My position on Lane Kiffin is clear. I don't care if you're Clemson or Washington, Tennessee or Syracuse. If your school needs a coach, and your candidate is Lane Kiffin, stop. You don't want him.
Now then, a few words about another hot candidate, Mike Leach:
You can't have him.
That about covers it, but knowing you, you'll need some explanation. So, fine. Here comes the explanation.
Mike Leach has it good at Texas Tech, and it's only going to get better. Not sure how the man is going to improve on a team that is 9-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country, but Leach can do it. And Leach will do it, as long as he stays in Lubbock.
Leach is a smart guy, smart in a way that transcends football, so I'm guessing he knows that. Then again, smart people do stupid stuff all the time -- look at Craig Sager's wardrobe. So maybe Leach is itching to get out of Texas Tech as much as everyone just sort of assumes he is.
If I'm Texas Tech, I'm ticked at the whole idea. Why is it so blithely believed that Leach is looking to leave Lubbock? Because the Big 12 is so tough? Big whoop. Texas Tech just beat No. 1 Texas.
Sure, the Big 12 is brutal. Five different teams have been ranked in the Top 10 this season -- Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State -- and a sixth, Kansas, reached No. 11. And of all those teams in the Big 12, only one is still undefeated in league play.
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| If Mike Leach stays at Texas Tech, he can earn some serious hardware. (Getty Images) |
So apparently the league isn't too difficult for the Red Raiders. Or for Leach.
Yet his name is everywhere. Name a vacancy, or a possible vacancy, and Leach's name has been floated. Clemson. Tennessee. Auburn. Even Washington, for crying out loud. Washington! As if Washington is such a good job that the coach at lowly Texas Tech, wherever that is, would crawl on his hands and knees to get there.
But that's the thinking in Washington. A recent column in the Seattle Times noted: "Word on the street is Leach is ready to get out of Texas Tech and would be highly interested in the UW. The bigger issue is whether Washington would be interested in him."
Look, there's nothing wrong with the Seattle Times. That's a paragraph that has been, or will be, written in various places over the next few months. Just substitute Clemson or Tennessee or (name a school) for Washington, and you've got the general idea. But I've got three problems with it.
One, somebody tell me why Leach should be "ready to get out of Texas Tech." The Red Raiders are No. 2 in the country, and if pollsters had a backbone, they'd have voted Texas Tech No. 1 over Alabama. Tell me why a coach would be dying to leave such a program, especially when you consider this little factoid: When he arrived in Lubbock in 2000, Leach inherited a team coming off four consecutive five-loss seasons. From those modest twigs, he started recruiting and built a palace. So imagine what sort of structure he can erect now that he's recruiting to a place that just beat No. 1 Texas.
Two, why would Leach be "highly interested in the UW" -- or in Clemson, Auburn, Tennessee or any of the jobs that pop open in the next month or two? Any job that comes open, unless it's Southern California or Oklahoma and the old coach left for the NFL, will have inherent flaws, most notably this one: That place just got its last coach fired. Why would Leach, coaching one of the best teams in America, leave what he has for that? Most big-time jobs that come open are open for the most basic of reasons: They're not as big time as they think they are, which means that expectations exceed reality. Clemson isn't all that. Auburn isn't. Washington damn sure isn't. (I mean, really: Washington?)
Three, why would "the bigger issue be whether Washington would be interested" in Leach? Gee, good question. Why would a football school even consider hiring one of the most interesting, and successful, football coaches in the country? Only a fool for an athletics director would do that. Better to hire, I don't know ... Lane Kiffin.
My point is this: Mike Leach has a great job. Maybe it wasn't a great job when he got there -- OK, it was a pretty bad job when he got there -- but Texas Tech is a great job now. Quarterback Graham Harrell is a senior and Crabtree should be gone this year, true, but most of the other skill players are underclassmen, as are two starting offensive linemen. On defense, eight starters are underclassmen. So are the punter and kicker. You think Texas Tech is good now? Texas Tech is just getting started.
If he leaves, he starts over. The people in Washington or Clemson or wherever, they don't know Mike Leach from Rick Leach. They could learn to love him, sure, but it'd be a conditional love. Win, and we love you. Lose ... and we'll do to you what the idiots in Arkansas did to Houston Nutt.
Then again, who am I kidding? Most coaches leave what they have for something bigger, and it almost always pays off. Rich Rodriguez left modest West Virginia for mighty Michigan, and look how that worked out.
