball more than Travon McMillian.
That strip/recovery was the beginning of the end for Colorado.
Speaking of Jahad
- if his strip of McMillian was the beginning of the end, knocking the ball
from Laviska Shenault Jr. provided the last shovel-full of dirt on Colorado’s
grave. Funny thing is, if Woods hadn’t knocked the ball out, Willie Taylor III
probably would have when he walloped Shenault from behind right afterward.
It may not have
been a long field goal, but that was still a solid effort by Blake Mazza, given
the wind conditions.
I know he wasn’t
100%, but the defense did an admirable job of bottling up Shenault. He had his
moments, but never turned in the kind of game-breaking play we’ve seen so many
times this year.
Hell of a play by
Minshew to tuck that ball inside the pylon.
What a catch by
Jamire Calvin on the sideline.
Great tackle by
Kainoa Wilson on that kick return.
Boobie Williams
pulls off some of the greatest two-yard runs I’ve ever seen. Marshawn Lynch
probably even thinks so.
What a beastly
catch-and-run by Dezmon Patmon. Coulda sworn what he did to that poor defender
was a penalty but I’ll take it.
How ‘bout my man
Oscar with a 50-yard average on four punts?!
Gordo sighting!
Colorado’s final
11 possessions: punt, punt, punt, punt, end of half, fumble, punt, punt, punt,
fumble, interception.
Looked like WSU
played lots of young guys at corner, and they held their own.
Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyy glad Jalen Thompson won’t miss the first
half next week. It was clear that he was trying to do the right thing on that
hit, but that doesn’t always matter.
The clearly
audible “Go Cougs” chant during the fourth quarter.
That postgame
Leach interview/Minshew cameo was the stuff of legend. Just the best.
The Bad
If third down went
well, fourth down was the opposite. That many empty first half possessions
could come back to hurt the Cougs against better teams.
Not sure where it
goes so I’ll put it here - WSU ran more gadget plays Saturday than I ever
recall under Leach. They were clearly the better team, so I wonder why Leach
felt the need to do that.
As well as the
offensive line protected Minshew, they seemed to have a really tough time
getting a push on several running plays.
Looked like the
wind got into Minshew’s head, especially in the first half, and he stubbornly
kept going for the lower-percentage kill shots instead of taking what was
there.
That said, you
have to catch that ball, Jamire.
Max Borghi, you
are awesome, but you should trust your blockers a little more.
I know it was a
really close call, and I thought the refs did a decent job over all, but that
“illegal man down field” flag was, well, let’s just call it extremely
ticky-tack. By rule, maybe it was a penalty, but man, that never ever gets
called when it’s that close.
Brock Huard is one
of the best analysts in the sport, but his anecdote about Borghi “flipping to
WSU at the last minute” doesn’t marry up with the facts.
Nice taunting nut
grab, Aaron Maddox. This isn’t the WWE. We all appreciated the extended drive,
though.
Nobody knows what
targeting is. Evergreen.
Another game,
another errant PAT snap. Nice job by Trey Tinsley to get it down.
The Ugly
If I’m Mike
McIntyre, I sure don’t want to know what’s being said this week in the AD’s
office.
The immature part
of me really wishes I’d been at the game, in the same seat I occupied two years
ago, so I could see the old tough guy’s reaction. Then again, he was probably
on the road shortly into the fourth quarter.
As always, I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff. This week was
likely worse than normal due to the jet lag. You’re encouraged to pitch
anything and everything in.
Now comes a shot at payback for last year’s loss in Tucson,
and a chance to get 10 wins for the first time in 15 years. What a season it
has been. What a season it can be. Go Cougs
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