Over the last week there have been a ton of openings at the head coach position in College Football, at a lot of prestigious programs. Penn State, UCLA, Ole Miss, Illinois, Kansas, Arizona, and Arizona State just to name a few. There's already been some BIG name hires at some of these schools. Urban Meyer went to Ohio State, and Rich Rodriguez just signed with Arizona. But one of the biggest hires that the fewest amount of people will be talking about is Mike Leach going to Washington State. The man who revolutionized the West Coast offense is now going to the West Coast. Other than how big of a name and hire this is, it's almost the exact same situation he was in when he signed at Texas Tech in 2000. Throughout the 80s and 90s Texas Tech's football program wasn't even on the map and nobody thought that within 8 years the Red Raiders would have a team contending for a National Championship with 2 Heisman Trophy candidates, but it happened. And it was all due to the geniius mind of Mike Leach. Look at the success his followers have had this year. U of H, who had Dana Holgorsen(Leach's Offensive Coordinator from 2000-2007), now has former Texas Tech QB Kliff Kingsbury, is competing for an undefeated season with hopes of a BCS appearance and a Heisman finalist in QB Case Keenum. Oklahoma State, who also had Dana Holgorsen at Offensive Coordinator, is having one of the best years in school history, and until their loss to Iowa State was a National Championship contender. West Virginia hired Dana Holgorsen as their head coach this past year and once he gets to plug in his own recruits, look out for the Mountaineers. Now, 11 years later it sounds like the mad scientist is going for another ride with an unrespected program that's been a bit of laughing stock over the past few years. And unlike having to deal with UT and OU in your own conference subdivision, the Pac-12 North will only have one true threat in Oregon. He's gonna be facing Utah, Colorado, Oregon State, and Washington, not the stiffest of competition. This Washington State team could easily be competing for the Pac-12 Title every year. With all the recent corruption of these College Football programs, Ohio State and Penn State to name a few, the more time that goes by since the Mike Leach firing the worst that Texas Tech looks. I'm happy for Leach and it's only a matter of time before everyone's saying "Where'd this Washington State team come from?"

 

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