Tag: Mike Leach

Pete Carroll’s son is a candidate for Hawaii head coaching job

Brennan Carroll, a longtime Seattle Seahawks assistant and son of head coach Pete Carroll, is a candidate to be Hawaii’s next head coach.

Seattle Seahawks assistant offensive line coach Brennan Carroll, son of head coach Pete Carroll, has emerged as a candidate for Hawaii’s head coaching vacancy, according to Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman.

Hawaii is in need of a new head coach after Nick Rolovich replaced Mike Leach at Washington State University, after Leach left for Mississippi State.

Carroll played tight end at the University of Pittsburgh from 1999-2001 before joining USC as a Graduate Assistant in 2002, under his dad.

Carroll ended up serving a variety of different roles while at USC, including tight end coach and eventually recruiting coordinator, before he was let go by new coach Lane Kiffin, who came in to replace Pete Carroll after he went to Seattle.

Carroll then spent four seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Miami, coaching tight ends and wide receivers while also leading the recruiting charge, before he joined the Seahawks in 2015 as an assistant offensive line coach, a role he still holds today – for now.

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Mike Leach is disappointed Mississippi State ditched its ‘malicious’ visitor’s locker room

The new Mississippi State coach once said the Bulldogs’ visitor’s locker room was so awful it was brilliant.

Only a few months ago, Mike Leach described Mississippi State’s visitor’s locker room as the worst in college football. He told ESPN that the Bulldogs’ locker room for the visiting team was so awful that it was “the ultimate touch of brilliance.”

So when Leach — who was officially introduced as Mississippi State’s head coach Friday during a press conference — went to go check it out Thursday night, he said he was actually a bit disappointed. That terrible, brilliant locker room, which he called “literally a work of art” Friday, has since been turned into an office.

“I was slightly disappointed that the greatest visitors’ locker room of all time is no more,” Leach said Friday.

At the beginning of the 2019 football season when Leach was still the head coach of Washington State, he spoke to ESPN about Mississippi State’s visitor’s locker room and said:

“My heart swelled with pride because I knew that there may never be a better visitor’s locker room than this one. Every wall was concrete: The floor was concrete, the ceiling was concrete, everything was concrete. There’s no furniture, there was no benches, there was no lockers.”

Leach, of course, shared some in-depth views on the Bulldogs’ old visitor’s locker room:

“I wanted to go down memory lane to that old visitor’s locker room, the artistry of which I truly admire. I mean that sincerely. Maybe my taste and view on football and sports are a little different than others, but the old visitor’s locker room at Mississippi State was literally a work of art. And now it’s an office. …

“Obviously, if you’re the home team, you want to have most advantageous visitor’s locker room you possibly can. Nowadays, in these kinder and gentler days — it was utterly outstanding. Just the thought that went into it, the malicious intent, the ‘Hey, it’s tough to play on the road attitude.’ Yep.

“And I counted them and — if I recall right — 37 nails in a concrete block, two toilets with no seats or no lids in the middle. One roll of toilet paper in the middle. And I was convinced here I’d have the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the locker room of that magnitude.”

Well, maybe not.

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Washington State RB had the best reaction to Mike Leach’s departure

Wazzu running back Max Borghi has a good feeling about this.

Mike Leach is known for a lot of things, particularly his quirks and peculiar in-depth analysis on things like which Pac-12 mascots (or coaches) would survive a battle royale.

On the football field, it’s all about his “Air Raid” offense with his aggressive passing attack. In Leach’s 18 seasons as a head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State, his offenses have led the nation in passing 10 times, and every season since 2013, the Cougars have finished ranked in the top five in both total passing yards and passing yards per game.

Despite a disappointing 6-7 2019 season, Washington State is No. 1 with 5,683 passing yards and 437.2 yards per game. (LSU is No. 2 in both categories and seems likely to pass the Cougars in total passing yards in the national championship game Monday.)

But Thursday, news broke that Leach is leaving Washington State for the SEC to take over at Mississippi State after the Bulldogs fired Joe Moorhead last week at the end of his second season.

A lot of people are excited about this news, including new Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and college football Twitter in general. But Washington State sophomore running back Max Borghi is too, judging by his response to a tweet from Leach.

The 5-foot-10, 197-pound running back from Colorado was Washington State’s leading rusher this season with 817 yards and 11 touchdowns and broke the 100-yard mark four times. But that’s nowhere near some of the most productive players in the FBS.

His total rushing yards barely put him among the top-100 backs in the nation, while his 127 attempts rank 144th. He did, however, finish the season with 86 catches for 597 yards, making him the team’s fourth best receiver.

Obviously, the Cougars don’t have a new head coach yet, and even if Leach’s replacement had a slightly more balanced offensive approach, it’s not like they’re going to abandon the passing game entirely. However, it is a good bet that Borghi will, in fact, rush more.

And he had a great reaction to that probability.

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WATCH: Mike Leach leaving Washington State for Mississippi State job

Current Washington State head coach Mike Leach is leaving the Cougs to take the head job with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Boy, oh boy does this add national intrigue to the 2020 Egg Bowl, and the SEC rivalry games in Mississippi for seasons to come. Current Washington State head coach Mike Leach is leaving the Cougs to take the head job with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

MSU Athletic Director John Cohen tweeted Thursday, “The deal is done,” and the Mississippi State football account shared a hype video welcoming the pirate to Starkville.

The fun that is to come in the Magnolia State with Lane Kiffin at ole miss and leach at state gives Mississippi the edge for most-spirited, best-quote-providing rivalry in the country.
Kiffin already welcomed his “Old friend,” to the state, too.

Leach is a three-time conference coach of the year, winning the award twice in the PAC-12 and once in the Big 12. In 18 seasons as a head coach, leach has led his teams to 15 bowl games.

In eight seasons at Washington State, Leach compiled a 55-47 record. Before that, he posted a school-record 84 wins in 10 seasons as the head coach at Texas Tech.

It was at Tech that Leach gave a long, supposedly-inspiring pirate speech that secured him his nickname.

The 58-year-old’s name was thrown around when the Ole Miss, Arkansas, Missouri, and Florida State jobs were open in December, but Washington State seemed to lock Leach into Pullman with a one-year contract extension, signing him to that job through 2024.

But it seems the SEC was indeed calling .. let the legendary quotes continue.

Mike Leach leaving Washington State for Mississippi State job

Current Washington State head coach Mike Leach is leaving the Cougs to take the head job with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Current Washington State head coach Mike Leach is leaving the Cougs to take the head job with the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Twitter reacts to Mississippi State’s hiring of Mike Leach

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have hired former Washington State Cougars head coach Mike Leach to the same position in Starkville

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have hired former Washington State Cougars head coach Mike Leach to the same position in Starkville. Leach is legendary for his press conferences, his air raid offense, and his ability to develop quarterbacks.

Leach is 139-90 in his career and will be coaching in the SEC, as a head coach, for the first time in 2020. Leach was able to turn historically struggling programs in Texas Tech and Washington State into consistent winning schools. Will Leach be able to achieve the same success at Mississippi State?

Here’s how SEC football Twitter reacted to Leach’s hiring:

It’s not good news for the struggling PAC-12:

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The arrivals of Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin in Mississippi just made the Egg Bowl a must-watch rivalry

Mike Leach is taking over at Mississippi State, and Ole Miss recently hired Lane Kiffin.

Mike Leach is leaving Washington State to take over as head coach for Mississippi State, USA TODAY Sports confirmed Thursday. This is huge news for the 58-year-old coach who’s famous for his air raid offense and is approaching two decades as a head coach.

Leach had been with the Cougars since the 2012 season after getting his first head coaching job in college at Texas Tech and spending 10 years with the Red Raiders.

After a 6-7 2019 season, the Bulldogs fired Joe Moorhead Friday at the end of his second season with the program. Mississippi State lost in the Music City Bowl to Louisville in December.

Leach taking over means the SEC has yet another big-personality coach in the conference, particularly the SEC West. But while the always blunt and often entertaining coach joins Alabama’s Nick Saban and LSU’s Ed Orgeron in that category, perhaps the most entertaining aspect of this news involves the program’s rivalry with Ole Miss, which recently hired Lane Kiffin.

The Egg Bowl rivalry game between the two teams is often wildly entertaining, sometimes regardless of the score. And even the most recent on in November ended in absurd fashion with a last-second touchdown, a penalty for a player mimicking a dog urinating on the field and a devastating missed extra point. A dog urinating moment also occurred in the 2017 matchup too.

So how could a game with a history of ridiculousness get even better? Pitting Leach against Kiffin is a great start. So mark your calendar because the first Egg Bowl with these two coaches is November 26, 2020.

College football Twitter is rightfully pumped about this new element of the rivalry with Leach’s arrival at Mississippi State, and that even includes the former Alabama assistant and FAU coach.

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WATCH: Mike Leach signs extension at Washington State

The Washington State head coach just signed a contract extension to keep him in Pullman, Wash. through the 2024 season.

Mike Leach is not leaving the Pacific Northwest for the SEC or any other football job this season, or for a while. The Washington State head coach just signed a contract extension to keep him in Pullman, Wash. through the 2024 season.

Leach is the first coach to lead the Cougars to five consecutive bowl games and has an overall record of 55-46 in eight seasons leading the program.

The new contract will pay Leach $4 million per season. The 58-year-old coach has been discussed in conversations around the Arkansas, Ole Miss and Missouri head coach openings.

Leach interviewed for the Tennessee opening ahead of the 2018 season but was not hired after negotiations fell apart when AD John Currie was fired and replaced by Philip Fulmer.

A fake Twitter account briefly fooled the college football world into thinking Ole Miss hired Mike Leach

It’s that time of the year.

It’s that time of the year.

The college football coaching carousel is in full swing with a number of programs looking to make hires and moves early into the recruiting cycle. This season also brings out the weirdest faction of sports Twitter — Fake Coaching Hire Twitter.

And on Monday, the college football world was thrown for a loop by one of the more believable fake accounts we’ve seen in a quite some time.

Less than 24 hours after Ole Miss announced the firing of head coach Matt Luke, a Twitter account purporting to be 247Sports Ole Miss beat writer David Johnson tweeted a graphic to announce that the Rebels had hired Washington State coach Mike Leach.

It was the little details that made the tweet believable, and the tweet indeed fooled plenty of fans and media members.

The fake account had 5,600 followers and changed all the details to mirror Johnson’s account. Johnson’s real account had a handle of @Rebels247 while the fake account simply capitalized an “I” to look like a lowercase “L” for the handle, “@RebeIs247.”

As far as fakes go, this was one heck of an effort.

Typically, fans and reporters can spot the fake accounts by looking for the blue verified checkmark, but Johnson’s genuine account was not verified. Even he was confused by the faker’s effort, initially thinking that his account had been hacked.

Johnson eventually set his pinned tweet to clarify that he never tweeted that Ole Miss hired Mike Leach.

The actual culprit was a fan account called “Bourbon Ghost,” which had been active since 2010 (another reason his fake was believable). The account eventually changed the avatar and handle back once the Leach tweet went viral, but the bio still included Johnson’s 247Sports information.

And with that, the Mike Leach era at Ole Miss came to an end.

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