Mike Leach hired at Miss State...
- Thread starter Gator Fever
- Start date
My ESPN app just blew up with the same news. Shit just got interesting in the SECW.
Something has to give. You can’t have Saban, Orgeron, Malzahn, Fisher, Kiffin and Leach all in the same division. It is inevitable that at least 2 of these guys will be gone within the next 2-3 years.
The SEC is getting insane.
The SEC is getting insane.
Hopefully that will dilute some of the Bama recruiting pool so all of them are average teams at best......
Crazy with Kiffin at Ole Miss and Leach now at MSU. Curious to see how all this works out myself. Its going to be tough going against Bama, LSU, Auburn and A&M every year.
Bet Arkansas wishes they still had Petrino.
I threw the comment below out yesterday & obviously Bo Bounds knew what he was talking about.
Wonder how much Mike Leach will actually get from Miss State; as a public university, salary figures will eventually come out !
"...ESPN Mississippi radio host Bo Bounds of the “Out of Bounds” radio show told the popular SEC reporter on the “Paul Finebaum Show” that Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen traveled to Key West, Florida, to interview Leach for the job."
Wonder how much Mike Leach will actually get from Miss State; as a public university, salary figures will eventually come out !
"...ESPN Mississippi radio host Bo Bounds of the “Out of Bounds” radio show told the popular SEC reporter on the “Paul Finebaum Show” that Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen traveled to Key West, Florida, to interview Leach for the job."
Looks like we get to keep Todd Grantham.
IMO, actually a good thing. See how things play out as we upgrade the athletes on our defense !
IMO, actually a good thing. See how things play out as we upgrade the athletes on our defense !
Paco,
Why are you leaving out Sam Pittman at Arkansas ?
IMO, he is as good as the other newcomers & I think Arkansas will allow him a little more time to show results.
Also, he is helping Kirby out by taking a few more dead wood UGA staff members with him.
List of Pittman's staff -
https://www.nwahomepage.com/sports/...s-sam-pittman-make-another-hire-from-georgia/
Wonder if any of the Dawgs in the transfer portal will make it over to Pittman & Arkansas ?
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Sam Pittman has never been a college head coach. He’s likely in big trouble at Arkansas.
Paco,
Not sure that's a reason to exclude him from the discussion of new head coaches in the SEC West.
Mullen had never been a head coach before Miss State hired him; Kirby had never been a Head Coach before UGA hired him; Kirby has beaten Gators 3 straight.
Why hasn't he been in big trouble at UGA ?
Just about every college Head Coach starts off as a coordinator; some survive; some don't.
I personally believe that it does makes more sense for a Power 5 School to hire an experienced Head Coach rather than a coordinator - or in this case an OL line coach/ Associate head coach.
But, FWIW, Pittman has been in coaching as long as Lane Kiffin & Mike Leach and has held the title of Assistant Head Coach at 5 different schools -
Western Michigan (1999)
Northern Illinois (2004-2006)
North Carolina (2011)
Arkansas (2013-2015)
Georgia (2019)
I am sure that his duties as Asst Head Coach were different at each stop. But Arkansas had first hand experience with his work & they invited him in to interview & hired him AGAIN.
Makes me think he did something right.
How ever it happened, Pittman got the job; so I guess we will see what happens now & which one of them lasts the longest & who ends up in BIG TROUBLE.
Following Sam Pittman?
Broderick Jones 5-star Georgia OL commit schedules visit with Arkansas !
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/g...rgia-ol-commit-schedules-visit-with-arkansas/
Smart move by Leach. Instead of making whatever he made at WSU to lose most every game every year in one of the sports weakest conferences, now he will earn at least double that amount to lose most every game every year in one of the sports strongest conferences.
It's still an upgrade even if his task load just increased 100 fold. The only problem I see for Leach is the biggest one. He's never coached in the SEC. Only in the BIG12 and then the pac10 as far as I can tell. He has no idea what a rabid fan base with high expectations can do to a coach each and every hour of every day of the year. The fanbases of the locations he's coached at up until now were generally happy if they could show up clothed in something generally the same color as their team was, and if the stadium didn't collapse midway through the game. Now he's got a fanbase on his back that just fired the last coach after only 2 seasons, and one who won the egg bowl both of those years, arguably the most important game of the year for a mississippi school. His current rival? Lane Kiffin.
It's time BVD.
It's still an upgrade even if his task load just increased 100 fold. The only problem I see for Leach is the biggest one. He's never coached in the SEC. Only in the BIG12 and then the pac10 as far as I can tell. He has no idea what a rabid fan base with high expectations can do to a coach each and every hour of every day of the year. The fanbases of the locations he's coached at up until now were generally happy if they could show up clothed in something generally the same color as their team was, and if the stadium didn't collapse midway through the game. Now he's got a fanbase on his back that just fired the last coach after only 2 seasons, and one who won the egg bowl both of those years, arguably the most important game of the year for a mississippi school. His current rival? Lane Kiffin.
It's time BVD.
The egg bowl might be worth watching this year because of the coaches alone. Kinda curious how the ole Miss and Miss State rivalry will turn out.
Frankly, that was probably the best options for either program, as not many coaches would want to go to a division with Saban or Orgeron.
Surprisingly there was someone on UKs board that thought Kiffin was going to "win"....whatever that means.
Frankly, that was probably the best options for either program, as not many coaches would want to go to a division with Saban or Orgeron.
Surprisingly there was someone on UKs board that thought Kiffin was going to "win"....whatever that means.
5 year deal at $5 mil/year.
He is entertaining, but not the coach some think he is.
He is entertaining, but not the coach some think he is.
The Egg Bowl just got a little more interesting.
In the 'Grove' it might just become the 'spiked' Eggnog-Bowl....
Well, he ain't Dan 'the Man' Mullen, but he ain't chopped liver either, so Grats to the cow-bells in Stark-Vegas....
Leach was the OC at Kentucky back when Hal Mumme was the head coach late 90's to early 2000's.
Both Ole Miss and Miss State would have been on a great path if they started a year earlier and got Scott Satterfield....and he's currently only getting paid about 3 million.
Not having the experience of being a head coach, he is going to make those rookie mistakes so many of them make. But if Arky sticks with him, let's him build his team while he figures out the job, he could do very well. If Arky is willing to show the patience he will require, he's got a real shot. But that's the problem. Few have any patience any more.
Leach and Kiffin are gonna be like Saban assassins coming after that sumbitch....
shit just got real...
the East is ready to rise....
shit just got real...
the East is ready to rise....
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I am so excited for this I can't stand it. I've wanted Mike Leach in the SEC for a decade.
I actually can't wait for the trash talk...it's going to be epic!
Anything anti-Saban in this conference is good....Leach is totally anti-Saban.
How many games did Hal Mummy win at Kentucky? I seem to remember those as UK's darkest days.
I doubt Arkansas gets back on track in that division without some coach like they had with Petrino. This guy is almost assured to do better than Morris but Morris was horrible for them.
lol based on what?
because Morris sucks?
he was the OC that saved Dabo's job at Clemson.
he turned SMU around.
Arkansas is bad.
what, exactly, is this new guys supposed to do better than Chad Morris?
let me guess. He recruits well or something?
go be a Georgia fan and enjoy that.
Morris is a really good coach. He picked the wrong job to take after SMU. At one point Morris was more valued as a head coach candidate than Dabo when he was Dabo’s OC. Dabo owes his career to Chad Morris and should thank him every Christmas for not accepting the OC gig at Ohio St when Meyer came calling.
The new Arkansas coach has no chance. He’s basically doomed from the get go. You think a first time head coach is going to do anything at Arkansas with LSU, Bama, Auburn, A&M and now even Kiffin and Leach in that division. And the talent in Arkansas is really really bad. Neither Saban or even Meyer could win at Arkansas with the state that program is in.
Paco,
Guessing you said the same thing when Mullen went to Miss sate as a first time head coach !
grommit,
Had to look it up; but not very good
Hal Mumme 1997–2000
.................W...L
Total - 46 20 26 — 0.435
SEC - ......10 22 — 0.313
Bowls- ......0 2
Sam Pittman has never even been an OC had a major college football program. Sam Pittman has never ever been a part of a national championship coaching staff. Mullen had done both before he got hired by Miss St. Not even a close comparison.
Morris as their HC was losing to non power 5 teams both seasons even with better talent.
Maybe an excuse for that the first season but that is crazy for it to keep happening besides losing every SEC game.
I see why they hired him but he never did that great at SMU. Losing teams go to just over .500 all the time.
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Yeah...the Pittman guy is doomed...
The West is gonna be a blood bath for years to come...thank goodness we are in the East.
The West is gonna be a blood bath for years to come...thank goodness we are in the East.
Paco,
Pittman has 9 years as an Asst Head Coach at Arkansas & 4 other schools. Evidently, that weighed heavily enough for Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek that he hired Pittman.
James Frank McElwain was an OC on a National Championship Staff (Bama); he was also a successful HC at Colorado State thus meeting all of your criteria for success !
How well did Shark Boy turn out for Florida ?
Would you hire him back ?
Reality is that neither of us has any professional experience in Athletic Administration nor can we predict how well Pittman will do at Arkansas.
Razorback fans will just have to hope that Yurachek, who inherited & fired Chad Morris as HFC, knows what he's doing.
Yurachek's last stop as AD - Houston; a brief bio of his professional experience -
During the 2016-17 academic year, 11 of the 17 varsity sports programs at the University of Houston qualified for NCAA postseason competition, teams won five American Athletic Conference team championships and 21 individual conference titles. Prior to arriving at Houston, Yurachek served as Director of Athletics at Coastal Carolina University, where Coastal won 29 Big South Conference championships. Yurachek was named Under Armor FCS Athletic Director of the Year in 2014.
He has also worked at the University of Akron, the University of Virginia, Western Carolina University, Vanderbilt University and Wake Forest University.
Seems like Yurachek has more knowledge & experience managing College Athletics than you or I or anyone else on this board !
McElwain met all of your coaching criteria but failed at Florida !
Still there is no guarantee that Pittman will succeed at Arkansas. Jeremy Foley had experience in managing college athletics (UF only unlike Yurachek) but screwed up several Head Football coaching hires !
Every coach must be the right fit for the job; the environment is critical to coaching success.
All we can do is wait & see how Pittman & the other two new Head Coaches in the SEC West do - no guarantees for them either.
Both Kiffin & Leach have crashed & burned & been fired from HC positions before; no guarantee that any of the three will be there in in two years.
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Yep I think it may be another 10 years before the East has a winning record against the West again. The West has 4 teams now in the top 10 area in recruiting recently and three of them around that top 6 level.
