It wasn't just Texas Leach had to contend with. Texas Tech was in the South Division of the Big XII which had Texas AND Oklahoma AND Texas A&M. Those 3 schools were massive titans in that area.
Leach did beat Texas twice in his 10 years.
But during his 10 years at Texas Tech
Oklahoma appeared in the national title game in 2000,2003-2004
Texas in 2005, 2009
So out of the 10 years he coached in the South Division of the Big XII a member of the South division appeared in the National Title game 60% of the time.
To give you an equal comparison Ed. That would be like the Pac 12 North sending a team to the National Title game 4 out of the 6 years he has been coaching at WSU. That's how DOMINANT that division was during that span, and we beat Texas during that span which was a HUGE deal, but also we played Oklahoma who beat us 34-14 in the rose bowl in the 2002 season.
So when we were at our best football span in our history we had some trouble with that division when they were on their A game, and we faced them in the early part of their success, not in the late part.
In 2008 while we were watching the Cougs barely muster 2 wins with Paul Wulff that very same year Leach knocked off #1 Texas
And here's the thing you don't understand. Leach is doing it here. He's already done it.
Last second wins Rutgers, Oregon, UCLA, heck he was a missed field goal away from putting away Stanford 3 times in a row.
Walden poisoned WSU with thinking that its okay to lose most of the time all throughout the season and if we just beat the huskies occasionally (1/3 of the time) everything is "A OKAY"
It's not. It's a terrible attitude and standard to have, and it really hurt WSU and it hurt WSU when he came back and was color commentator, it hurt WSU when he lobbied for Wulff, it hurt WSU when he threw dirt on Leach when he just got here.
All of that did WSU a giant disservice.
Walden in his first six years do you know how many times he beat the Huskies? twice. He was 2-4 his first six years. Leach is 1-5.
Walden also was 0-4 his first 4 years. He had 1 good run beating the Huskies 3 out of 4 years but that's all he had. That's it.
Paul Wulff was 1-3 his first 4 years. Is that to declare him a "Cougar Coaching LEGEND" NO. It's not. but that beat the huskies once in a while but be a terribly bad program IS the Walden standard.
Would Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Alabama, LSU put a a guy who has four 3 win seasons and two 4 win seasons on a pedestal if he beat the rival 1/3 of the time. No Ed. No they wouldn't. They would have fired the guy and burned every single trace of him from memory.
Because the program had deteriorated so badly under Wulff/Walden watch we have to essentially build from scratch, and Leach has had 3 winning seasons for us. Which is rare beyond rare for our program, and the talent gap will close.
Leach in his last 5 years at Texas Tech
Was 3-2 vs Oklahoma
Was 4-1 vs A&M
Was 1-4 vs Texas (beating Texas when they were ranked #1)
All 3 of those schools were light years ahead of Texas in terms of talent and resources, but 2 out of 3 he had a better record against his last 5 years and the 1 he didn't he knocked off when they were #1 in the country (and subsequently went to the National title game the very next year)
The more you cling to Walden the more you cling to being a loser most of the time with no growth to really compete with the Huskies except for those rare occasional moments.
Leach will be able to beat the Huskies when that talent gap closes. We aren't that far away. The Huskies in recruiting are about as good as they are gonna get in recruiting. We have room for growth, and every year the gap gets closer and closer.
But to show you just how hard that is because we've been so far behind. Jason Gesser never won Apple Cup.
From 1999-2002 Durring one of our best runs. We came up 0-4.
I don't rip on Mike Price for that. I know how hard it is to win, but what I don't do is make an excuse for Walden who was a terrible coach MOST of his tenure for winning just that game a few times. That's the equivalent of celebrating Wulff for being 2-10 but winning the Apple Cup, or Leach doing it in 2012 with a 3 win season.
I want the program to be strong and healthy and to grow, and what happens eventually is that we aren't celebrating that time that 1 guy won 3 apple cups out of 9 seasons. We are celebrating winning multiple apple cups on the regular AND being a good program.
Sorry Walden filled your brain wish donkey sh*t. But that's all he was. Donkey Sh*t