Reaction to Mike Leach hiring

By Kshell

The Washington State Cougars did something they haven't ever done in their school history. When Bill Moos had announced the hiring of former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach the Cougars immediately became the talk of college football for the day. In a shocking move to most(remember who said would coach the Cougars the minute Jeff Tuel was injured week one) fans throughout the nation the Cougars landed the controversial coach. The Cougars not only landed Leach but they are paying him 11 million over five years. Considering their previous head coach Paul Wulff made less money than the Huskies underachieving defensive coordinator this is huge news since Leach is tied with Steve Sarkisian as the third highest paid coach in the conference. Leach while at Texas Tech went 84-43(.661) and 47-33(.587) in conference. In 10 seasons at Tech Leach led the Red Raiders to 10 bowl games which is how many bowl games the Cougars have made in over 100 years of playing football. Moos is giving Leach a second chance after an undeserved firing.

In 2009, Texas Tech had suspended Leach then fired him once he had a lawsuit against the suspension. Leach is currently having an ongoing lawsuit with ESPN and Texas Tech as we speak. One year removed from being the national coach of the year while leading the Red Raiders to an 11-2 record Leach was fired during an 8-4 season which saw his team go to the Alamo Bowl. Controversy hit Leach when he fueded with ESPN analyst Craig James(who is a douchebag by the way) son Adam James. James used his dad's ESPN powers to complain about playing time and interfering with Leach. Leach was fired for telling Adam James to leave practice and sit in a dark room as he had a concussion. The facts are if he was me or anyone reading this post Leach would still be coaching at Texas Tech. Instead he cried to his dad because everything in his life has been handed to him so Tech sided with the James family. The riks for Moos by hiring Leach is that ESPN won't televise any of their games which is a nice theory. The flaw in this theory is that the Cougars never once appeared on ABC or ESPN under Paul Wulff. The way Moos handled the firing of Wulff while transitioning to Leach reminded me of the Jim Lambright to Rick Neuheisel transition.

The details of the Leach hiring was released and they weren't good. After the Utah loss Moos contacted Leach about the coaching position. After the Apple Cup loss that Monday Leach had accepted the position as head football coach of the Cougars. Which is all fine except for one small detail. Former head coach Paul Wulff and alumni was forced to sit through two meetings on Sunday and Monday with Wulff. Wulff also had an alumni gathering he attended on Monday despite Moos knowing his fate for a week. Moos dragged Wulff along which is very slimy especially to an alumni. Wulff loved the Cougars like Lambright loved the Huskies. The Huskies in 1998 had a bowl game in Hawaii playing Air Force. The earlier game was Colorado against Oregon which apparently then AD Barbara Hedges was interviewing Rick Neuheisel. Both programs stabbed a guy in the back who had played for their program to make their biggest hire at the time. Neuheisel brought instant results winning a Rose Bowl in his second season. Neuheisel also didn't love the Huskies and was constantly looking for other jobs while doing an average job of recruiting. The Cougars might suffer the same fate as Wulff loved the Cougars and was doing things the right way. While Leach could possibly use the Cougars as a stepping stone. At the end of the day the details of Wulff's firing won't be remembered especially if Leach does the impossible which is making them the main team in this state.

Every athletic director at his press conference makes a ton of promises that he ultimately has no intention on fulfilling. Well Moos proved today he is serious about making the Washington State Cougars a "big time" program. Going behind your coaches backs even if they are alumni is part of the game in big time college sports. Moos knows the drill too well. He realizes that while in Pullman sentimental values goes a long ways he realizes in the real world that means jack shit. Prior to the Leach hire in the last 40 years the Cougars had hired only one coach with D-1 experience. That coach was Dennis Erickson who coached a whopping one year at the "powerhouse" known as Wyoming. Moos isn't going to accept being the Huskies bitch anymore, he won't accept being in last place but hearing crap like "progress". Moos lives in reality which is wins and losses is the only thing that matters. Moos knows with a stadium deal coming up he needed to bring excitement to Pullman and living here in Seattle the Cougars not the bowl bound Huskies were the talk of the town. Moos did what he had to do which is make the Cougars a BCS program finally.

In conclusion, as a Huskies fan I'm actually happy with this hire and scared at the same time. I'm happy because this will force the Huskies to keep up on their toes. If the Huskies slack off like they did from 2004-2008 Leach will take advantage where Bill Doba failed to do so. Look for the Huskies to counter with a big move of their own and if they don't well we deserve what we get. The Cougars sacrificed their "innocence" as Wulff said to become a real BCS program. The Cougars can never call any other program sleezy or classless again. The Cougars won't care as they won't be the laughing joke of the conference anymore. Instead Leach is taking over an offense who averaged 29.8 points per game and 322.3(9th in the nation) yards passing a game with three different quarterbacks. Now that Leach is in town instead of Wulff look for the Cougars already good passing attack which is returning two quality quarterbacks and although the Pac-12 idiots don't think so a first team all conference receiver to lead the nation in yards passing per game. The apple cup will finally be a rivalry once again which will confuse fans if they are watching football or a basketball game. Welcome to the Pac-12 Mike Leach. Welcome to college football Washington State we've been waiting for 100 years. Moos understands the message that it's all about wins and losses.



Watch this video as Leach will show you he isn't at all like Wulff. You think this guy will make excuses after a loss? Yea I don't think so.

Mike Leach speech after a WIN over Baylor

#23 Huskies get revenge over Texas Tech 108-79

By Kshell

The #23 Washington Huskies(5-2) got some sweet revenge in a blowout win over Texas Tech(5-4) 108-79. The Huskies today used their transition defense for some quick easy scores as they scored 61 points in the first half which was highlighted by Justin Holiday scoring 17 of his career high 20 points in the first half. The Huskies closed the first half out on an 8-0 run to take a 61-42 lead in the first half. The Huskies would continue to show off their depth as nine different players scored six points or more in a school record fourth game of scoring 100 points or more. The Huskies in their other win scored 98 points against Eastern Washington. When the Huskies are shooting well from beyond the arc(9-17,52.9%) they are a really tough team to beat.

The Huskies Co-Captain Justin Holiday started the game off on fire. The Huskies lead 14-8 to begin the game which saw Holiday shoot five of seven for 13 points including three for three on three point field goals. For the second straight game Lorenzo Romar decided to start Aziz N'Diaye over Matthew Bryan-Amaning. Bryan-Amaning would respond scoring 18 points on 8 for 13 shooting on the game. Isaiah Thomas would also carry the Huskies in the first half scoring 14 points as the Huskies scored an oustanding 61 points in the first half. Most college teams don't even score 61 points all game let alone one half.




The Huskies kept up the scoring in the second half outscoring Texas Tech 47-37 in the second half. The Huskies blew out Texas Tech and the game was never close in the second half with the Huskies holding a double digit lead the entire game. The Huskies even found time to get walk-on fan favorite Brandon Sherrer in the game and he scored which had the crowd going crazy. The Huskies would finish the blowout win 108-79 making that the fifth game this year they have scored over 98 points on the young season. The Huskies leading scorers would be Justin Holiday would score 20 points, Thomas would finish with 16, with Bryan-Amaning scoring 18 points off the bench, and freshman C.J. Wilcox would score 11 points hitting three three pointers. The Huskies would see 11 different guys play and score.

The Huskies prove once again they can destroy average to bad teams. The Huskies have an explosive and deep team that will run teams out of the gym all season long. The Huskies have so many weapons it is hard to defend just one and have great defenders this year. It was good to see the Huskies taking care of business with the blowout win over Texas Tech. Romar teams are always tough at home, they'll get a test next week at Texas A & M so that should be a good test.

Observations:



- Justin Holiday is the best player on the team. He scored 20 points today and carried the team early on when the team came out struggling. Holiday is also the teams best defender and added nine rebounds. Holiday is the one player since Brandon Roy that the Huskies will have a hard time to replace next year. No player in his Husky career has evolved quite like Justin Holiday who is a great shooter now.

- The Huskies didn't fall in love with the three point shot today as they attempted just 17 three pointers. The Huskies only had three guys hit three pointers in Holiday(4-7), Wilcox(3-5), and Gaddy(2-2). The Huskies have good shooters this year as eight guys in the rotation are capable of knocking down a three point shot.

- For the second straight game Matthew Bryan-Amaning came off the bench and responded by scoring 18 points. Aziz N'Diaye is still a work in progress on offense but brings a defensive stability that the Huskies were lacking. Bryan-Amaning needs to step up against a big time opponent when the opportunity comes.

At the end of the day the Huskies simply took care of business against a team they should have beat. Nobody thought the Huskies would lose this game. They will get one final test before Pac-10 play next week when they travel down to play at Texas A & M hopefully the Huskies can keep hitting their outside shots. The Huskies should be fine and it will be interesting to see if Romar keeps starting Aziz over Bryan-Amaning.