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Mississippi State hiring Mike Leach


August4th

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I am surprised how hot that dance team is.  Great Mississippi State PR department putting them in the front of the line.  They are the best part about the video without question.   

 

 

Mississippi State fans wanted to run Dan Mullen out of town at times, how much more success they plan on having with Leach when they still play Alabama, LSU, Auburn and A&M every year and throw in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina every once in awhile.  Good lucky recruiting against those four SEC West powers.  

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47 minutes ago, Ozzy said:
Mississippi State fans wanted to run Dan Mullen out of town at times, how much more success they plan on having with Leach when they still play Alabama, LSU, Auburn and A&M every year and throw in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina every once in awhile.  Good lucky recruiting against those four SEC West powers.  

This was my first thought. Leach was probably in a solid position to win the Pac12 North this upcoming season and probably could have had his pick from a number of schools either this year or next. 

If this goes sour and Mississippi State's lack of talent and resources in comparison to the big dogs in his division (much less the entire conference) lead to getting blown out of the water by Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, A&M, and Florida by wide margins, his reputation is going to take a hit. 

I know he wanted out of Pullman (I would too), but I don't think I'd choose Starkville, Mississippi and the 5th best team (on it's best days) in a division controlled by 2 juggernauts (Alabama/LSU) and 2 teams in upper echelons of college football (Auburn/A&M) to make my grand escape to.

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50 minutes ago, ronjon1990 said:

This was my first thought. Leach was probably in a solid position to win the Pac12 North this upcoming season and probably could have had his pick from a number of schools either this year or next. 

If this goes sour and Mississippi State's lack of talent and resources in comparison to the big dogs in his division (much less the entire conference) lead to getting blown out of the water by Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, A&M, and Florida by wide margins, his reputation is going to take a hit. 

I know he wanted out of Pullman (I would too), but I don't think I'd choose Starkville, Mississippi and the 5th best team (on it's best days) in a division controlled by 2 juggernauts (Alabama/LSU) and 2 teams in upper echelons of college football (Auburn/A&M) to make my grand escape to.

It is impressive he basically had offenses at Washington State where his QB, who was a first year starter in the system, lead the nation in passing and did it two years in a row with Minshew and Gordon who were both relatively unknown players before they played that one year at Washington State.  Sure he wants the challenge to see if his system will work at this level, but yeah the expectations at Washington State and (any SEC school really) are on two totally different planets.  

And it is not like Mississippi State has that much receiver talent but they should have an ok OL next year.  Even Arkansas with Petrino, he was successful with that passing game and the team won a lot but still could never get over LSU and Alabama and now the SEC West is even deeper with Auburn and A&M who are totally legit as well.

 

 

 

 

That dance team though, damn!

 

 

Forgot about this story from last year, two Arkansas football players suspended for flirting with the Mississippi Dance team, not hard to see why.

https://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2018/nov/19/2-razorbacks-suspended-missouri-week/

Edited by Ozzy
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1 hour ago, Texansfan713 said:

explain?

Well, his offenses were typically pretty dang good and his Wazzu teams were major spoilers. Never quite good enough to get to the top, but could be that 1 loss someone better could've done without. Him being gone makes the Pac12 North a bit easier. He's that kind of coach who could make life miserable on the recruiting trail because, while Pullman certainly isn't going to attract a ton of players, they could always nab 1 or 2 someone else wanted. 

As for getting exposed- his talent pool just got that much smaller. At Wazzu, his primary competition was Washington, Oregon, and sometimes USC. The rest of the Pac12 tends to ebb and flow in terms of recruiting. In the SEC, Mississippi State is near the bottom of the recruiting pile and doesn't have a whole lot to offer. Where he might have nabbed a 4* or two away from Oregon or Washington who wanted to stay close to home, he's not going have that luxury in Starkville. Even taking away LSU and Alabama as the undoubted cream of the crop, Starkville can't compare with Auburn, College Station, or Oxford. It might edge Fayetteville in some folks' eyes. And that's just in their division. Mississippi State also isn't competing with Ole Miss, A&M, or Auburn in terms of resources, and it's arguable they fall below Arkansas as well. Again, that's just in their division. Point being, Mississippi State isn't a place many flock to. They aren't the same brand as most of their division. Not to mention it's located in an armpit. 

He wanted out of Pullman, supposedly, in large part to recruiting and resources, making Mississippi State a puzzling decision outside of a big payday. All he's really done is go from a tough place to recruit with limited resources but where winning 6+ games gave him God-like status to an equally hard sell where 6 games could get him fired in a year or two, and unlike the Pac12 North where he could have found his way into the Pac12 Championship or steadily sniffing it, he's playing in a division where the talent gap between the top 3 and the rest is wider than the Pac12's entire conference and his ceiling is almost certainly going to be blocked by LSU, Bama, and Auburn no matter what. So he went from the 2nd/3rd best team in his division to a spot where 4th best is probably the absolute best he can hope for.  

Aside from money being his main motivation, the move makes zero sense really. His teams are probably going to spend the next two years getting manhandled right out of the gate (good luck recruiting to a program getting hammered week in and week out) and the margins compared to what he had at Wazzu are much tighter. His reputation will probably suffer and he won't be shortlisted for other big openings that pop up over the next year because he'll have gone from successful and almost revered for turning Wazzu into a contender to just another coach at Mississippi State getting the tar beat out of him.

That, my friend, is how a coach gets exposed as being money motivated and not really that good of a coach in the eyes of many. Hope that explains some of it.

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1 hour ago, Texansfan713 said:

explain?

From another forum:

“On Leach leaving the Pac-12, I don't buy that it's bad for the Pac-12. What's good for the Pac-12 is when member schools win big out of conference games, not when they simply create turmoil within the conference. What has been WSU's biggest out of conference wins of the Leach era?

2019- No P5 preseason games. Bowl- L against Air Force
2018- No P5 preseason games. Bowl- W against Iowa State
2017- No P5 preseason games. Bowl- L to Michigan State
2016- No P5 preseason games (Losses to Eastern Washington and Boise State). Bowl- Loss to Minnesota
2015- W against Rutgers. Bowl- W again Miami.
2014- L to Rutgers, L to Nevada. No bowl game.
2013- L to Auburn. Bowl- L to Colorado State.
2012- L to BYU. No bowl game.

Leach was a headache who did nothing for the conference when playing out of conference foes. One could argue he did more damage than good for the conference.”

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