Mississippi State reportedly has interest in Washington State coach Mike Leach
You knew the longer Mississippi State’s coaching search went the more likely the white whale of the college football coaching search was going to enter into the picture.
Well, that day has finally come — the Mike Leach rumors have arrived.
After Louisiana head coach Billy Napier publicly said he was not being considered for the head coaching position at Mississippi State and New England Patriot assistant Joe Judge accepted the New York Giants head coaching position, the Hail State search had to be reset on Tuesday.
It’s unclear when Mississippi State AD John Cohen may have met with Mike Leach, but according to Paul Finebaum and ESPN Mississippi radio host Bo Bounds, they are both being told that meeting took place.
During a Wednesday appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” the two radio hosts discussed Leach’s candidacy for the Mississippi State coaching position.
Paul Finebaum: “Help confirm something for me. I was told by somebody close to that program that (Cohen) went down to Key West to see Mike Leach. If you believe that is true, let us know.”
Bo Bounds: “I definitely believe that is true.”
Finebaum: “Okay, if that is true then what happened?”
Bounds: “That would be, in my opinion, his home run hire. If I’m John Cohen, I would go all-in on Mike Leach. If they got him, you know Paul, because of SEC money, they could offer Mike Leach over $5 million and make him tell you no. Because he is one heck of a football coach, who has proven he can win at Texas Tech and Washington State, when the majority of the time, he’s outmanned on the football field. Which is what happens at Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Arkansas and other programs in the SEC. So yes, I do believe he’s talked to Leach and I think it would be a home run hire if John was willing to do that.”
Finebaum: “If he went to see him, that would indicate, would it not, the school/his superiors have given him the green light on Mike Leach?”
Bounds: “Oh absolutely, (MSU President) Mark Keenum would give John Cohen the green light on hiring Mike Leach.”
If somehow Leach is the hire made by Mississippi State, can you imagine how much fun the Egg Bowl Rivalry would become?
TO ME: Mike Leach would be a great hire… I think Leach is great at getting the most out of his players…(Me = Big Leach fan)
I’m pretty sure I read an article on here about Steve Sarkisian being a target. Did Saban tell SDS they better retract it…lol
Sark has some personal baggage that could be of concern. However, I do believe he probably got an interview.
He would and his hiring would also out splash the Lane Train as well.
Really?
Lame kitten=premature ejaculation of the sec
Leach is holding out for the Univ of Miami job. He will be there next year. Manny Diaz is a fireball jumping into the gas pool.
Leach interviewed for the Miami job in 2006 but since than hasn’t showed any interest.
It’s getting down to anybody but JOMO. I’ll take the pirate junk, the rants & air raid and a load of locking that a$$$’s kid up(James) in the equipment room. Let’s do it.
He has shown the ability to do more and win more with less, in 2 coaching spots. Is the reason Tim Couch got drafted outta UK and the Mustache did so well as a rookie in Jacksonville. Oh and he doesn’t mind out of the way college towns. On the plus side for him we are much closer to and easier to get to his families vacation house in Key West.
Like him or not, Leach has proven he can build a winning program. If he can win at Tx Tech and Wash St. why couldn’t he win at Miss St.? I would like to see him back in the SEC.
Well his air-raid is close enough to what Dan ran that many of the guys on the roster would fit it easily. It also utilizes the run effectively so don’t have to worry about no running attack. He is a QB whisperer and KT might stay on to learn from him. Look at the impact he had with Gardner Minshew in just a year. Lots of nice upside if we could make this happen.
Moorhead was a QB whisperer too
No actually he had zero track record of it. Leach does have a track record of it.
Joe Moorhead was mostly a con-artist. LSU hired the real brains behind his offense. Cohen didn’t check beyond press reports and got snowed in the interview. Cohen needs to get this one right. I have no problem with Leach and as long as he tells it like it is, his mouth will be refreshing. As long as he tells it like it is. What I’m still in fear of is Cohen hiring someone who expects the players to adapt to “his” offense instead of adapting the offense to what the players can do. Leach sounds Ok in that respect. And remember that a good offense can overcome a deficient defense to some degree, but even a great defense can’t make up for a poor offense.
Yes. If Moorhead was the offensive guru, than didn’t PSU offense drop off when he left?
When an exceptional coordinator leaves, this happens. Bama’s defense still misses Kirby Smart. Phil Fulmer never full recovered from losing David Cutcliffe. Urban Meyer’s offense at Florida lost alot of its edge when he lost Dan Mullen and Ohio State never made it back to the National Championship after losing Tom Herman to Texas. Vandy’s offense this past season looked so bad without Andy Ludwig.
Moorehead was at the right place at the right time with Saquon Barkley, Trace McSorley, Chris Godwin, DaeSean Hamilton.
* why didn’t PSU offense drop off when he left?
I would argue that bama’s D misses Pruitt as well.
Missing Kirby, yes, but mainly Pruitt. Those Pruitt defenses were nasty
Leach’s offense is similar to Mullens? Did you even watch the games? Mullen at least tried to have a balanced attack. LEach is going to throw the ball- end of discussion. He’s never recruited well for defense. It’s all fun a games saying you want Leach until you get Leach.
I with you on this. There are better options out there. Going to have to play defense to win in the sec.
Agreed. We need to be able to run the ball and play defense in this league. It’s proven that slinging the ball all over the place in the SEC doesn’t work.
Big 12 and PAC 12 don’t play defense.
How many conference titles he win at Wazzou and TTech? He runs an effective offense, but he has never gotten a team over the hump. The right time to hire him wouldn’t be after a going 6-7 when we canned Joe at 6-7. The guy that beat him in the bowl game this year should be getting the consideration.
Exactly.
He never beat Oklahoma at TT. And never beat Washington while at WSU. He is a 7-6 or 8-4 tops coach in the SEC.
What do you think State’s ceiling is in the SEC anyway. If Leach could get 7 or 8 wins, he’s overachieving. You guys really should get real. Mullen gave you a pass to have to think about reality. State has historically been the Vandy of the west. Any coach that can go 6 and 6 should be considered. Ask Arkansas. The alternative is much worse. And with the great staff that the hogs new coach has assembled, they will be back to the middle of the pack soon. Then what happens to State? You really are delusional if you think State is supposed to be an 8 win team in a normal year.
Yep, never beat Oklahoma….except when he did in 2005 and then again in 2008. Also beat No 3 and No 2 Texas. And Eli Manning-lead Ole Miss. Low information football opinions are fun!
It does seem that way, doesn’t it? But the workings of Cohen is a mystery to me. There seem to be several coaches who haven’t been considered who would make good coaches. One thing is for certain, we don’t need to hurry. Moorhead left State in bad shape and whoever it is, is going to have to rebuild. Cohen’s hire of Moorhead screwed us out of any progress Mullen made, so I’m not inspired by Cohen’s judgment thus far. The upside of this is that it means we don’t have to hire in a hurry. Next year is not going to be good anyway. If this is a bad hire, it means that Cohen is part of the problem.
Absolutely. Which is why Leach makes no sense. Cohen hiring Leach sure would look like Cohen doesn’t have a clue about being an AD. His list of candidates must come from online reports.
Not liking Moorhead is one thing. To call him a con artist and say he left the program in bad shape is undoubtedly the dumbest thing I’ve seen posted on this sight recently.
WJ, I agree with your take on the Moorhead bashing, but I don’t think you have read many comments if these are dumbest things you’ve seen posted on this site recently. (This site is a sight sometimes, though.)
Moorehead was so bad that almost every power five school is trying to hire him as offensive coordinator….
WanderingJersey that is wrong. I went to TTU for my PhD near the end of Leach’s time. He beat OU at least once in Lubbock (I was at that game) and won the Big 12 one of those years. Granted that year was ridiculous and there weren’t enough tie-breakers so it was a 3-way Big 12 championship shared by TTU, Texas, and I believe OU.
But you point is a decent one. His teams generally end the season at the upper middle of the pack. He’s usually good for one upset a year and a trip to a decent bow every season. But championship trophies aren’t lining the case in the athletics facility.
Three way shares don’t happen here. By their tie breaker rules TTech finished 3rd that year. That was Leach’s best team.
TycoonDon is on to something. MSU is now most poorly funded team in the SEC. That means even Vandy spends more on football than MSU. Yet Bulldog fans think they’re a perennial 8-9 win team. It’s crazy.
Moorhead’s results are EXACTLY in line with the university’s investment in the program. Heck, they’re probably greater than the investment. Mullen won with Dak and when you delete those years he was on par with Moorhead. Why do you think he left? He saw what expectations were vs the commitment from the university.
Leach (whom I hope does not get the job) clearly understands this and this will keep him from accepting. And then what? We’ll be back to someone that less than or equal to Moorhead so nothing will have been accomplished except that we ran off a guy that actually wanted to be here.
We play defense in the sec. We don’t have air raid personel
One other huge consideration, he has the name recognition to keep our entire signing class intact if hired. And potentially get a few portal players to plug a hole or two for immediate needs.
The press conferences alone would be worth it. I am good with this news. Even if we don’t get him, I like the idea of Mike in the SEC.
They would never be boring or repetitive.
A homerun hire
Leach is not a good fit at Ms St. Wont last but a few years
The truth is that no really, really good coach is going to stay very many years at Miss State. His tenure will be limited.
Sad but true. Most coaches who hire on with mid-pack sec schools are on their way up or on their way down. Either way, before long they are on their way out.
This might be more than just a rumor. 247sports has a report that also showed the flight plan of a State booster’s plane that has been used by Cohen in the past that flew from Golden Triangle RA to Airport at Marathon, Fl and flew back on Sunday.
No no no no no
Mike Leach’s defense rankings the last couple of years at WSU
2012- 101st
2013- 97th
2014- 116th
2015- 73rd
2016- 50th
2017- 59th
2018 -42nd
2019- 94th
Sorry but Leach’s style may work in the Big 12 and the Pac 12 but it would be a disaster in the SEC.
State would beat the low hanging fruit in the conference but get steamrolled by the heavies- Bama, Auburn, LSU and East teams like Georgia and Florida.
So basically no difference than now other than instead of losing to Alabama 38-7 it would be 66-35
Leach may be popcorn entertainment for the pressers and scoring 80 points on New Mexico and Alabama A&M but doesn’t move the needle with showing a competitive game against LSU or Alabama.
I watched WSU this year against Utah, the only team that had a highly ranked defense in the PAC 12 this year. Utah dominated them 38-13
Paired with a good DC and those will turn around. Stats were much better D wise at TT.
We don’t beat The SEC heavies anyway. At least not consistently. Doesn’t matter who the coach is. 7-8 wins is what we should expect with the occasional 9-10 win season when Auburn or LSU falls off a bit.
I guess with his history of closet use he has the disciplinary reputation Cohen wants.
I can’t help but wonder if Leach’s ego would allow for his listening to a defensive coordinator? Just a thought.
Ennhh….I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. Same with the Sark rumors.
Ples God, no sub.500 record in the pac 12. We don’t have the personel for his air raid offense
Who saw lemonis comin in the head baseball coach search. I have a feelin it’s gonna be a good one but completely off the radar
Not a chance. Pipe dream.
God, please let this happen. Kiffin at Ole Miss and Leach at MSU. Where’s my popcorn?
Here’s the thing about something like the air-raid offense. Sure, most years you will lose to the top teams in the conference. But maybe you luck into a really talented QB and you happen to have a couple of pretty good receivers and a line that can pass block. It won’t happen often but when it does, that can be the recipe for some big upsets and a sweet season or two. Maybe even a trip to Atlanta.
I just never see this kind of thing happening with the typical teams that “play MSU football”, ones that are physical, run heavy, and focus on D. If you can recruit, every now and then you get a nice roster. With the traditional MSU “nice roster” playing “MSU football” the floor is high (6-6?) but the ceiling is not (8-4?). With something like the air raid, the floor is lower (4-8?) but the ceiling is way up there (10-2? 11-1?). Dak wasn’t Dak until he developed his air game. The best rushing QB in the history of the SEC wasn’t Dak because he never did develop as a passer.
Heck just offer it to Kiffin, he likes jumpin ship, remember Tn ?
How many conference titles did Dan Mullen win? For that matter how many conference titles has Miss St ever won? They won one way back in 1941. That’s it. Are you seriously going to set that as the standard?
Is it wrong to prefer a guy with at least some championship history over a guy with a good HC record? Leach doesn’t offer much upside to me is all I’m saying. 6-6 and beat our rival. The Moorhead hiring by Cohen blew a good run, so now let’s fall back to old times because history says we should.
I get that you might like a coach whose won major conference titles, but why would such a coach choose a program with no track record of winning titles?
*who’s not whose.
Leach has the only qb in ncaa history who can say, “I threw 9 touchdowns, but we lost” I’d be all for it, as long he loses that entire defensive staff and hires a dc with Joe Lee Dunn level stubbornness that’s approved beforehand.
Imagine Leach as HC, Todd Grantham as Associate HC/DC. Talk about the homerun hires.
Yes indeed. That would be a dream situation for us but no way it would happen. But if it came down to one or the other I’d take Grantham over Leach.
On out of two so far
So what does everyone think about Skip Holtz? Personally I think he would be a better coach for MSU than Mike Leach or Steve-Bama. He’s the right fit considering Judge didn’t work out!
Thoughts???
That’s what i’m talking bout. SEC will be a complete GAUNTLET again. 2021 will go to SEC. Hopefully, 2020 goes to the ACC.