Brian - please keep your current approach & I hope you never leave.
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the national
- the Front Range
Brian, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…and again…and again. You’ll get there - Keep trying. Don’t listen to what those other people are saying. Hang in there. Don’t give up and stay the course.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
You'd have never thought this way 10 years ago, but there's really a lot of commonality between Leach and Paul Johnson in being iconoclasts that play a very pure, defiantly simple style of football that challenges defenses in a unique way and is built to react and counter to however a defense tries to stop it within its own framework.
Another note, Leach has never had an offensive coordinator or quarterback coach. Those roles are him and him alone. He's been very influential and has a long coaching tree now, some of whom with even greater success than him (Lincoln Riley) but none of whom have been as committed to the purity of the doctrine as he is. He maxes out the strengths and happily accepts the weaknesses of playing that way.
Air Raid principles have become part of the bedrock of football at all levels now, and yet Leach feels like the last of a dying breed in his full-spectrum adherence to the concept.
Leach got into trouble at Texas Tech over medical treatment of possible concussion of Craig James son.
www.si.com
Illinois was too politically correct to hire somebody with that hanging over them. Of course then we had medical scandal with Beckman so go figure.
I agree- Leach wins wherever he goes. His teams are very entertaining and he is very colorful. Would have been better hire than Beckman or Lovie.
The Bonus: The battle between Mike Leach and Craig James at Texas Tech
Hance called Leach and suggested three things that would put James's complaint to rest: pay a fine, perhaps as much as $60,000; apologize to the James family;
www.si.com
Illinois was too politically correct to hire somebody with that hanging over them. Of course then we had medical scandal with Beckman so go figure.
I agree- Leach wins wherever he goes. His teams are very entertaining and he is very colorful. Would have been better hire than Beckman or Lovie.
I think the big ten is a hard conference to air raid in when the elements play a big role in the second half of the season.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Pullman, WA is no warmer than Champaign and if anything has more wind and precipitation. Also, notwithstanding its Pac 12 status, it's further from Los Angeles than Champaign is from Tampa, it's really really distant from its talent pool.
Leach proved at Wazzu that it's not just a fair weather system, and is proving at MSU that it's not just for the defense-optional conferences. Those things are problems at the margin - not a coincidence Texas Tech was still his most successful period - but those aren't fatal challenges by any means.
He'd have succeeded here, I have no doubt of it. Maybe at a slightly lower level, maybe he never finds his Gardner Minshew here, and he definitely would have gotten himself fired in some bizarre incident or other eventually, but we'd have caused defenses fits and made a bunch of bowls.
Mike White always said defenses were at more of a disadvantage in inclement weather - the offensive players know where they are going and you are more likely to slip when you are reacting rather than initiating movement
Leach speaks his mind, especially after he's had a few years to settle into the job. And eventually he rubs the wrong people the wrong way and things go south from there. But he leaves it better than he found it.
Fleck to Nebraska???
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
that’s just Flecks agents angling for a raise & extension from Minny
I’ll say NFW does Nebby have any real interest in him
Absolutely. I heard it straight from his agent.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it" - Voltaire
IlliniCardinal
- Minneapolis
There are a lot of boats to be rowed in the Cornhusker state…
On a serious note, I think PJ’s recruiting would pay off more at Nebraska. But I’d be surprised if he left ‘sota.
Who is this guy? I could go click on his twitter bio, but is he legit?
band camp
- STL City
Droopy Johnson? Feels like BS.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Uh, yeah, if that wasn't enough of a giveaway, the guy has 367 followers, joined Twitter this year, and tweeted on Oct. 18th, "Hearing Scott Frost has been fired by Nebraska. Wow."
Why post random tweets without at least taking a second to see if they're even somewhat legit? This is impressively egregious.
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pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Elite egregious....
Hats off, I thought I'd heard every fake name by now.
AND he's a junior...his dad was big droopy Johnson.
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Laugh all you want but sleep on a Drew P. Johnson tip at your own risk.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Hmm. Should I sit out the Mike Leach love fest that broke out here. As a Seattle Illini fan with a tiny bit of exposure to the Huskies and Cougs .. Leach teams lost the last five Apple Cups he coached. His act eventually gets stale. He eventually says something too far and forces the issue and has to get fired.
He coached at Texas Tech while Bobby Knight was there. He has credited Knight with teaching him how to interact with the media. In interviews it’s uncanny sometimes how much he sounds like Knight did. Same whiny blame-the-media tone, same us vs the world, me vs you approach.
If you like all that there’s no doubt he can win games sometimes. But never enough to make up for what a negative jerk he is. If he is YOUR negative jerk then I suppose it’s all good.
He is a good fit in deep red fanbases in rural schools and an AD that doesn’t mind cleaning up his verbal messes. Is that Illinois?
He coached at Texas Tech while Bobby Knight was there. He has credited Knight with teaching him how to interact with the media. In interviews it’s uncanny sometimes how much he sounds like Knight did. Same whiny blame-the-media tone, same us vs the world, me vs you approach.
If you like all that there’s no doubt he can win games sometimes. But never enough to make up for what a negative jerk he is. If he is YOUR negative jerk then I suppose it’s all good.
He is a good fit in deep red fanbases in rural schools and an AD that doesn’t mind cleaning up his verbal messes. Is that Illinois?
DeonThomas
- South Carolina
I can't recall if anyone on here has already listed the Big10 head coaches who were poached by other Big10 programs. (John Pont is a really old one, but I'm not certain of the circumstances surrounding his Indiana departure.) Beyond that, I'm not aware of it happening off the top of my head.
Isn't it an unwritten rule to "keep your hands off our own guys"?
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
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