If Mike Leach....

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MadtownGopher said:
I guarentee we'd be able to start recruiting elite QBs with Leach. Would be nice to have an elite QB, instead or rolling with a Weber or Cupito for 3 to 4 years because we can't recruit anyone better.
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None of Leach's QB's have done jack in the pros. Harrell was his most touted QB recruit and he was four star.

Graham Harrell -- sitting on pine in Canada
Cody Hodges -- only played in the af2
Sonny Cumbie -- WR coach at TT
BJ Symons -- played some in Arena Football

His success offensively with QB's is all due to the system, line blocking techniques, and schemes. He's had some good/very good skill players but the QB's he has brought in have never been highly touted, IIRC.

He's a brilliant offensive mind and a good/very good college coach but his mannerisms and handling of the powers-that-be don't fly with the OBN (ol' boy network).
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I think it is a fair point that Leach is a bit one dimensional, but the last two comparisons to Glen Mason seem pretty off to me.
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The only real difference between Mason and Leach is that Leach is a slightly better game day coach. Both are "system" coaches in that they can take less-than-stellar talent and make a pretty decent team out of the talent.

Leach has moments of stupidity on the field -- lots of tries on 4th and 3, 4, 5 that I wouldn't dare pull but he's far less prone to blowing big leads and losing games in asinine ways.
 

60 Cent said:
The only real difference between Mason and Leach is that Leach is a slightly better game day coach. Both are "system" coaches in that they can take less-than-stellar talent and make a pretty decent team out of the talent.

Leach has moments of stupidity on the field -- lots of tries on 4th and 3, 4, 5 that I wouldn't dare pull but he's far less prone to blowing big leads and losing games in asinine ways.
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Another difference is that Leach was considerably more successful. I pointed out the main differences between the two of them in terms of how well they've done.

Now, about being a system coach. I suppose that's true, but the same could be said about just about any coach. Urban Meyer was certainly a "system" coach, as was Bielema/Alvarez and Ferentz. They run a specific system and they have maximized talents because of that system.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Another difference is that Leach was considerably more successful. I pointed out the main differences between the two of them in terms of how well they've done.

Now, about being a system coach. I suppose that's true, but the same could be said about just about any coach. Urban Meyer was certainly a "system" coach, as was Bielema/Alvarez and Ferentz. They run a specific system and they have maximized talents because of that system.
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Yea, I've always thought the whole "system coach/system QB" thing was dumb. Mostly smoke from people who don't care for the system being used IMO.
 

GoAUpher said:
Yea, I've always thought the whole "system coach/system QB" thing was dumb. Mostly smoke from people who don't care for the system being used IMO.
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Exactly.

Just about everything that works is a "system". I keep hearing people talk about one of Brew's problems is that we always lacked an identity, well, that "identity" is your system.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Another difference is that Leach was considerably more successful. I pointed out the main differences between the two of them in terms of how well they've done.
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Leach is arguably better but he's not a guy who put a team in the BCS in ten years.

I like Leach but he's the type of coach that will probably put the U in a consistent 8-4 type finish...like he did at Tech. Compared to Brewster he looks great but it's not much better than Mason's average finish.

GoAUpher said:
Yea, I've always thought the whole "system coach/system QB" thing was dumb. Mostly smoke from people who don't care for the system being used IMO.
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I'm a big "fan" of Leach's system and I like Mason's offensive schemes as well...both are very effective on one side of the ball and unorthodox, ones that can take "lesser" talent and coax pretty productive results. Like I said, at the end of the day Leach is in the same class as Mason in that he never got the team over the hump.
 

60 Cent said:
Leach is arguably better but he's not a guy who put a team in the BCS in ten years.

I like Leach but he's the type of coach that will probably put the U in a consistent 8-4 type finish...like he did at Tech. Compared to Brewster he looks great but it's not much better than Mason's average finish.
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What he did at Tech was considerably better than what Glen Mason did here. It's not even that close.

This is from what I typed out earlier:

Leach : In 10 years, they won 8+ games 8 times.
MAson : In 10 years, they won 8+ games 3 times.

Leach: In 10 years (80 conference games), he won 47 times. (.588 winning percentage)
Mason: In 10 years (80 conference games), he won 32 times (.400 winning percentage).

Leach: In 10 years, they finished ranked 5 times.
Mason: In 10 years, they finished ranked 2 times.

It really isn't close at all. If Mike Leach did what he did at TT at MN for 10 seasons, he will be the best coach we've had since Murray. If you look at Mike Leach's records at TT, they are much closer to Barry Alvarez's record than they are to Mason's.

I can understand the argument that you don't think his success will translate to MN for whatever reason or that you don't think our Athletic Department would hire him, however the notion that he was no better at Tech than Mason was here is asinine.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
It really isn't close at all. If Mike Leach did what he did at TT at MN for 10 seasons, he will be the best coach we've had since Murray. If you look at Mike Leach's records at TT, they are much closer to Barry Alvarez's record than they are to Mason's.

I can understand the argument that you don't think his success will translate to MN for whatever reason or that you don't think our Athletic Department would hire him, however the notion that he was no better at Tech than Mason was here is asinine.
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Leach also had a much, much better hand than what Mason was dealt from Wacker.

Tech under Leach's predecessor (Spike Dykes, a pretty darn good coach)....

7-5, 6-5, 7-5, 6-5 and all four seasons were .500 or better in the Big XII.

Tech has been a pretty consistently good program (no losing seasons since 1992)...it's not like Leach took a program and built it from the ground up as it had been good for several years. Leach walked into a situation not unlike the one Brewster walked into (solid, not great program). Leach didn't drive the program into the ground and TT is probably a bit better than when he found it but I wouldn't consider the program a top tier program by any stretch. Again, my point is Leach is less prone to meltdowns than Mason but in ten years Leach never once got the program to a BCS game. He got them to two Cotton Bowls and a Holiday Bowl, nothing to sneeze at, but again no BCS.

Comparing him to Alvarez is pretty laughable considering Alvarez had absolutely nothing when he took over Wisconsin.
 

60 Cent said:
None of Leach's QB's have done jack in the pros. Harrell was his most touted QB recruit and he was four star.

Graham Harrell -- sitting on pine in Canada
Cody Hodges -- only played in the af2
Sonny Cumbie -- WR coach at TT
BJ Symons -- played some in Arena Football

His success offensively with QB's is all due to the system, line blocking techniques, and schemes. He's had some good/very good skill players but the QB's he has brought in have never been highly touted, IIRC.

He's a brilliant offensive mind and a good/very good college coach but his mannerisms and handling of the powers-that-be don't fly with the OBN (ol' boy network).
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Harrell is actually the Packers practice squad and has really impressed the Packers. In fact, most Packer fans (I'm a Packer fan:)) think we could trade Matt Flynn for a draft pick and make Harrell the main back up to Rodgers. I will admit I don't know much about the other guys. I just have to imagine if I'm a QB I would want to play in a high powered passing offense with an offensive mastermind as my head coach. I'd take Graham Harrell over any QB Minnesota has had since I've been a fan (only been a fan since my freshman year in 2004). And the two QBs Minnesota has had since I've been a fan have been the top two passers in school history.
 



Don't forget Kliff Kingsbury.

The thing to remember about the spread is that it's relatively easy for the QB to make his reads.
 

GI just tweeted that Leach will not be candidate for the job. So I guess this is all a Smoot point.
 

60 Cent said:
Leach also had a much, much better hand than what Mason was dealt from Wacker.

Tech under Leach's predecessor (Spike Dykes, a pretty darn good coach)....

7-5, 6-5, 7-5, 6-5 and all four seasons were .500 or better in the Big XII.

Tech has been a pretty consistently good program (no losing seasons since 1992)...it's not like Leach took a program and built it from the ground up as it had been good for several years. Leach walked into a situation not unlike the one Brewster walked into (solid, not great program). Leach didn't drive the program into the ground and TT is probably a bit better than when he found it but I wouldn't consider the program a top tier program by any stretch. Again, my point is Leach is less prone to meltdowns than Mason but in ten years Leach never once got the program to a BCS game. He got them to two Cotton Bowls and a Holiday Bowl, nothing to sneeze at, but again no BCS.

Comparing him to Alvarez is pretty laughable considering Alvarez had absolutely nothing when he took over Wisconsin.
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They were both at their respective programs (Mason and Leach) that their predecessor's success didn't matter in the least. If you want to make the argument better, throw out both of Mason's and Leach's first 4 seasons (all their players and their system). It's still not even close.

Leach left the program exponentially better than when he arrived. Saying it's a "bit better" makes no sense. Look at Leach's last 5 years at TT. He had a 26-13 record in conference (in the tough section of the Big 12), he went to 3 New Years Bowls and 2 other bowls. Tech went to 1 New Years Bowl in Dykes entire 14 year run at Tech. Everyone's biggest gripe with Mason was that he gave us decent teams, but he never got them over-the-hump. Leach did get TT over the hump (unless of course your looking to be title contenders year in and year out).

As far as the Alvarez comparison, I should have justified my comparison a bit. Alvarez (deservedly so) gets praise as being a great coach who had a ton of success. He took a garbage program and made them good. My comparison to Leach is that once Wisconsin was decent, Tech under Leach was about as good as the Badgers under Alvarez. Again, i'm not saying that the coaching jobs over their career were equal, i'm saying that like Alvarez at Wisconsin, Leach had Texas Tech being a perrenial 8+ win football team that played in New Years Bowl games. They weren't the Ohio St/Texas of the world (Rose/BCS Bowl or bust), they were that next tier. Under Mike Leach, Texas Tech was one of the 20-25 best football programs in the country.
 

Mason-esque? His last eight seasons had a minimum of eight wins each!

I know Mason looks good compared to Brewster, but Leach is at a different level.
 



I find it pretty interesting that Mike Leach has some experience coaching in Finland - for the Pori Bears of the Finnish American Football League. This fact gives more credibility to the Jim Nendel buzz that's in the air.
 





@BillisKing When and If Minnesota gets turned down by Harbaugh, Peterson and Patterson...Leach should be the hire. No doubt.
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You interpret that to mean Leach isn't a candidate? Am I still missing something here?
 

According to the tweet

"hearing that Leach will NOT be a candidate...I guess he is too high maintenance."
 

Border Gopher said:
You interpret that to mean Leach isn't a candidate? Am I still missing something here?
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@GophersNow GopherIllustrated.com is hearing that Leach will NOT be a candidate...I guess he is too high maintenance.
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This was posted 4 hours ago via Web. That's about all I can do for you here.
 


Border Gopher said:
Strange. I don't see that at all. I don't tweet, so ...
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Huh. I logged out and don't see it either. Odd. He might only post some things to his followers, I guess.

Anyway, if you sign up for Twitter and follow Zach, you can see it. Or you can just take my word for it. :)
 

I'll take your word. LOL

You're probably right about the followers thing.
 

I would have a very hard time watching the Gophers under Leach. I find him a grossly unappealing person, which is unsurprising considering he's a lawyer. After suffering through Brewster I'm hoping for a good coach I can get behind that I actually like or can fool myself into liking as a person.
MBAGuy said:
GI just tweeted that Leach will not be candidate for the job. So I guess this is all a Smoot point.
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yesssssss
 


I'd love Leach here. It pisses me off that the U is too afraid to risk personal history and try to do something special and would rather muddle in the ponds of mediocrity.

The guy is a proven winner. He recruits kids that fit his scheme (air raid). He is an offensive mastermind, one of the better Xs and Os coach out there. Just think what he could do with Gray..

Just so you guys that are leery on him know.. If we are to field a competitive team in the Big12Ten, we better be willing to make some sacrifices on this coming hire. And if that means hiring a guy that was mean to ESPN's prodigal son, then so be it.

I just want to see a winner.
 

If we aren't getting Leach we better be getting a guy like Harbaugh, Petersen, Patterson, or Frazier. I don't want to hire some no name and not even give Leach an interview.
 


Personaly I'm glad Leach won't be wasting any more of our time. Well maybe he will.

Guys like Harbaugh, Peterson and Patterson we have a .00000001% chance of landing at MN.

Frazier I have cooled on.

There are plenty of other quality candidates out there before we have to settle for a 'no name'.
 

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