Washington State coach has, shall we say, never been afraid to hold back. This goes for pretty much everything he covers, but it's especially true for the X's and O's of football.

So when the Jackson Clarion-Ledger asked Leach his thoughts on new Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo and installing the Air Raid in the SEC, Leach spoke unfiltered. Namely, Leach went all-in on the notion that coaches can't come into the conference from lower levels and succeed with a different offense.

"I've got bad news for all these levels people," Leach said. "Your level isn't special, your conference isn't special. All this 'different level this, different level that.' That's crazy."

"How is it better? Somebody coaches better athletes, somehow they morph into something smarter? That's crazy. I mean, you still have problems, you still have 11 parts you can wiggle around to counter the other 11 parts."

Leach speaks from experience. He jumped from an offensive coordinator job at Valdosta State to Kentucky in the 1990s. It was there where Longo attended a coaching clinic and adopted the Air Raid as his offense of choice.

Now, Longo will attempt to make Ole Miss' offense one of the best in college football by doing something different from the SEC norm.

"First, it becomes it won't work," Leach said. "Second, they basically say, 'oh it's a system,' suggesting that people who don't do it that way -- who just run it up the middle, stick all your asses together so one hand grenade can kill everybody -- that's the right way to do it. Since they do it the right way, they're OK with the fact they lost.

"This is a great time to be in the SEC; everybody's got the same offense: run right, run left, play action. And they tease themselves and say we threw it four more times a game this year than we did last year."

There's a history of success with Air Raid offenses in the SEC, and not just at Kentucky. Texas A&M's entry to the conference in 2012 with an Air Raid base was wildly successful. Then again, the Aggies had a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Johnny Manziel.

Ole Miss has a bright future at quarterback with Shea Patterson, though, plus a group of young but extremely talented wide receivers. Opting to go a different direction from the likes of Alabama and LSU has a history of success, even if short-lived at times.

Leach just has a more blunt way of saying it.