John
Blanchette: Mike Leach the last man standing from his Pac-12 hiring class after
Rich Rodriguez’s dismissal at Arizona
Wed., Jan.
3, 2018, 10:20 p.m.
By John
Blanchette Spokane S-R
Mike Leach
has been called a number of things in the week since his Washington State
Cougars fainted in the Holiday Bowl.
Here’s a new
one: survivor.
Because
whoever took him in the Adieu Pool, you lose.
With the
whirlwind beheading of Rich Rodriguez at Arizona, the Pac-12’s celebrity
football hiring class of the winter of 2011-12 is now down to a single,
improbable oddment – though, yes, he tried to be gone, too.
But when his
flirtation with Tennessee ultimately went unrequited, Mike Leach trundled back
to Pullman, first to cash in on the typical administrative panic that got him a
nice pay raise and then to coach up the Cougs in their bowl game. You all know
how that worked out.
It was a
little like splurging for a Lexus for your Secret Santa partner and getting a
lint brush in return.
But here
Leach is, and gonzo are the other three guys – all four of them hired within 24
days of each other in 2011.
UCLA started
breaking up the band back around Thanksgiving when Jim Mora was walked Spanish
down the hall, and not long after Arizona State gave Todd Graham the boot so
they could resurrect the old Chicago Cubs college of coaches strategy. Then on
Tuesday came the news of RichRod strutting around in his undies and having
subordinates beard for his extramarital affair and out he went.
Sure hope
they arranged one of those last-man-left tontines with a bottle of 50-year-old
brandy that Leach can open to toast his fallen pals.
Of course,
the three fired coaches can afford their own hootch. Together they’ll collect
around $30 million in buyouts, yet another example of how football lifers and
their agents are making brainy academics and wealthy alums look increasingly
foolish.
Now, these
dismissals are solid ammunition for Leach’s legion of supporters, who are
rightfully thrilled to see Wazzu winning nine games a season, even if they have
to towel off after the Cougs bellyflop in their Gatorade in the final scenes.
And yet
there are some stats here worth a look:
Mora, 47-31
record, 2-3 in bowls, average Pac-12 division finish of 2.6
Graham, 46-32,
2-3 in bowls, average finish 2.5
Rodriguez,
43-35, 3-2 in bowls, average finish 3.8
Leach,
38-38, 1-3 in bowls average finish 3.8
Also, each
of the other got his team to the Pac-12 title game once. And Mora’s record came
without a single FCS opponent on the schedule, while Graham’s teams played the
likes of Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Texas A&M outside the conference, among
others.
What trumps
that? Timing and trending.
Leach’s best
years have been the last three. Those other schools have been a collective
eight games under .500 in the same span. From a woeful starting point, Leach’s
teams are on an undeniable uptick, with no suggestion that regression is around
the corner.
Surely this
was on his mind when he got a little pissive after the Holiday Bowl with a
questioner who dared point out the big-game shortcomings.
“You can do
all your little stats and scenarios and all those goofy things,” Leach sniffed,
“but you can also review how Washington State has done prior to our players and
our staff getting here and maybe then you can find some answers there and you
seem like a sharp young man. Next?”
So to
review: Leach gets credit for the wins, and any failures are goofy scenarios
that slide from Teflon shoulders. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Leach’s
dalliance with Tennessee enough for his supporters to urge WSU president Kirk
Schulz to open the vault in contract renegotiations that were already under
way. The theory went that only Leach could do what Leach has done and must be
made happy at any cost, including a pass for any public cloddishness that must
be swallowed as the price of doing business.
What never
gets said is that he was paid quite well – as are many head coaches – to
accomplish just that, and that he accomplished it with scads of advantages his
Wazzu predecessors never had. Start with facilities the coach himself has
called the best anywhere in the Pac-12. Add support staff numbers that would
make old coaches weep, all games on television, nutritionists and other
resources. Not to mention seven home games the past two years – and every year
but one through 2021.
As it should
be. Wazzu deserves a chance to compete to its best advantage, as its rivals do.
But let it
be said that the newly unemployed Jim Mora, Todd Graham and Rich Rodriguez did
considerably more in their first three years than Leach has done in his last
three, and more in the last three than he did in those first three.
He just
happens to work at a place with patience. Mostly because Wazzu can’t afford not
to have it.
……………………….
MENTION OF
PULLMAN-MOSCOW REGIONAL AIRPORT
A story in
the 1/4/2017 Lewiston Trib, headlined “Tempers flare at airport board meeting: Lewiston-Nez
Perce County Regional Airport panel blistered by patrons during chaotic session
Wednesday” includes: “Peters said he and
the others have grave concerns over Lewiston losing its commercial flights to
the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport after it finishes its $119 million project
to expand its runway to 7,100 feet. Finley and Long have been pushing to expand
Lewiston's runway since it will be too short for the new planes that airlines
will be commissioning soon.”
……………………
COUGAR
BASKETBALL
Women’s team
-- 8pm Friday Jan 5: COLORADO at WASHINGTON STATE
Link to
story from WSU Sports Info:
Men’s team
-- 1pm Saturday Jan. 6 WASHINGTON at WASHINGTON STATE
Link to story
from U of Washington Daily student newspaper:
http://www.dailyuw.com/sports/article_f1e4d6e4-f0ed-11e7-a3cc-77e62ee617d8.html
………………………..
FORMER WSU
QB TIMM ROSENBACH ON MONTANA GRIZ FOOTBALL COACHING STAFF
Link to story
from Montana Sports Info
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