Part of the beauty of a Mike Leach interview is the unpredictability. He has compiled a lot of greatest hits over the years, but my personal favorite may have been a discourse on dirt-clod fights Leach delivered during an interview with Chris Schmidt of Hail Varsity Radio. It was perhaps the first time I’d thought about dirt clods since my friend and I used to hurl them back and forth at each other from the ditches on either side of the county road on which I lived.
Anyway, like Leach, I digress. On Monday, there was really nothing surprising about Leach’s turn with the media, particularly when it came time for him to address the departure of his former AD Bill Moos, now at Nebraska:
.@Coach_Leach could not say enough great things about Bill Moos. As everyone on the Palouse knows, @Huskers got a great one:#Cougs pic.twitter.com/ANzxsBGfjH
— Evan Closky (@EvanClosky) October 16, 2017
That’s all pretty genuine. Is Leach pumping up his guy while getting a dig in at past administrators who have wronged him? Absolutely. But he wouldn’t say great things if that were the only reason. There has to be some truth to it.
As others have noted, Moos makes an interesting appearance in Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s book, “The System.” How Moos’ returned to Washington State is the topic of one chapter, and then there’s another chapter featuring a detailed recreation of how Moos brought Leach to Pullman.
It’s a must-read. Moos basically secured Leach as his next head coach with the help of just two confidants, no search committee. Part of his pitch to Leach’s agent, Gary O’Hagan, was that Washington State was his last stop.
As we learned this week Washington State wasn’t his last stop, though I don’t doubt that Moos intended it to be. Things change.
But if Leach feels betrayed he certainly wasn’t showing it yesterday. If you want to get a better understanding of why he was saying the sorts of things he did about Moos, I highly encourage checking out the book. Moos’ courting of Leach is a pretty great tale.
Programming Note
You can read the latest column from Lauren Cook right here on Hail Varsity later today, and while I’m always excited for that, I’m also excited for this:
If you haven’t heard: me, @jcook2 & a mic tomorrow night on the @HuskerSports Nebraska VB show. It will be interesting to say the least!
— Lauren (Cook) West (@lo_westy) October 16, 2017
Should be fun.
The Best Option
Central Florida is facing Navy this week, and, as Nebraska fans know well, facing a pure option attack is something of an anomaly in today’s football. It requires special training and practice. A team needs a scout-team quarterback who can run the darn thing to give the defense a look during the week of preparation, and those guys are hard to come by today.
Luckily, UCF has one – head coach Scott Frost. He’s trying to replicate Navy quarterback Zach Abey this week. Abey (1,016 yards) is the second-leading rusher in college football right now one spot behind Stanford running back Bryce Love and one spot ahead of Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor.
“You see him in there running around getting us prepared,” UCF linebacker Shaquem Griffin said Monday. “It’s crazy because he is running so fast that if you are slacking it’s going to show. When you see Coach Frost out running you you know you are doing something wrong. It’s kind of good when you can get a good look from your head coach. It makes you work that much harder.”
Frost, who wore a chin strap-less helmet during Monday morning’s practice, downplayed his involvement as the scout team quarterback.
“We’re going to use quite a few different guys to try to get our guys ready,” said Frost, whose 20th-ranked and undefeated Knights travel to face Navy on Saturday in Annapolis, Md in an American Athletic Conference showdown. “Anything you can do. It’s hard to simulate their looks, especially at the tempo they run it and with the execution they run it so we will do whatever we have to try to get the guys ready.”
Makes me wonder: Who do you think the fastest active FBS head coach is? It’s probably one of these guys, but before assuming as much I’d make them race Frost just to be sure.
The Grab Bag
- Nebraska fans may not need the reminder, but Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett is playing some darn good football right now.
- You want CFP chaos? These are the scenarios for which to root.
- If he keeps playing like he has the past two weeks, Tanner Lee might make this weekly list of the top QBs in college football.
- ICYMI: Some interesting stuff here from Council Bluffs QB Max Duggan on his Nebraska visit and his preferred offense. (Premium)
Today's Song of Today
https://youtu.be/CGgDye2FkSs
Brandon is the Managing Editor for Hail Varsity and has covered Nebraska athletics for the magazine and web since 2012, Hail Varsity’s first season on the scene. His sports writing has also been featured by Fox Sports, The Guardian and CBS Sports.