Yet another FB assistant coach leaving
- Thread starter ScottHood
- Start date
no doubt that turning over half your staff is going to have a negative effect. while it may not be in the measurable like x's and o's, it'll be in repoire, locker room chemistry, office chemistry.
Quite true. Spring training is going to be as important for the staff as for the players. The annual fishing trip that the staff takes in the early summer is going to mean more than just a relaxing and fun time this year.
I think that this is true, Leach will have to relax his authority a bit and let the offensive and defensive coaches have a bigger voice . The offense needs to be retooled and the defensive coaches have to take charge. i hope that there are less scripted drills where certain players are favored. All positions need to wide open for competition. I will take hell for this but it is my opinion.I am sure that other fans have opinions which differ greatly ,so be it. I am also sure that Leach will continue to do things his way. That is his right but he bears the responsibility for the final product on the field
All positions are always open to competition, that is a Leach trademark. The defensive coordinator has final say over the defense and always has under Leach. Leach has final say over the offense. None of this keeps assistants from having input, but a philosophy needs to be followed or you have dysfunction. Leach has been clear as to why he is opposed to the pistol, yet it was brought up every year. Everything you continue to complain about will only get better with better recruiting. There are numerous articles to support it. Look at the articles on National Champions and the recruiting classes that let up to the championship. Coaching can only overcome so much. Development at WSU, under Leach, has been incredible and will continue to be. Success breeds success. Recruiting will improve with better overall records over time and stronger recruiters. Coaches that are not willing to except the system need to be screened out during the hiring process. This may be hard to understand if you have never been on a large coaching staff. Arm chair quarterbacks may never understand what going into a successful program.
One thing we know about change is it will get worse before it gets better. To improve there also must be change. With success brings more opportunities to bring in strong coaching candidates. Hopefully the new staff will be stronger over time than the previous staff, particularly on recruiting. This past recruiting class had more quality offers than previous recruiting classes. This trend needs to continue. Recruiting is a combination of energy and personality, I hope this staff is stronger in both.
Mele is an extremely hard working coach who is probably WSU's best recruiter. Players love him and there is no indication that he isn't a good teacher or tactician. Special teams struggles will always correlate with the amount of depth the Cougars have. So many backups are used for ST in order to protect starters from injury,...and I think Mele has done well with them. Only issue I have with ST is the punter and we may have solved that one for next year.
Any comment about the staff being better without Mele is ignorant, IMO.
Glad Cougar
Any comment about the staff being better without Mele is ignorant, IMO.
Glad Cougar
I agree. I would think much of that is done prior to their going out. I give Dave Emerick much of the credit for this.
Another point on the amount of change this year was Manning and Sage were hires from Grinch contacts. So the three of them leaving the same year is not a complete surprise.
This is true. When it' a coach or two.
This is a lot of moving parts.
Hope springs etetnal...
The program needs to improve. Otherwise,the team will continue to be pulverized in the Apple Cup and Bowl games. It is ignorant to say that some change is not necessary. Mele may be very good recruiter but he is being switched for a good reason. I did not have any influence there, but someone with influence obviously realized that change was necessary. The improvement in a program comes when the true responsibilities for change come from a head coach who realizes that some change is necessary.The complete domination in the AC should signify that something needs to be tweaked. leach now has a assistant coach who kicked his ass in a bowl game.He needs to value that guy s input on why his offense is easy to defend by athletic teams n it s current form The arm chair QB s may never find out that staff input is important when the staff is comprised of competent coaches.
Mele is moving to offense, because he wanted to. He came to WSU to learn Leach's offense that you seem to think needs more than improve recruiting. Check the DL recruits of UW the last few years. Leach will be a lot smarter when he can recruit 4 star offensive linemen.
I just stopped responding to him. He is a Cougar and that is great. I respect that. But, he has the most basic understanding of football and a football program.
I had been thinking the same thing. Glad someone else saw the same link between coaches leaving.
I guess one just has to look at the assistant coach from udub s comment s on the cougs offense . Everyone hated him and could not wait before his words were jammed down his throat. Guess what?his words were prophetic and the cougs were pulverized. It is strange, since i watched Leach s teams at TT and they were much less predictable I do not know the stats but when they had to run they did and it made the offense better. I do not blame Mele for wanting to move. A man "gots to know his limitations".Leach will take care of him, where ever leach goes so will go Mele. That is job security.
Tx's first two sentences are spot on. You have to change to improve and change always has some degree of pain. His parting comment about the staff is what we all feel. We hope that the staff eventually evolves into an even better crew but that is something that will take time. Time for the staff to develop cohesiveness and time for us to evaluate the results.
"Recruiting is a combination of energy and personality." I was instantly reminded of Manning and that is why we will miss him.
Mele was an offensive guy when he came to Pullman and moving him to RBs is a natural move. He was O.K. as a special teams coach and better than his predecessor but no more than that. And that was a low bar. The new guy from Bowling Green has a primary focus on special teams and I am confident that he will be an improvement over Mele. I like Mele but the new guy has a better resume. Mele is presumably going to be moved to his primary interest and his presumed replacement appears on paper to have a better understanding of STs. What's not to like?
5 Programs in the Pac12 will have had greater coaching turnover than WSU will have this year. New Head Coaches along almost entirely new staffs.
Last edited:
Similar threads
