Monday, November 3, 2008
Sports / Woods Why Vols Should Hire Mike Leach
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 1:13 PM
"Your body is your sword. Swing your sword." Each off-season, Leach picks something he is curious about and learns as much as he can about it: Geronimo, Daniel Boone, whales, chimpanzees, grizzly bears, Jackson Pollock. The list goes on, and if you can find the common thread, you are a step ahead of his football players. One year, he studied pirates. When he learned that a pirate ship was a functional democracy; that pirates disciplined themselves; that, loathed by others, they nevertheless found ways to work together, the pirate ship became a metaphor for his football team. Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates. Leach read from his favorite pirate history, "Under the Black Flag," by David Cordingly (the passages about homosexuality on pirate ships had been crossed out). The analogy to football held up for a few minutes, but after a bit, it was clear that Coach Leach was just . . . talking about pirates. The quarterback Cody Hodges says of his coach: "You learn not to ask questions. If you ask questions, it just goes on longer." Hodges knows - the players all do - that their coach is a walking parenthesis, without a companion to bracket his stray thoughts. They suspect, but aren't certain, that his wide-ranging curiosity benefits their offense. Of all the things motivating Texas Tech to beat Texas A.&M. this night, however, the keenest may have been the desire to avoid another lecture about pirates. Even now, their beloved coach had his left arm in the air, wielding his imaginary sword. "SWING -YOUR - SWORD!" With that, the players rose and crowded into the bright red double doorway leading to the tunnel. Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu!The Vols need to go pirate on the SEC. The question is, would Leach want to coach at a school that has to recruit nationally and plays in the toughest conference in America?
Comments (6)
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I don't think Leach would leave for UT unless it moved to a destination near a beach. He's a renowned left coaster, and he just flat out has it to good at Texas Tech. He makes $2 million/year in a job with only moderate expectations, the administration at Tech lets him run his own show, and at that school he's already gone through the hard part of building a program. At UT he'd have to start from scratch and rebuild a program while playing SEC competition, and at the same time he would be dealing with impatient alums who want immediate results.
Not to say he absolutely won't come here, but I think it would be very difficult for us to entice him to leave what he's got at Tech.
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You may be right, Bill, but Leach is also coaching for the No. 3 school in Texas, after the Longhorns and the Sooners. Here, he'd be No. 1 and could match wits with Meyer and Saban and Spurrier, et al. We could persuade him to make the leap. If not, how about Chris Petersen?
The same people who are against Leach are the ones who were saying we had to keep Fulmer because it would cost too much to buy him out. They have no vision.
I have nothing against Mike Leach, but it's obvious he is the flavor of the month in coaching circles because he's on Sports Center all the time. If Tennessee would have made the move last year, everyone would have been clamoring for Rich Rodriguez. If Leach loses a couple of games next year, somebody else will be hot. No one would have even thought of bringing up Leach until Saturday's win over Texas.
