Mike Leach to Anywhere Running Thread.

I'd love for UConn to hire him for some reason that defies any logic, just so you can see how ridiculous this is. UConn has a very difficult recruiting pitch. Leach is not a good recruiter. The players Edsall was getting were largely blue collar. Even a guy like Donald Brown who carried them for a few years was a workhorse back without great speed.

How you'd turn that into a spread offense that pays no attention to defense would create some serious hilarity. Even if Leach, by virtue of being the second coming of the messiah according to some on here, gets a QB who can run the spread to commit to UConn (the only players who really run that in HS are in Texas, where nearly every HS runs some variation of the spread -- you find very little of it on the East Coast, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and New England), with UConn's recruiting area, where are the rest of the pieces going to come from?

Face it, there are three possible stops that make sense for Mike Leach. Back to the Big 12 and its spreads, although probably as an OC because of his lawsuits, not as a head coach. He is really an OC more than anything. Oklahoma State would be a great fit, if Gundy could accept that he will likely only have the guy for one year until he tries to move on to a head position. If Leach really wants to be a head coach, I could see him in the MAC. He could get away with his offense there, kind of the way that Northern Illinois dominated with a run-based version of it this year. Leach could also possibly fit in in the PAC 10, but only with certain teams. It would be a drastic change from what they have been doing, and with the players they currently have (a very good offensive line), they are more geared to anything but the spread, but if Jim Harbaugh bolts for the NFL or the Michigan job, maybe Leach could fit in there as the OC.

Those are probably his best options. I predict he'll be an OC somewhere this year.

 

Nope. I don't know a ton about CT HS football. I do know a great majority of HS programs in Texas run it. Have been for years. It was why a guy like Riley Dodge went from HS coach to head DI coach at North Texas. I also know the talent level in Texas is way greater than it is in CT. Even if I grant you that half the teams in CT are running the spread -- and I still find that hard to believe without actual evidence that isn't anecdotal, although I know the spread has, well, spread across High Schools nationwide to some extent the last 2 or 3 years -- most of those players in CT aren't even D III quality, let alone having the ability to play in a D I BCS conference. Forget recruiting CT. There is a dearth of good players there. Edsall was getting his players from nearly every state but Connecticut, and he was picking players largely being unrecruited by the good local schools in those states. Mike Leach will never be able to do that. He's just not a recruiter and to the extent that he is, he is not going to scour the country for players the way Edsall did.

 

Hmmm. Lost my post. Even if I accept your anecdotal observation, there is no way the spread is being run in CT anywhere near the amount it is run in Texas. Plus, it is moot. CT doesn't put out football players worth a lick. Most of those spread QBs, if they exist, aren't good enough to play D III. Look at where Edsall was getting players. He was recruiting from nearly every state in the country, with only a handful of players from CT. He cherry-picked blue collar players being ignored by the football powers in their own states and got them to come to UConn with the promise of playing time at a DI BCS school. Mike Leach is never going to beat the bushes like that. He barely wanted to recruit the state of Texas, let alone putting in that kind of effort. This is all moot. He's not getting the UConn job. If he wants to coach, I am betting he will be an OC somewhere.