I forgot to post this over the weekend, but Washington State coach Mike Leach was on 99.1 ESPN Souix Falls with Jeff Thurn and shared some thoughts on the offseason, the upcoming recruiting push, the Oregon Ducks, Mike Riley's move to Nebraska and some thoughts on his two books.
Link: http://espn991.com/mike-leach-on-overtime-discusses-washington-state-football/
Transcript
(How are you doing, Mike?) "I'm doing pretty good. We've had a good break, excited to get back to the offseason. It's getting ready to be nearly hand-to-hand combat out there recruiting. The book that I published awhile back Geronimo is coming out on paperback, so we're excited about that. We're looking forward to a great recruiting season and offseason."
(Looking ahead to 2015, how do you improve your record from 2014?)[/B] "I mean, we did a lot of good things. We're a team of freshman and sophomores, so I think we've got to get older and then also we've got some redshirts that I think are going to have an impact that by about the middle of the season, were better than some of the starters but they were already halfway through redshirting, so we didn't pull them off. I think we'll be better from that standpoint. Basically, we were on of the most explosive offenses in the country and we're a team that could play anybody into the fourth quarter and then at some point we're running out of gas or something. I think we'll be improved. We have nearly everybody coming back. There's three guys on defense and four guys on offense, but other than that everyone is back."
(On the Pac-12 Conference…)[/B] "I think it's on a real upswing now. I think it's the best conference in the country right now. I think top-to-bottom the Pac-12 is the best conference in the country and we might have the best team in the country. We're about to find out when Oregon plays Ohio State, which has kind of been another example of our team. As young a team we were, I felt like we should have beat Oregon. It came down to the last drive and it was one of those things where we beat them everywhere but on the scoreboard, which I thought was impressive for a group as young as we had."
(As a coach, do you want the Pac-12 to win the national championship? Does that help you at Washington State?)[/B] "I think it's a little of both. I think there's always a familiarity with your own conference. You've watched a lot more film of your conference; you're more familiar with your conference. I mean, there's no way around it, you know your conference better than the other conferences. And then also you appreciate the difficulties of playing the teams in your conference, but with that said, I don't think it's across the board, but I think there's some of that. Then I think with fans, they'll start rooting for a certain team and then a lot of times it's just flat out rooting for the conference."
(On whether Mike Riley will be successful at Nebraska…)[/B] "Well, I think Mike Riley, unless there's a spot I don't know about, has been successful wherever he's been. I mean, every team that Mike Riley has been involved with has been better for having Mike Riley involved with them. So I think Nebraska will be happy with Mike Riley."
(Will it be tough for him to rebuild a program with such tradition?)[/B] "I don't really see it that way. I think that tradition may go dormant for brief periods of time, but Nebraska has one of the greatest traditions in the country, I'd hope that it's a difficult tradition to rebuild. Sometimes they go dormant or something like that, but they still have that foundation of support and virtually everybody will talk to Nebraska with regard to recruiting. You consider their spring game and how many people go to their spring game; how they sellout most of their games. No, I don't see building Nebraska - I mean, it may take a little time, but I don't see it as much of an uphill battle. There's really only maybe two other teams in the entire Big-10 - 2 to 3 other teams in the entire Big 10 - that even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Nebraska."
(On slowing down Oregon's offense and whether WSU's tempo helps prepare for an up-tempo team…)[/B] "It might. I think the biggest thing, though, is just make choices on defense how you're going to defend it and be able to line up and execute it quickly. What Oregon's thing is 'we're not going to run very many things, but the limit of things we run, we're going to execute, run it so quickly and so precisely, you're going to have trouble stopping us.' So there's not a lot of variety to it, it's just real quick. Then I think that the one thing that people sometimes are afraid to do that played in Oregon's hands is because of the quickness the operate, they're afraid to put pressure on the quarterback. I think it's important to have a way to put pressure on the Oregon quarterback."
(What was more challenging: writing [/B]Swing Your Sword[/I] or [/B]Geronimo[/I]?)[/B] "Well, I think, in some ways, Swing Your Sword[/I] was. Swing Your Sword[/I] was tougher because I was kind of the entire source for most of it. In other words, I was the vast majority of the research and the stuff that had to do with my life. The stuff that had to do with Tech not paying me, that was on the court record. Being the only source, well you have your memories, your insights and your point of view, so then there's a point where you need to crystalize it, polish it and get it one paper. With Geronimo[/I], there's a lot of material already out there. Geronimo[/I] is more going through as much material as you can get your hands on and then there making a choice what's going in the book and what our take on it in the book is. I thought that was a little more manageable because you had some stuff already in print, written down, in other words, more clearly defined sources, whereas I had to kind of polish everything in Swing Your Sword[/I]."
This post was edited on 1/13 2:39 PM by Britton Ransford
Link: http://espn991.com/mike-leach-on-overtime-discusses-washington-state-football/
Transcript
(How are you doing, Mike?) "I'm doing pretty good. We've had a good break, excited to get back to the offseason. It's getting ready to be nearly hand-to-hand combat out there recruiting. The book that I published awhile back Geronimo is coming out on paperback, so we're excited about that. We're looking forward to a great recruiting season and offseason."
(Looking ahead to 2015, how do you improve your record from 2014?)[/B] "I mean, we did a lot of good things. We're a team of freshman and sophomores, so I think we've got to get older and then also we've got some redshirts that I think are going to have an impact that by about the middle of the season, were better than some of the starters but they were already halfway through redshirting, so we didn't pull them off. I think we'll be better from that standpoint. Basically, we were on of the most explosive offenses in the country and we're a team that could play anybody into the fourth quarter and then at some point we're running out of gas or something. I think we'll be improved. We have nearly everybody coming back. There's three guys on defense and four guys on offense, but other than that everyone is back."
(On the Pac-12 Conference…)[/B] "I think it's on a real upswing now. I think it's the best conference in the country right now. I think top-to-bottom the Pac-12 is the best conference in the country and we might have the best team in the country. We're about to find out when Oregon plays Ohio State, which has kind of been another example of our team. As young a team we were, I felt like we should have beat Oregon. It came down to the last drive and it was one of those things where we beat them everywhere but on the scoreboard, which I thought was impressive for a group as young as we had."
(As a coach, do you want the Pac-12 to win the national championship? Does that help you at Washington State?)[/B] "I think it's a little of both. I think there's always a familiarity with your own conference. You've watched a lot more film of your conference; you're more familiar with your conference. I mean, there's no way around it, you know your conference better than the other conferences. And then also you appreciate the difficulties of playing the teams in your conference, but with that said, I don't think it's across the board, but I think there's some of that. Then I think with fans, they'll start rooting for a certain team and then a lot of times it's just flat out rooting for the conference."
(On whether Mike Riley will be successful at Nebraska…)[/B] "Well, I think Mike Riley, unless there's a spot I don't know about, has been successful wherever he's been. I mean, every team that Mike Riley has been involved with has been better for having Mike Riley involved with them. So I think Nebraska will be happy with Mike Riley."
(Will it be tough for him to rebuild a program with such tradition?)[/B] "I don't really see it that way. I think that tradition may go dormant for brief periods of time, but Nebraska has one of the greatest traditions in the country, I'd hope that it's a difficult tradition to rebuild. Sometimes they go dormant or something like that, but they still have that foundation of support and virtually everybody will talk to Nebraska with regard to recruiting. You consider their spring game and how many people go to their spring game; how they sellout most of their games. No, I don't see building Nebraska - I mean, it may take a little time, but I don't see it as much of an uphill battle. There's really only maybe two other teams in the entire Big-10 - 2 to 3 other teams in the entire Big 10 - that even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Nebraska."
(On slowing down Oregon's offense and whether WSU's tempo helps prepare for an up-tempo team…)[/B] "It might. I think the biggest thing, though, is just make choices on defense how you're going to defend it and be able to line up and execute it quickly. What Oregon's thing is 'we're not going to run very many things, but the limit of things we run, we're going to execute, run it so quickly and so precisely, you're going to have trouble stopping us.' So there's not a lot of variety to it, it's just real quick. Then I think that the one thing that people sometimes are afraid to do that played in Oregon's hands is because of the quickness the operate, they're afraid to put pressure on the quarterback. I think it's important to have a way to put pressure on the Oregon quarterback."
(What was more challenging: writing [/B]Swing Your Sword[/I] or [/B]Geronimo[/I]?)[/B] "Well, I think, in some ways, Swing Your Sword[/I] was. Swing Your Sword[/I] was tougher because I was kind of the entire source for most of it. In other words, I was the vast majority of the research and the stuff that had to do with my life. The stuff that had to do with Tech not paying me, that was on the court record. Being the only source, well you have your memories, your insights and your point of view, so then there's a point where you need to crystalize it, polish it and get it one paper. With Geronimo[/I], there's a lot of material already out there. Geronimo[/I] is more going through as much material as you can get your hands on and then there making a choice what's going in the book and what our take on it in the book is. I thought that was a little more manageable because you had some stuff already in print, written down, in other words, more clearly defined sources, whereas I had to kind of polish everything in Swing Your Sword[/I]."
This post was edited on 1/13 2:39 PM by Britton Ransford
