As Tennessee embarks on its fourth coaching search in ten years, here’s a quick look at Vols coaching candidate Mike Leach.
Mike Leach’s coaching experience (56 years old)
Leach has experienced successful tenures as the head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State, both programs he brought from the doldrums but each teams with ceilings. It’s just hard to win a championship at either place. He was a wildly successful offensive coordinator at Valdosta State, Kentucky and Oklahoma prior to his coaching tenure. He also coached at Iowa Wesleyan, College of the Desert and Cal Poly.
GRT taxonomy of college football coaches: Guru (offense)
Why the Tennessee Vols might want Mike Leach
The Vols would put up points in bunches, and everybody would love Leach’s bluntness and quirkiness on the podium as long as he was winning. It seems his name always comes up as one of the pie-in-the-sky candidates for UT’s coaching searches, but it always seems a stretch to bring him down. It would be fun to see how his offense plays in today’s SEC. It’s said that he doesn’t get along with the Wazzu administration, and his athletic director just left for Nebraska.
Why the Tennessee Vols might not want Mike Leach
Leach isn’t exactly known for his running game acumen or defense — two things many of the old-school UT fans believe are important elements of playing “SEC football.” Plus, it’s unclear whether he could draw recruits to Knoxville. Would he be too stubborn to outfit his staff with the type of recruiters you must have at UT? Also, the first time Tennessee lost a game 50-45, the grumbles would start. This just seems like it has more chances of being a disaster than being a rousing success.