Fight, fight, fight for Washington State!
Win the victory!
Win the day for Crimson and Gray!
Best in the West,
we know you'll all do your best,
so On, on, on, on! Fight to the end!
Honor and Glory you must win!
So Fight, fight, fight for Washington State
and victory!
:::::
WSU Coach Mike Leach on former UW Coach Chris Petersen:
‘I hope he takes notes’
WSU
coach didn’t read rival’s mind, but challenge of coaching is no secret
By
Dale Grummert, Lewiston Trib Dec 23, 2019
PHOENIX
— Washington State football coach Mike Leach denies peering into his rival’s
soul during warmups for the Nov. 29 Apple Cup.
As
he does so, however, he wears the bemused look of someone who’d just predicted
Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan in 2007.
Leach’s
curious pregame remark to Chris Petersen, followed three days later by
Petersen’s stunning resignation as Washington coach, served as another reminder
of the steepening challenges of spearheading a Power Five football program these
days.
A
day after his announcement Dec. 2, Petersen drew laughter from reporters by
relaying an exchange with his inscrutable adversary before Washington’s 31-13
win at Seattle in the Apple Cup.
“How
much longer you going to do this?” the WSU coach said.
Petersen,
who routinely describes Leach as insightful even while routinely defeating him,
didn’t specify what he told the other. But his thought was, “Oh my God, this
guy is a mind reader too. I hope we have a good plan today because this guy is
on us.”
A
few days later in Pullman, Leach was asked if he’d had a premonition of
Petersen’s career move.
“That’s
a good question,” he said, pondering a moment. “I don’t know. I was just kind
of curious, so I asked him. He thought I read minds. But no, I just asked him.
Under the best of circumstances, seasons are taxing, and I threw it out there.
Two days later he retired, and I hope he has a happy retirement.”
The
2019 regular season wasn’t the best of circumstances for either coach.
Leach
needed to win back-to-back home games in November to extend to five the
Cougars’ streak of bowl berths. They’ll take a 6-6 record into the Cheez-It
Bowl against Air Force at 7:15 p.m. Friday (ESPN) here at Chase Field.
Petersen,
coming off three consecutive Pac-12 North titles, watched his team, especially
his offense, languish at key times before finishing on a high note, stifling
WSU in the Apple Cup before drilling Boise State 38-7 on Saturday in the Las
Vegas Bowl.
In
handing the UW reins to defensive leader Jimmy Lake, Petersen, 55, spoke not
only of a needed spark for the program but a personal need to “recharge.”
“Fourteen
years is a lot of years (in) this position,” he said of his head-coaching
stints at Boise State and Washington. “And it comes with a lot of frustration
and anxiety and stress. And some of the excitement and positivity and optimism
has got to be pushed away. That’s never
a way to live your life. I pay close attention to that.”
He
said in recent months he’d been impressed by the Confucius quote, “We have two
lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
Leach,
58, generally doesn’t reference Eastern philosophers, but his remarks often
echo their thoughts, especially on the importance of living in the moment. He
was asked if he’d contemplated stepping away from the game.
“There
are ups and downs,” he said, “but you’re consumed by it, so you keep grinding
away. It’s a constant series of corrections, and you just stay immersed in it.
“You’ve
got to be careful. I think sometimes — and I think we all experience this —
wins are a relief and losses are kind of torturous. But the biggest thing is to
lock in on the day-to-day improvement, the small things and the people you get
to work with.”
He
and his intrastate rival the past six years had entered the coaching profession
from opposite directions. Petersen, the son of a coach, said his lifelong
immersion in the game is one reason he wants to come up for air. In announcing
his resignation as coach, he said he plans to serve in an advisory role for the
Huskies.
Leach,
on the other hand, never played college football and was on the cusp of a law
career when he decided to follow his heart and plunge headlong into a game that
always had intrigued him. In the meantime, he had developed a broad range of
other interests.
Petersen,
too, has found a way to maintain an intellectual balance. Hence the basis for
his friendship with Leach. So the Wazzu boss doesn’t seem to be referring to
Petersen when he speaks of the perils that often await coaches who step away.
“Coaches
retire typically quite poorly,” he said. “It sounds good because there’s a
relief — you get rid of the pressure. But you’ve got to make sure you fill your
life with other things to do. I think where it’s difficult on some people is if
there’s not other activities and goals, because it’s all been football. If all
of a sudden you erase it, you’d better generate some new stuff, otherwise you
go back to football. That’s all you’ve got. You want to have a diversity of
interests that are going to keep you occupied and keep you excited.”
As
for Petersen, “I hope he takes notes,” Leach said. “When I retire, maybe he can
coach me up.”
:::
Washington
State football mailbag from Spokane S-R : Discussing the potential of another
four-year QB starter, estimating Air Force’s rushing total in the Cheez-It Bowl
and talking DC candidates
By Theo Lawson S-R of Spokane/Inland Empire 23 Dec 2019
This
mailbag probably won’t be the most exciting thing you unwrap this week, and if
it is, let’s hope the Cougars at least salvage your holiday with a win over Air
Force in the Cheez-It Bowl this Friday.
In
the final mailbag of WSU’s football season, the calendar year and the decade,
we discuss four-year quarterback starters at WSU and if the Cougars will have
another, we estimate how many yards Air Force will rush for at Chase Field in
Phoenix and we talk briefly about the defensive coordinator situation in
Pullman, offering a few names who might fill the void once bowl season is over.
How
likely that we will ever see another four-year quarterback starter under coach
Leach at WSU?
–
Jennifer D.
I
know fans have been yearning for this and, nothing against Gardner Minshew and
Anthony Gordon, whose individual stories and record-setting seasons were
nothing short of marvelous, but I wouldn’t mind covering another four-year
starter either. Only once have WSU fans had a chance to watch a quarterback
spend four years developing in the Air Raid – through live game reps, that is –
and if Luke Falk was able to set the Pac-12 career passing record in only 43
games, it might be fascinating to see what someone would do with 50 games or
more.
Given
that, I’m inclined to say no. Here are my four reasons:
1.
Falk is the exception and not the rule. Obviously, he doesn’t become a
four-year starter at WSU if not for Connor Halliday’s gruesome injury against
USC in 2014 and it seems there would have to be some extenuating circumstances
for a redshirt freshman to start for Mike Leach in the Air Raid, let alone a
true freshman. So, credit to Falk. Even as a redshirt freshman former walk-on,
he played well beyond his years and never looked the part of a young backup who
was only playing because of emergency. Leach’s playbook isn’t complicated but
it obviously takes time for quarterbacks to grasp it, learn to make the right
checks at the line of scrimmage and build rapport with 6-8 different wide
receivers who are generally used in the offense. Cammon Cooper and Gunner Cruz
aren’t short on raw talent or ability, but the fact that Leach doesn’t seem
remotely prepared to give either the keys to the offense right now – “I think at
that position we’ve got to improve quite a lot,” he said last week – makes me
think the learning curve is pretty substantial.
2.
Another four-year starter under Leach means four more Leach years at WSU. That
is, if Jayden de Laura comes in and wins the job this fall. If he doesn’t,
Leach would need to stay at least five more years for this to happen. I’m not
sure Leach is ready to leave the game just yet and this last month has
reaffirmed he’s also not ready to leave the Cougars. But I’d put the odds at better
than 50 percent that he’s either coaching elsewhere or retired by the time the
2024 football season rolls around. Leach would be 63 by then and I’ve always
assumed he won’t be someone who plans to coach until his death. There’s too
many countries to visit, too many television documentaries to be watched and
too many books to be read.
3.
IF a true freshman/redshirt freshman is equipped with the tools to win the job
right away, what are the chances they’ll stick around long enough to spent
their senior season in Pullman? Falk was a non-scholarship player with almost
no exposure who didn’t start until midway through his redshirt freshman year,
and he had legitimate NFL Draft stock by the end of his junior year. Some would
still contest he should’ve taken his chances and left a year early. If someone
with Cruz’s natural ability, or de Laura’s pedigree, wins the starting job,
they’d almost surely jump onto the national radar by the midway point of their
first season if not earlier. Plus, when you consider the buzz WSU’s last two
starters – both seniors – received, imagine the intrigue of a freshman under
Leach leading the country in passing yards.
4.
And finally, the dreaded “i” word. The Cougars have been fortunate to avoid
quarterback injuries these last two seasons and that’s in large part to
offensive lines that seem to get better and better every year under the tandem
of Leach and Mason Miller. But you also have to wonder how feasible it is that
a QB can stay healthy all four years. Halliday had a season-ending injury and
Falk missed his second Apple Cup, then dealt with a nagging wrist injury for
the entirety of his senior year, forcing him to sit out the Holiday Bowl.
Minshew and Gordon never missed a game because of injury, or even a snap, and
it’s been pivotal to WSU’s offensive success in 2018 and ’19, but after
watching a variety of Pac-12 teams deal with QB injuries this season, it’s also
fair to wonder how long the Cougars can keep that up.
How
many yards rushing for Air Force?
–
Ray L.
The
Cheez-It Bowl pits the Mountain West’s top rushing offense, Air Force at 292.6
yards per game, against the Pac-12’s 11th-best rushing defense, Washington
State at 170 yards per game allowed.
The
Falcons have logged 50-plus rushing attempts in 10 of their 12 games this
season. The Cougars haven’t seen that type of commitment to the run game since
their week-two test against Northern Colorado, which came out of a blowout loss
with 54 rushing attempts and 216 rushing yards.
Air
Force has rushed for fewer than 200 yards on two occasions this season, but it
happened against two of the country’s stronger run defenses: Wyoming, which is
sixth in the country at 99.4 ypg allowed and Navy, which is No. 16 at just
110.8 ypg allowed and obviously benefits from seeing the triple option nearly
every day in practice.
The
Cougars allowed six rushing yards against Stanford in one of their top
defensive games this year, though the Cardinal only ran the ball 10 times.
Meanwhile, Oregon turned the Oct. 26 game in Eugene into a track meet and
rolled up 307 rushing yards – and on just 47 attempts for an average of 6.5
yards per attempt.
Three-hundred
yards is a hefty number, but not for Air Force, which has rushing efforts of
423 yards (Colgate), 384 yards (San Jose State), 340 yards (Fresno State), 353
yards (Hawaii), 448 yards (Utah State) and 328 yards (Army).
I
suspect the Cougars, too, will be part of that club by the time Friday’s game
is over. My final answer? 323 yards.
Who
would you say the front runners for defensive coordinator are? Jim Leavitt
seemed to be mentioned a lot and there hasn’t been many other names talked
about besides him.
–
Caleb H.
I
imagine once the season is over I’ll take a closer look at this and compile a
full list of potential candidates – that is, unless Leach jumps the gun and
makes his hire before we can publish. I do get the sense the Cougars will have
their guy sometime in January and I’m sure Leach already has a small group of
names in mind – a list he most likely started forming within hours of Tracy
Claeys’ announcement.
Leavitt,
who I did think was a legitimate candidate for this job, is now off the table
having opted to join Willie Taggart at Florida Atlantic, which seems even
riskier than joining Leach in Pullman based on Taggart’s recent stints in
Eugene and Tallahassee – one of those more prosperous than the other, but
neither very successful at all.
At
his second media availability in Pullman since the Cheez-It Bowl pairing was
announced, I asked Leach if he’d be considering in-house candidates. “Oh yeah,
always,” he said. “Yeah.” The Cougars just signed an entire class of high
school players, including eight defensive prospects, with the current staff and
pitched the current defensive schemes in living rooms all across America. For the
sake of continuity – not only for futurure Cougars but current ones, too –
perhaps it makes sense to retain the defensive coordinator tandem of Roc
Bellatoni and Darcel McBath.
I
still think Leach will go outside the program for his DC, though, and it seems
like the recommended path for a team that didn’t improve much – and regressed
in some areas – after the early two-game stretch against UCLA and Utah.
It
isn’t inconceivable that Leach would phone one of his former position coaches.
Joe Salave’a and Ken Wilson were successful at Oregon this year and the Cougars
have missed their recruiting chops – most notably Salavea’s ability to recruit
defensive linemen from the Polynesian islands.
Wilson
said when he left earlier this year he wants to rise up the coaching ranks and
his familiarity with the town and university where he spent six years could
make Pullman a suitable place for him to take his first DC job. I’ll also throw
Oklahoma’s Roy Manning in this same pot. Manning was another excellent
recruiter who’d be an enticing DC prospect if for no other reason than because
he might be the most energetic DC in America. But, like Wilson and Salave’a,
he’d have to leave an outstanding situation where he’s at for what some would
consider an iffy one in Pullman.
Years
back, when the Cougars were looking to replace Mike Breske, eventually hiring
Grinch, my predecessor at the Spokesman floated a few names, including that of
Todd Orlando. The former Texas/Houston/Utah State/FIU/UConn DC also come up as
a potential candidate a few times within the last three weeks since being fired
by the Longhorns and he’s familiar with WSU safeties coach Kendrick Shavers,
who worked under Orlando in Logan.
::::::::::::::::::::
WSU
football
Ready
or not, Air Force and its vaunted triple option are coming for Washington State
in Cheez-It Bowl
UPDATED:
Sun., Dec. 22, 2019
By
Theo Lawson of Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN
– Most of his teammates have seen nothing like it, but Justus Rogers already
has a pretty good beat on the unconventional offense Washington State is up
against this week when it faces Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl.
The
middle linebacker doesn’t claim to have an expert-level understanding of the
triple option, but the run-heavy offense also isn’t a foreign language to him.
Much
of the ideology behind the triple option is similar to the offense Rogers ran
in high school at 3A juggernaut Bellevue, where the “wing-T” has been an
institution for more than a decade.
It
would’ve been helpful for Rogers to see the offense in practice every day as a
linebacker. Even better, he got to know it as Bellevue’s quarterback, leading
the Wolverines to a 24-3 record in his two seasons as a starter and multiple
appearances in the Washington State 3A title game.
“It
has some similarities and some differences as well, but they just rely on
playing downhill,” Rogers said. “Air Force is one of the top rushing offenses
in the country, so we just have to make sure we read our keys and stay
disciplined.”
But
it’s been four years since Rogers last wore a Bellevue uniform and he’s only
one of 11 defensive starters who’ll be required to do their part when the
Cougars take on the Falcons on Friday at Chase Field in Phoenix.
For
all the challenges that come with defending the triple option – Air Force’s
variation of it is also known as the “flexbone” – the most important one is the
probably the least complicated.
Well,
in theory.
“Everybody’s
got to do their job, because you have to have all the space on the field
covered as well as the personnel,” Cougars coach Mike Leach said. “It’s the
ultimate in executing your job.”
The
Falcons average 57.1 rushing attempts per game and 292.5 yards per game, which
puts them third nationally behind only two other service academies who employ
an identical offensive strategy: Navy at 363.7 ypg and Army at 297.2 ypg.
The
diversity of the triple option is not necessarily in a traditional balance
between run plays and pass plays, but in the variety of ways the Falcons can
move the ball 10 yards on the ground.
“Just
having good eyes, discipline, all those good things,” said cornerback George
Hicks III, asked what the Cougars can do to counter the triple option.
“Fundamentals. It’s going to be a big fundamentals game.”
Quarterback
Donald Hammond III has rushed for 491 yards and 11 touchdowns this season, and
if the Cougars choose to focus on his other weapons in the backfield, the next
thing they see could be his blue No. 5 trotting into the end zone.
In
many ways, defending the triple option is a numbers game. Since Air Force
employs its quarterback as a runner, and because the system relies on reading
defensive movement rather than blocking it, the Falcons have an extra-man
advantage that allows them to carve out bigger holes or put two players on the
opponent’s stud defensive lineman or linebacker.
And,
if WSU does hunker down and throw multiple bodies at Hammond, he’s liable to
flip the ball to running back Kadin Remsburg, a small, swift junior who’s spent
this season busting through big holes and slipping through small creases to the
tune of 872 yards and seven touchdowns.
Even
if the Cougars do have a handle on both the QB run and pitch, it still doesn’t
mean they’ve stymied the triple option. The fullback dive is the third
fundamental play out of Troy Calhoun’s offense. It’s often used to keep
defenses honest, but equally potent if it’s not accounted for.
Air
Force’s fullbacks, Timothy Jackson and Taven Birdow, add another 1,576 rushing
yards and 12 touchdowns to the Falcons’ absurd rushing totals.
WSU’s
defensive linemen figure to be much more involved on Friday than the linebackers,
and the linebackers much more than the defensive backs, so in the trenches,
nose tackle Dallas Hobbs said the key to playing well is “just making sure
we’re staying extra low and just doing our job.”
Hobbs
added: “Because there’s going to be a lot of moving parts I feel like and we’ve
just got to hunker down that middle and spill it more.”
Another
peculiarity when it comes to the Falcons are the offensive linemen, who aren’t
intimidating on paper and average just 6-foot-3 and 280 pounds. But they’re
quicker than most the Cougars see and utilize cut-blocking to open running
paths for the tailbacks, fullbacks and quarterback.
“You
just have to stay more aware of your surroundings I feel like, and you just
have to keep moving your feet because you don’t want to be planted in there and
have someone come from this side and this side,” Hobbs said. “So just being
more aware and keeping your feet moving.”
The
Cougars have had various running backs and receivers shuffling in and out of
practice as their scout team quarterback, though it’s usually been true
freshman slot receiver Billy Pospisil imitating Hammond.
A
few of WSU’s offensive players, who won’t have to deal with the triple option
headache, have offered their thoughts on Air Force’s unique system since the
bowl pairing was announced.
“I
watched bits of that Navy-Army game,” quarterback Anthony Gordon said. “It’s
pretty crazy, it moves quick. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the right spot
and all that. I’m confident our defense is going to come out and play hard and
play well against them.”
Gordon
and the Air Raid have to do their part, as well. The Falcons have lost the time
of possession battle just twice this season. They keep the ball 33 minutes on
average, which underlines the importance of being efficient on offense and
avoiding turnovers.
“We’ve
just got to be crucial about every time the offense gets the ball we need to
score,” said WSU running back Max Borghi, who was familiar with Air Force while
growing up in the state of Colorado and turned down an offer to play for the
Falcons as a tailback. “Obviously when they run it, they eat up the whole
clock. So every drive’s going to be important so we’ve just got to do our best
out there and make plays.”
Leach
has long been fascinated with the triple option, and the WSU coach stated a few
weeks ago he’d experiment with Calhoun’s offense if he wasn’t so entrenched in
his own Air Raid system. While Leach said teaching the triple option would be
“quite an overhaul,” noting “you can’t just switch it back and forth,” he also
said “throughout my career I’ve tried to learn as much from it as I can.”
When
Leach taught an “Insurgent Warfare & Football Strategy” course in Pullman
last spring, one of the preliminary application questions was, “Is the wishbone
(a system that derives from the triple option family) a viable offense for the
NFL? Why/why not?”
Leach
agreed with approximately 50 percent of students who theorized it could work at
the next level.
“I
think it would be very difficult for teams to prepare for a triple-option
team,” he said. “I do think you’d go through some quarterbacks and you’d have
to make sure all your quarterbacks can run. … I don’t think you’d want to have
quarterbacks where it’s mixed, where you’ve got the drop-back guy and the option
guy. I think you want all three of them to be option guys.
“And
yeah I do think it would work.”
Just
as long as it doesn’t five days from now.
#
