Leach’s record

[CougPatrol]

1-5 in Apple Cups
1-3 in bowl games

I love the guy, and I’m glad he’s our coach, but we have a 2-8 record in bowl/Apple cups under Leach.

That’s almost an entire seasons worth of sucking in some of the most important games of the season.

 

[Suudy]

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

 

[CougPatrol]

He’s also 1-5 in season openers. So that’s a record of 3-13 in AC, bowls, and season openers.

Not exactly how you want your first & last impressions to go down.

 

[Coug90]

He does a lot of things well as a head coach, but he’s no longer an effective offensive coordinator. He will never do it, but I sure wish he’d relinquish those duties to an actual OC. His offense is stale and predictable with very little misdirection to keep a defense honest/on its heels. Both sides of the ball stunk tonight but the offense was inefficient all year.

 

[cougarmike]

He’s also 1-5 in season openers. So that’s a record of 3-13 in AC, bowls, and season openers.

Not exactly how you want your first & last impressions to go down.

He has also won 26 games the last 3 seasons and gone to three straight bowl games. I can think of only one better three year stretch in Cougar history. Just for some perspective.

 

[OrangeGravy]

He has also won 26 games the last 3 seasons and gone to three straight bowl games. I can think of only one better three year stretch in Cougar history. Just for some perspective.

Yeah that's the hard thing about being a Coug fan. You really want to taste better than that, but realistically you can't expect it. It would be nice to be closer to .500 in those scenarios but other than that WSU football is in the best place it probably will ever be in.

I think we sometimes forget that football and sports are a closed system. There are 109 conference games every season counting the CCG. That breaks out to 109 wins and 109 losses for the conference. If you can average 2/3-1 with wins vs losses you're way ahead of the game. everything else is just gravy especially for WSU

 

[CougPatrol]

Nobody wants Leach to leave, at least nobody I’m aware of, but there are some areas of improvement for our program for sure.

We were fortunate to win some games that we won this season. Boise Stare for sure, and also facing Oregon and Stanford when they had first time starters at QB. All 4 of the games we lost were by 21+ points.

Next year will be a different team, and I think we’ll be more explosive on offense.

 

[ElComanche]

The whole team looked unprepared for the game. Maybe it was because Leach and Grinch spent a lot of time looking for other jobs. It looks like leach will be around for a while now. One hopes that leach hires a excellent defensive coordinator. The offense just has to be better next year.

 

[dgibbons]

He’s also 1-5 in season openers. So that’s a record of 3-13 in AC, bowls, and season openers.

Not exactly how you want your first & last impressions to go down.

I’ll bet that he hasn’t washed his hands after using the bathroom at least once too!

 

[dgibbons]

The whole team looked unprepared for the game. Maybe it was because Leach and Grinch spent a lot of time looking for other jobs. It looks like leach will be around for a while now. One hopes that leach hires a excellent defensive coordinator. The offense just has to be better next year.

But, but, but, I thought everything was Falk’s fault????

 

[Glad Cougar]

Not only did they look unprepared, they were unprepared. Seems like whenever there is extra time for preparation (i.e. season openers, bowl games, bye week before the AC), this team comes out flat and uninspired...as well as nothing new in the game plan. Is there some sort of high level loss of rhythm during those stretches? I don't know what they are or aren't doing as a team and coaching staff, but it's not working under these situations. What bothers me more than the bowl and AC records is the general lack of competitiveness. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth after a very good season.

Glad Cougar

 

[79COUG]

As a head coach, I've always really liked CML.
As a motivator, I think he's sorely lacking.
Whenever we have a big game, i.e. Apple Cup, bowl game, season opener, we fail to match the other teams intensity.
This needs to somehow change. Not sure how it will change because leach won't....but it NEEDS to change!

 

[mister noon]

Not only did they look unprepared, they were unprepared. Seems like whenever there is extra time for preparation (i.e. season openers, bowl games, bye week before the AC), this team comes out flat and uninspired...as well as nothing new in the game plan. Is there some sort of high level loss of rhythm during those stretches? I don't know what they are or aren't doing as a team and coaching staff, but it's not working under these situations. What bothers me more than the bowl and AC records is the general lack of competitiveness. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth after a very good season.

Glad Cougar

yeah and a week off for finals together with coaches out recruiting fits into the bad timing mix with bowl prep - don't know about Michigan State but not every school is on semester system

 

[CougPatrol]

I’ll bet that he hasn’t washed his hands after using the bathroom at least once too!

Oh stop it. I’m not bailing on the program or Leach. I think, looking back, we were a pretty mediocre 9 win team. When we were bad, we were really bad. When we were good, we beat USC, Stanford, and Boise St. by a nose.

We’re on to Spring Ball!

 

[BiggsCoug]

He has also won 26 games the last 3 seasons and gone to three straight bowl games. I can think of only one better three year stretch in Cougar history. Just for some perspective.

Totally agree with your perspective.

I don't think you could ignore the fact that he's either coached the team to overachive because they've won games they probably shouldn't have. Or if he's coached the team to underachieve because they've lost games they shouldn't have.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

The criticisms of Leach are mostly valid. He makes strange decisions, he doesn't seem to motivate his teams and he goes off the rails every now and again. Our offense can become predictable against defenses that are very good.

My hope is that as time goes on, our talent level continues to creep up and we get to the point where a Cougar team that is just going about it's business is good enough to show up against a motivated, fundamentally sound opponent. We are not going to out-athlete USC, UW and others anytime soon, but the system is good enough to give us a chance in most games and should get better against the better teams soon.

 

[PeteTheChop]

As a head coach, I've always really liked CML.
As a motivator, I think he's sorely lacking.
Whenever we have a big game, i.e. Apple Cup, bowl game, season opener, we fail to match the other teams intensity.
This needs to somehow change. Not sure how it will change because leach won't....but it NEEDS to change!

Could this be where moving Jason Gesser to assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/recruiting coordinator could help?

Hard to imagine Coug players not responding to Gesser's motivational tactics.

 

[BiggsCoug]

He does a lot of things well as a head coach, but he’s no longer an effective offensive coordinator. He will never do it, but I sure wish he’d relinquish those duties to an actual OC. His offense is stale and predictable with very little misdirection to keep a defense honest/on its heels. Both sides of the ball stunk tonight but the offense was inefficient all year.

The offense is a joke. The other teams DC calls the plays for WSU.

No run game, no misdirection, no option, no play action.

They run 4 receivers into 8 defenders every snap. Defense takes away anything deep and anything crossing. Offense is now dink, dunk, everything easy to defend.

Unless they get a dynamic QB that can run, they'll never force 8 in the box to open the passing game.

Unless they get a back that can break one, they'll never see 8 in the box.

Unless they get a receiver that can take the top off the defense, ah shit. You get the idea.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Could this be where moving Jason Gesser to assistant head coach/special teams coordinator/recruiting coordinator could help?

Hard to imagine Coug players not responding to Gesser's motivational tactics.

AHC or coordinator? Dumb. When was the last time he was coaching? And you wanna make him AHC? How do you think that'd go over on the staff???

 

[avabob11]

In this game we were without our top two receivers, or starting QB, and our best defensive player. Our QB was apparently playing hurt all year. No team at WSU is going to have the depth to overcome these issues late in the season. Look at Prices late seasoin record. He never won a November road game till 1997. Do you think he just got dumb after Halloween. Same with Leach. Yes he has a penchant for some inexplicable losses, but how many times has he had a healthy starter at QB for the Apple Cup

 

[PeteTheChop]

AHC or coordinator? Dumb. When was the last time he was coaching? And you wanna make him AHC? How do you think that'd go over on the staff???

From what I understand, assistant head coach is kind of a ceremonial title more than anything.

I get your point, though.

But JG might need to be in a position of authority — even if it's mostly in name only — to best grab the attention of the players.

Just looking for ways to add a spark under CML.

 

[BiggsCoug]

From what I understand, assistant head coach is kind of a ceremonial title more than anything.

I get your point, though.

But JG might need to be in a position of authority — even if it's mostly in name only — to best grab the attention of the players.

Just looking for ways to add a spark under CML.

He doesn't need a title. Kids don't care about titles.

 

[CougPatrol]

We had no bullets in the gun yesterday. I like our young WRs, but that was a very good defense they faced.

I like Williams at RB, but I’d like to see a 3rd down back with elite speed back there too. We looked slow last night, and really all season we never threatened the top of the defense.

As Biggs pointed out, we run 4 receivers into 7-8 man coverage for routes that are always within 15 yards of the LOS. Good secondary’s can stuff that.

 

[Coug90]

The offense is a joke. The other teams DC calls the plays for WSU.

No run game, no misdirection, no option, no play action.

They run 4 receivers into 8 defenders every snap. Defense takes away anything deep and anything crossing. Offense is now dink, dunk, everything easy to defend.

Unless they get a dynamic QB that can run, they'll never force 8 in the box to open the passing game.

Unless they get a back that can break one, they'll never see 8 in the box.

Unless they get a receiver that can take the top off the defense, ah shit. You get the idea.

Based on their recruiting class it looks like they’ll have all of these. We had a pretty good trio of backs here, but Borghi looks to me like he could be better than all of them. A couple of bigger receivers coming into the fold with the freshmen already here looks good too. But back to the ultimate problem, which to me is Leach and his in game offensive gameplan. It consistently sucks. And the refusal to run the ball at all is just plain dumb. This offense would hum at a ratio of 60-70% passes instead of the current 5 runs a game.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Based on their recruiting class it looks like they’ll have all of these. We had a pretty good trio of backs here, but Borghi looks to me like he could be better than all of them. A couple of bigger receivers coming into the fold with the freshmen already here looks good too. But back to the ultimate problem, which to me is Leach and his in game offensive gameplan. It consistently sucks. And the refusal to run the ball at all is just plain dumb. This offense would hum at a ratio of 60-70% passes instead of the current 5 runs a game.

Soooo much would open up if they were 60%-70% pass/run.

And the OL coach sucks. He needs to go. Any accolades the kids get are in spite of, not because of.

 

[StormyCOUG42]

I saw a statistic this morning that Leach coached WSU teams are horrendous when teams have more than one week to game plan for them. This leads me to believe that opposing coaches have figured out the air raid and, when given extra time to prepare, have been largely successful in forcing us to throw everything underneath for short gains. When we are executing at less than 100%, this causes a lot of 3 and outs. What can we do to combat this? Will a mobile QB keep the opposing D more honest? Do we need to get more creative with our use of the RB? More importantly, will Leach make these changes? He is a great coach but he doesn't come across as a guy who is willing to adjust his scheme.

 

[wazzubruce]

Nobody wants Leach to leave, at least nobody I’m aware of, but there are some areas of improvement for our program for sure.

We were fortunate to win some games that we won this season. Boise Stare for sure, and also facing Oregon and Stanford when they had first time starters at QB. All 4 of the games we lost were by 21+ points.

Next year will be a different team, and I think we’ll be more explosive on offense.

WSU played without key players all season also on Defense.... it should be pointed out.

 

[Coug90]

WSU played without key players all season also on Defense.... it should be pointed out.

Everyone has injuries. UW had guys out all over the place and they still smoked us. Injuries suck and losing two of our receivers to BS didn’t help, but I don’t think we were any worse off than the average team as far as injuries.

 

[dgibbons]

Everyone has injuries. UW had guys out all over the place and they still smoked us. Injuries suck and losing two of our receivers to BS didn’t help, but I don’t think we were any worse off than the average team as far as injuries.

And let's be honest, losing players hurts, but the staff has had the whole bowl prep period to figure out how to make the team look functional.

 

[PINGDUDE4]

The offense is a joke. The other teams DC calls the plays for WSU.

No run game, no misdirection, no option, no play action.

They run 4 receivers into 8 defenders every snap. Defense takes away anything deep and anything crossing. Offense is now dink, dunk, everything easy to defend.

Unless they get a dynamic QB that can run, they'll never force 8 in the box to open the passing game.

Unless they get a back that can break one, they'll never see 8 in the box.

Unless they get a receiver that can take the top off the defense, ah shit. You get the idea.

Your "unlesses" is what is accurate.

Two teams that run Leach's offense had wins and each had over 500 yards of offense yesterday against teams that are known as defensive powers.- Okie State and TCU.

You have to have playmakers.

 

[Observer11]

Totally agree with your perspective.

I don't think you could ignore the fact that he's either coached the team to overachive because they've won games they probably shouldn't have. Or if he's coached the team to underachieve because they've lost games they shouldn't have.

So it’s essentially Mike Price - Part Two. Which is fine.

 

[PINGDUDE4]

And let's be honest, losing players hurts, but the staff has had the whole bowl prep period to figure out how to make the team look functional.

You really think they can mimic MSU's defense enough in practices to get a QB making his first start ready for real game action ?

Personally when I saw Falk was not playing , I knew either the defense steps up or it was not going to be pretty.

Buckle up whoever gets the starting role next season will have a learning curve. That is why I think if the incoming Freshman is what he appears to be, he will be the man next year.

 

[PINGDUDE4]

I saw a statistic this morning that Leach coached WSU teams are horrendous when teams have more than one week to game plan for them. This leads me to believe that opposing coaches have figured out the air raid and, when given extra time to prepare, have been largely successful in forcing us to throw everything underneath for short gains. When we are executing at less than 100%, this causes a lot of 3 and outs. What can we do to combat this? Will a mobile QB keep the opposing D more honest? Do we need to get more creative with our use of the RB? More importantly, will Leach make these changes? He is a great coach but he doesn't come across as a guy who is willing to adjust his scheme.

"This leads me to believe that opposing coaches have figured out the air raid"

Then the Defensive Coordinators at Virginia Tech and Stanford need to be fired today. They had several weeks to prep for Ok. State and TCU and gave up over 500 yards of offense each.

 

[YakiCoug]

He has also won 26 games the last 3 seasons and gone to three straight bowl games. I can think of only one better three year stretch in Cougar history. Just for some perspective.

Cougpatrol/Palousepuma was perfectly fine with 4-8. Damn Leach for winning 26 games in three years.
As for the loss to MSU, three offensive starters were out, as was the team's best defender for a half. And there had been a steady stream of "coaches leaving" distractions leading up to the game.
But I'll give patrol's point some consideration. WSU is not ending its seasons well. Yes, we've won more games the last three years than we have since 2001-2003. We're flirting with winning the north division, but we are not competitive at the end of the season. There is a possibility that THIS is as good as it will get.

 

[dgibbons]

You really think they can mimic MSU's defense enough in practices to get a QB making his first start ready for real game action ?

Personally when I saw Falk was not playing , I knew either the defense steps up or it was not going to be pretty.

Buckle up whoever gets the starting role next season will have a learning curve. That is why I think if the incoming Freshman is what he appears to be, he will be the man next year.

I know it's not in Leach's nature, but he could call a few run plays. The RBs (at least until Morrow got hurt) are the best unit on the offense.

And that preparation thing goes for the D as well. MSU ran the speed option 10+ times, and not once did the defense look like it had the slight clue how to stop it. To be fair, I have no idea if MSU ran that during the regular season.

 

[PINGDUDE4]

I know it's not in Leach's nature, but he could call a few run plays. The RBs (at least until Morrow got hurt) are the best unit on the offense.

And that preparation thing goes for the D as well. MSU ran the speed option 10+ times, and not once did the defense look like it had the slight clue how to stop it. To be fair, I have no idea if MSU ran that during the regular season.

Not letting Leach off the hook entirely , but he did try to dumb down the game as much as possible for the new QB. Short passes to get some rhythm etc., but with way that the D was playing the offense needed to be more dynamic. More runs would have worked if they were loosened up but you are not going to line and run the ball against a B1G defense. There was a decent jet stream call that the QB messed up with bad ball handling ( weakest part of his skill set).

But you are right the Defense looked lost and like they were surprised about anything MSU was doing on offense.

 

[Loyal Coug]

Your "unlesses" is what is accurate.

Two teams that run Leach's offense had wins and each had over 500 yards of offense yesterday against teams that are known as defensive powers.- Okie State and TCU.

You have to have playmakers.

Questions (I don't know the answers):

Do OSU and TCU do the wide OL splits? Does anyone besides WSU? It is a pretty significant cornerstone of the system, if you don't do that are you really running the "Air Raid"?

Do OSU, TCU, other "Air Raid" offenses have tight ends, running QB's, etc? So are others incorporating concepts rather than running the whole offense?

Heck, are we even running it when you only run 6% of the time, and your RB catches 25% of your completions and you average 5.4 yards per attempt?

 

[YakiCoug]

Not letting Leach off the hook entirely , but he did try to dumb down the game as much as possible for the new QB. Short passes to get some rhythm etc., but with way that the D was playing the offense needed to be more dynamic. More runs would have worked if they were loosened up but you are not going to line and run the ball against a B1G defense. There was a decent jet stream call that the QB messed up with bad ball handling ( weakest part of his skill set).

But you are right the Defense looked lost and like they were surprised about anything MSU was doing on offense.

Grinch was in Ohio during our practices.

 

[CougSinceBirth]

We had no bullets in the gun yesterday. I like our young WRs, but that was a very good defense they faced.

As Biggs pointed out, we run 4 receivers into 7-8 man coverage for routes that are always within 15 yards of the LOS. Good secondary’s can stuff that.

I've never understood the need for two WR coaches on staff. Are the routes that intricate or different they need two coaches? The best WR coach in WA still lives in Pullman and isn't coaching. Maybe I'm old school, but having just one WR coach and another bang up recruiter PLUS the new 10th spot with another great recruiter seems the best use to me.

 

[CougPatrol]

Cougpatrol/Palousepuma was perfectly fine with 4-8. Damn Leach for winning 26 games in three years.

Ugh. Still?

Come on man, let people vent for a day or two after an ass kicking.