UNM looking at Leach

[Otter]

The point is that, pretty much every year since he arrived June Jones threatens to leave in the off-season. I would love to see someone call his bluff and not give in to his constant demands and excuses. Leach would be awesome. You want to get on the national radar screen? Hire Leach!

[SmooBoy]

And Ford has nicer electrical closets than Tech.

[Otter]

I'd prefer a patch and pirate garb than a lai (sp?)

[Big Hoss]

That's funny, because we already have gotten back on the national radar screen with Jones. Go start prepping for national Talk Like a Pirate day so that you can chat it up with your buddy Leach in a speech pattern he's more comfortable with.

It's also interesting that you seem to be the only one reporting that Jones has threatened to leave every offseason. Can't say that any of us have seen that.

[Pony_Law]

Mike Leach Is a good football coach period. Any team would be lucky to have him. All he has done is win every where he has gone, including at places where he is facing a significant talent gap (like Tech).

[cutter]

I could see Arizona dumping Stoops and hiring Leach. Also think UCLA would be great.

it would be interesting seeing Leach in the Pac12.

[Dwan]

Leach will coach again. A lot of schools have refused to look at him, but given the amount of proven head coaches who have won at the BCS level and who are a national name out there looking for work, Mike Leach will get another shot. I dont see him going to New Mexico. I doubt Stoops last another year at Arizona and he would be a no brainer there.....same thing if Arizona State emplodes again. UCLA would never look at him, too much baggage. Washington State would take him. I could see him at UTEP taking over for Price as well.

[Otter]

Big Hoss -

Do you really think we are on the national radar screen with June Jones? His signature victory came on Christmas Eve - two years ago. That was the highlight. Since then, not so much. JJ is vastly overpaid and, quite frankly, considering our crowd support at home games, very few of us are actually paying attention. JJ went .500 last year - a decidedly mediocre campaign by any standard. If your expectations are that low, then I guess that JJ and Doherty are perfect for you. Congratulations. For my part, I think we deserve better.

[LHS81]

I think Mike Leach would be a perfect fit at UCLA. He could even film a promotional ad for UCLA football with Johnny Depp: The Pirates of Pasadena

[Dr Death]

No he can't-truth is that about 20-30 schools could had Mike Leach and not one has seriously considered it. He got a couple of courtesy interviews. If he wants to Coach he better take this one.

This. Leach is still too toxic for most programs and completely unapologetic for the circumstances surrounding his departure from TT. You can respect him for not compromising who he is, but it is making him unemployable by most programs right now.

Wow. I'm not sure what planet you two have been living on but Leach has been anything but toxic. I followed him during his tenure at Tech and all he did was lead them to 10 consecutive bowl games in his 10 years and this from a school that was hardly a blip on the college football radar before his arrival. Tech was established in 1925 and between then and last year, they have been to 34 bowl games... Leach led them to 10 of those. And the one they went to last season are the kids he recruited. So, technically, you could say he's responsible for 11 of their 34 bowl games.

Leach is HUGE on education and whilst at Tech they had the highest graduation rate of any football team in the country. In his book he states that he would tell his players every year that "we have the number one graduation rate of any institution in the nation, and you are expected to uphold that."

As far as his firing is concerned, he did nothing wrong or toxic or damaging to poor little Adam James. He told one of the assistants to "put him in a dark place" since he had allegedly suffered a concussion, though nobody could explain why or how since the kid never played.

And what, exactly, does he have to be apologetic for? For not kissing Craig James' [deleted]? Give me a break. From all reports all James did was badger Leach and his assistant coaches w/ continuous phone calls telling them to play his kid, who didn't get one single offer from any other school in the country. James is lucky Leach didn't knock the [deleted] out of him. Then James goes on ESPN... where he's somehow, miraculously employed, and used his employer to lie about Leach and the incident w/ his cry-baby kid. Read Adam's own deposition testimony in the back of Leach's book... he said he locked himself in the closet and took a photo and sent it to his dad and told his dad... "You'll think this is funny."

The lawyer then asks Adam: "So you thought this was funny?" His response: "At the time, yes."

Leach is supposed to apologize for what???

I know this is an SMU board and most of you hate Tech and that's fine. I love football and I love the passing game. I've been following June Jones since the 1980's and Mike Leach since the late 1990's... and it just kills me when I read crap about him being "toxic" when all he's done is win everywhere he's been, graduated the highest rate in the country and had numerous ex-players come to his defense and claim he would never put any player's health in jeopardy.

It's fine to dislike someone or some team... but at least get some facts straight before you speak out on someone and call him "toxic." The reason he hasn't been hired is he is still embroiled in the lawsuit against Tech, which he should easily win, and teams are worried it will be a "distraction."

To say that the best job he will be able to land is the University of freaking New Mexico is beyond laughable. I've no idea where he will go, but my feeling is it will be UCLA. Where ever he goes I know this... he will win. He's won everywhere. Expand your mind a bit and go to a bookstore and read his book. You don't have to buy it, just read it. Learn something about the man before you call him toxic. If he's toxic, I can name about 80 schools that would love to have their football programs intoxicated w/ his coaching abilities.

[SMU2007]

how long do you spend making your posts colored and bolded?

[Nacho]

you guys who prefer leach over june, please don't ever take an iq test.
you will break your mother's heart.

[RyanSMU98]

Interesting how quickly this became a Jones vs. Leach thread. Please don't misunderstand me: I think Leach is a helluva a football coach, and it is a shame that he is not coaching right now. My point was more about the politics of a university rather than ability. Mike Leach, for the moment, brings a lot of baggage (some his fault, most of it not) that most top-tier schools do not want to deal with right now. In 1-2 more years, that probably changes and he will land a good job and take a team to ridiculous new heights. Until the lawsuits and some of the other BS around his departure dies down, he is a hard sell to a risk-averse university culture (which most big name schools have when it comes to marquee hires - just ask Maryland).

As for whether Leach is a better choice than Jones for SMU, I'll leave that debate to others. I don't think we are where we should be in year 4 of the Jones era (given the recruiting success and the upper classmen who have been in the system a while, I was cautiously optimistic that this would be a breakout year), but the fact is we are light years ahead of where we have been for a quarter century, so the haters need to chill out a bit. Both coaches are very good at building up programs from nothing, and each does it with their own unique flair and approach to the game. You can decide for yourselves which one you prefer.

[rich59]

I agree that Leach is a very good football coach and if I had to choose between JJ and Leach, I would choose Leach. As far as he has won everywhere he coached, I may be wrong but I don't recall him ever being a head caoch anywhere but Tech. Being from the old school I believe in running the football but I always enjoyed watching Tech when Leach was coaching.

[ponyscott]

That's a good fit for both...he can pick up on recruiting right where he left off.