OT - Possible Mike Leach to Nebraska?
October 16th, 2017 at 7:48 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 7:55 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:50 AM ^
Oklahoma is close to Texas. Only three hours to Dallas from Norman. That's "local" enough.
October 16th, 2017 at 5:58 AM ^
I could see Mike Leach having more interest in a shot at the Tennessee job. The Neb fans keep thinking they can go back to their glory days but I don't think that will ever happen again. It is just too hard to recruit there in these days.
When does Butch Jones get canned? Today or do they make him coach the game at Alabama this weekend? That ought to go well.
October 16th, 2017 at 7:38 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:51 AM ^
I don't really buy that whole idea that Nebraska will never go back to where they were. Or at the very least, I don't buy the idea that it doesn't have the ability to get back there.
If you get the right coach in there who wins big games, gets kids to the NFL and puts you in contention to win championships, recruits will go there. You don't need to even find an A-List hotshot to go out there and do it. Just need the right guy who knows exactly what he wants, develops his talent well, and is given the right amount of time to build his program (see: Mark Dantonio).
A lot of kids would be more than willing to go all the way to Nebraska if they knew that they would be competing for national titles and have a coaching staff that will prepare them for getting to the next level. Nebraska still has everything a big-time program needs to be successful. They've got the resources and fanbase support that places like Alabama, Michigan and OSU have (location excluded). Their problem has just been that they've made poor hires.
Lastly, even though they're not surrounded by much, Lincoln and Omaha are still good sized cities. So you're not completely in podunk. It's not like Nebraska just all of a sudden moved to the middle of nowhere in the last few years. They've always been there, and they always found ways to get kids from TX and CA to come there. They can do it again with the right coach.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 11:13 PM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 6:17 AM ^
They’ll get that in spades with Leach. Nebraska just does not seem like a cultural fit for Leach. I’d be surprised if they don’t go balls to the wall for Scott Frost.
October 16th, 2017 at 7:40 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:03 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 6:36 AM ^
I agree that it would be wisest for him to stay put and enjoy the appreciation that WSU fans will afford him even when he has lackluster seasons. Too much pressure at the big schools like Tenn and Neb.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:03 AM ^
See my post above. This is precisely why it could happen.
October 16th, 2017 at 7:52 AM ^
Mike Leach is as anti-establishment as any head coach in college football. No way Nebraska brings him in and I doubt he even leaves Washington State. At WSU he is able to pretty much say and do whatever the hell he wants (within reason) and not get any flack for it. Nebraska is as traditional a college football school as it gets. The fit would essentially be worse than when Michigan hired RichRod.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:00 AM ^
At first glance, your post makes a lot of sense.
But wiining greases all things, and Leach just might be their best chance to become relevant again in the modern age.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:09 AM ^
But if Leach comes in, there will be a lot of boosters who right out of the gate wont like him. His leash will already be short and I doubt Nebraska will be willing to endure the losing seasons and smart ass press conferences in order to get to the possible winning years, which would take a couple years. Again, I think it would be really similar to RichRod and Michigan, only Leach isn't some folksy, aw shucks guy, he can be a legitimage jackass to the media and establishment. Which is why I doubt Leach leaves since he has a program he built, in a conference that he is already competing to win. Of course money talks, but Leach seems like the guy who would be willing to take less money to be able to have a little bit more freedom from the AD. I mean, he was too much of a prick for Texas Tech to keep him and they had really never had success before or after him.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:54 AM ^
Leach wins . . . sometimes. He also has some down periods.
WSU fans just look the other way during those down periods. Who else is going to be better? (a hint to us, BTW).
Nebraska fans will eat him alive during those down periods. His show is not so entertaining then.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^
At one time-prior to adding programs and upgrading academics-NE was able to get about 20-25 more on their roster just from their state. Their tuition was about the same as a MI juco and this allowed them to get any kid from that state that could walk and count to three to be a target for their ol and FB positions. If a kid didn't have 2,000 a year to get in the doors, I'm sure they had no problems finding donations. This opened up the door to so many option qbs and a ton of RBs from Omaha. If you don't have to give ships to FBs and OLmen, and remember they used about one wideout per game, you could take these resources and load up on defensive and TB talent. Made a ton of difference for Tom Osbourne and think they would have been better served finding a place at the table in the Big 12 with their lower admission standards.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:11 AM ^
Although Leach would probably rub a lot of Nebraska fans the wrong way, Leach's personality in the Big Ten would make the conference just that much more intriguing. Watching the analysts at BTN try to interpret a Leach presser would actually be pretty amusing too, I would think. Not sure how much of a chance this has of occuring, and although he might not be #1 on any shopping list for the Cornhuskers, I would be interested in another notorious eccentric in the conference.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:35 AM ^
I seem to remember Nebraska firing a guy 2-3 years ago in part because of his very loud, angry personality that just didn't mesh well with Nebraska fans. And now they want to go after a guy who will take that and multiply it by 5?
Leach would not be a good cultural fit in Lincoln, and I have a feeling Nebraska's laidback, "aww shucks" fanbase would grow tired of him very quickly. And while he'll win you some games once he gets "his guys," he is what he is at this point, and he's just not going to get Nebraska back to where they were.
I think Nebraska ought to go balls to the wall for Scott Frost. Doing really well at UCF, runs a 21st century offense and had a ton of success with it at Oregon, recruiting connections in FL, young guy coming into his prime, and an alum. So far, he seems like the full package, so they might want to grab him before someone else does. He will be in high demand when the season is over.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:35 AM ^
OK, I get that UNL is the University of Nebraska, Lincoln....but since when have they been called that? Is this something new? I have never seen them referred to as UNL before reading this thread.
October 16th, 2017 at 9:47 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:38 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 8:46 AM ^
Nebraska was a good add for the Big Ten, but I personally think it was a mistake on their part to leave the Big 12, Texas or no Texas.
They have lost their natural recruiting grounds in Texas. Good players they used to get are now going to Houston and TCU and TT.
Meanwhile, they can't pick up enough scraps from Ohio and Chicago to make up for it.
The Frost hire (not Leach) seems like a last chance for them to make it work in the Big Ten.
October 16th, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 9:32 AM ^
Convincing a Texas/OK kid that he needs to play in the Big Ten seems as difficult as convincing an Ohio kid that he needs to go to Nebraska.
I mean what is Nebraska in the Big Ten other than another Iowa? That would be fine in itself, if Nebraska wasn't convinced they're Alabama on the Plains.
October 16th, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
Were before the Texas schools joined the Big 8 to form the Big 12. They used to be quite good at recruiting New Jersey and Florida in particular back in the Osborne days.
Nebraska has to have a definite identity to be successful. They can't just be "oh yeah they do some spread stuff" or "oh yeah, they do some pro style stuff." They have to have a definite brand of football that people can point to and go "that's Nebraska" so they can recruit nationally. In the 60s that was being pro style. In the 80s and 90s, it was the option out of a pro style formation that let them do all the triple option stuff while also running all the big beefy manball stuff too.
Scott Frost bringing that Chip Kelly system to Nebraska just makes sense. It's a thing they can market.
October 16th, 2017 at 8:58 AM ^
Some of the CFB's most loyal and classiest fans have given up. They are in the Hoke days now. I feel for them ( a little). What OSU did to them was cruel and usual punishment causing fans leaving in droves at halftime. Despite having some real concerns in A2 right now, it makes one appreciate how far we have come from those "dark ages".
Leach would be entertaining but not Nebraska football. Frost makes all the sense in the world.
October 16th, 2017 at 9:34 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 9:27 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 9:27 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 9:27 AM ^
Leach is a perfect fit of weird for Wazzu. Nebraska fans would go nuts losing to a FCS school once in awhile.
October 16th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
I do think Leach is definitely going to be aggressively shopping his services elseware now that Moos is gone, but I don't think Moos/Leach are some package deal. The big news about Moos going to Nebraska is that Nebraska has an AD who has experience hiring good coaches. He is old school and knows how to spot talent without needing a search firm to tell him "oh Mike Riley is available! You marked down on your forms you valued pro style background!"
Everyone is focusing too much on "oh he hired Leach to Wazzu." They should also remember that this is the guy who hired Chip Kelly, Frost's coaching mentor, to Oregon. This feels like putting the pieces in place to make sure Nebraska doesn't fuck up the Frost hire, similar to what Michigan did to make sure they didn't fuck up Harbaugh the 2nd time around.
October 16th, 2017 at 10:03 AM ^
October 16th, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
I could see more Leach Press Conferences. The guy is a great quote.
"We were a bunch of pathetic frontrunners."
October 16th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^
But I want Mike Leach in the B1G SO BADLY. I'm not sure where his weird personality would fit best based on current tenures, but I follow a TV reporter in Pullman just because they post video from his presser's and they are magical.
October 16th, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^
I could see Leach taking what we would normally see as a lateral move. He was very close to Moos. If Illinois decides they've seen enough of their former NFL coach past his prime phoning it in for a college, that makes some sense for Leach.
October 16th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
They need to go back to their roots. Triple option should be their thing.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
But after facing Air Force this season, I want no parts of facing the triple option ever again.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
Leach does his finest work in the PAC12. He's adored in Pullman.
Nebraska's next HC is going to be either Scott Frost (UCF), Craig Bohl (Wyoming) or Bob Stitt (Montana).
October 16th, 2017 at 1:09 PM ^
October 17th, 2017 at 12:05 AM ^