What Leach was referring to was a culture in Lubbock that was already damaged a year after his Red Raiders went 11-2 and climbed as high as No. 2 nationally.
His team thought that it was somebody after doing that, and that all they had to do was walk on the field next year and opponents would just cower down.
This wasn’t the case, as the team slipped to 9-4 and a distant third in the Big 12 South and Leach was ultimately fired in scandal although it was later shown to be blown way out of proportion by the Texas Tech administration and national media.
Comparing it to LSU, after going 15-0 and winning the national championship, Orgeron thought he and his Tigers had arrived.
All they had to do was show up. The record since Joe Burrow left for the NFL after defeating Clemson?
9-10, and 7-9 in the SEC. Pretty pedestrian, and certainly not what LSU accepts nor pays for.
The coaching carousel is already spinning and will continue to do so the next few weeks.
Decision makers in Baton Rouge either already have their guy or they are waiting to see how November shakes out before making their move.
The last three full-time coaches have won a national title (Saban, Miles, Orgeron), and they all did it within four years of being hired.
It’s safe to say what Mike Leach coached teams are going to do—throw the football.
Arkansas’ depleted secondary is going to get a workout on Saturday afternoon.
Bulldog quarterback Will Rogers is having a terrific season, and is probably coming off his best performance of the year against Kentucky last week.
Rogers was 36 of 39 for 344 yards and a touchdown, a SEC record for completion percentage in a game with more than 30 attempted.
The Bulldogs also have a stingy bend-but-don’t-break defense that has only given up 28-plus to one league opponent (Alabama).
Barry Odom and the Arkansas defense has had two weeks to prepare, so they’re going to have to hope they can get pressure with three on Rogers.
The Razorbacks haven’t beaten Mississippi State in Fayetteville since 2003, having lost the last three meetings in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium since it resumed there in 2015.
With both teams sporting identical 5-3 records, the winner gets a leg up in the bowl pecking order and momentum for the rest of the month.
A look at Kentucky’s defense simulating Mississippi State’s snap count.
Mississippi State (5-3, 3-2 SEC) defeated Kentucky (6-2, 4-2 SEC), 31-17, in Week 9 at Davis Wade Stadium.
At halftime and during his postgame press conference, second-year Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach discussed how Kentucky was simulating the Bulldogs’ snap count during the game.
When Leach was walking to the Bulldogs’ locker room at halftime, SEC Network sideline reporter Cole Cubelic asked Mississippi State’s head coach if there were any issues with Kentucky’s defense before the snap.
Following the contest, Leach further discussed Kentucky simulating his offense’s snap count.
“They were yelling, or they were simulating our snap count,” Leach said. “Yeah, they were simulating our snap count, and you know, if folks can get away with that, we got to start coaching it.”
Mike Leach discusses Kentucky simulating Mississippi State’s snap count. Leach says if folks can get away with that, then we have to start coaching it. pic.twitter.com/PCXRIraUgS
Tennessee will play at Kentucky in Week 10. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. EDT and ESPN2 will televise the Southeastern Conference divisional matchup.
Below is a video of Leach’s comments regarding Kentucky simulating the Bulldogs’ snap count.
Mike Leach discusses Kentucky simulating Mississippi State’s snap count. Leach says if folks can get away with that, then we have to start coaching it. pic.twitter.com/PCXRIraUgS
A look at the history between Tennessee’s football and rugby teams.
The University of Tennessee has fielded a rugby team since 1970. The Vols compete in the Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference.
Tennessee’s first official rugby match took place Oct. 31, 1970 in Huntsville, Alabama against the Redstone Rugby Club, winning 8-6. UT finished its inaugural 1970-71 season with a 13-3-3 record.
Over the years, Tennessee’s football program has worked with its rugby team in providing an audience in helping fill roster spots.
“Under Butch Jones (2013-17) we were always welcomed to walk-on tryouts and had an opportunity to address the 50-60 guys after the session to tell them about rugby,” Tennessee rugby head coach Marty Bradley told Vols Wire. “We would get three or four guys to give rugby a try each year.”
Under Jeremy Pruitt (2018-20), Bradley mentioned walk-on’s were handled one-on-one with the former head coach, preventing the rugby program of having a platform in recruiting to the team.
Since Josh Heupel has been hired as Tennessee’s head coach, the rugby and football programs have not worked together during the early stages of his tenure.
Matthew Salansky, Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire
Redshirt sophomore Matthew Salansky has served as Tennessee’s long snapper since the start of the 2020 season. He redshirted in 2019.
Salansky’s dad played rugby at Tennessee Tech and was teammates with Bradley.
“Matthew came out to watch a bit of practice last year because he was going to give rugby a go, but then he became the long snapper,” Bradley said.
Tennessee rugby head coach Marty Bradley. 2021 University of Tennessee rugby reserves team. The 2021 Tennessee reserves rugby team played Western Carolina on Saturday, September 25, 2021, at the Tennessee Rugby Park in Knoxville, Tennessee. Photo of the Tennessee-Western Carolina match is by Dan Harralson of Vols Wire.
Greg Amsler played running back for the Vols between 1987-90.
Bradley mentioned Amsler is the most notable football player to also play rugby at Tennessee.
“I guess the most notable player to play rugby was Greg Amsler,” Bradley said. “He played while preparing for an attempt at the NFL.”
Most recently, wide receiver Brett Parisi (2012-13) and tight end Dakota Summers (2010-13) played football and rugby at Tennessee.
“When my senior season ended, I joined the team to play 15s in the spring,” Summers told Vols Wire about playing rugby and football at Tennessee. “I’m so thankful I did. Rugby is an incredible sport and UT has a great program with great player and coaches. I don’t think I’d say one is more physical than the other, it is just a different kind of physicality. There is a big difference in making a tackle with a helmet and shoulder pads on versus a t-shirt and shorts.”
Summers started out playing as an inside center for Tennessee’s rugby team. He played a few games there and then moved to left lock.
“I enjoyed both positions, but being in the scrum on the second row was so much fun,” he said.
Summers also discussed playing tight end in football, in comparison to his rugby positions he played with the Vols.
“You could say inside center is comparable because it’s a big body guy who is more out in space,” he said. “As for lock in comparison, an even bigger body, who is more of a blocking tight end type of guy.”
2021 University of Tennessee rugby. The 2021 Tennessee rugby team played Clemson on Saturday, October 16, 2021, at the Tennessee Rugby Park in Knoxville, Tennessee. Photo of the Tennessee-Clemson match is by Dan Harralson of Vols Wire.
Jonathan Kongbo played defensive end and linebacker for the Vols from 2016-18. Kongbo played rugby growing up before becoming a highly-touted recruit in football.
“He was a heck of a high school rugby player in Canada, but I could not get him out for obvious reasons,” Bradley said of Kongbo playing rugby at Tennessee. “He was a U19 player in Canada and could probably give it a go for their national team if he ever picked it back up.”
Jonathan Kongbo, Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire
Heupel played for Mike Leach at Oklahoma.
Leach served as the Sooners’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 1999 and recruited Heupel as his starting signal-caller.
Leach did not play football in college. He played rugby at BYU.
Leach joined the show “Football Two-A-Days” and discussed his time playing rugby and the similarities between the two sports.
“There’s some similarities, allegedly football was taken from rugby kind of, but it is different,” Leach said. “I was coming off of an ankle injury. I had a broken ankle my senior year in high school. As I was coming off of that, running to bring that back, I started playing rugby. I had it for a P.E. class, then they recruited me to be on the team after that. I was pretty fast back then, so it was a great deal for me. We went all over the country playing rugby, to Canada, all over the place. BYU was a really good team.
“I really enjoyed my time playing rugby. Football is very much a game for specialists. Rugby is kind of a game for a guy that can do a little bit of everything because everybody touches the ball. Everybody tackles, everybody passes, everybody kicks, all those things.”
The entire show with Leach can be listened to here or below.
5 bold predictions for Alabama’s matchup with the Mississippi State Bulldogs!
Nick Saban and the fifth-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will look to avoid back-to-back losses as they travel to Starkville to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday night.
There isn’t any doubt that the Bulldogs will bring their best effort in the hopes of upsetting the Tide, so Alabama must bring the proper focus and energy to avoid a catastrophic defeat.
With Saturday quickly approaching, I wanted to bring my five bold predictions to the table for this matchup of SEC foes.
A look at how Tennessee’s fourth down mesh play was not properly executed in its loss against Florida.
First-year Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel is continuing to implement his veer and shoot principle-base offense.
Part of Heupel implementing his offense is continuing to evolve it based on current player personnel.
Heupel played quarterback at Oklahoma for offensive coordinator Mike Leach. Leach is one of the original architects of the Air Raid offense, alongside Hal Mumme.
A main part of the Air Raid offense is mesh. Mesh is when two wide receivers run crossing routes. A good indication of when mesh routes are executed near perfection is having receivers slap hands as they reach the mesh point.
Below is Leach’s offense executing mesh against LSU on Sept. 25. Receivers are seen slapping hands at the mesh point.
Mississippi State executes mesh versus LSU.
Mesh is something Heupel has steered away from since implementing Baylor’s veer and shoot scheme as Missouri’s offensive coordinator from 2016-17.
Tennessee’s offense under Heupel has operated efficiently at times this season, but also has been stagnant.
Tennessee’s offense has produced five 40-plus yard plays from scrimmage this season under Heupel.
The Vols recorded three offensive plays of 40-plus yards during its 10-game, SEC only 2020 season. Tennessee produced 10 offensive plays of 40-plus yards in 13 games during the 2019 campaign.
Tennessee executes mesh at Florida.
In Week 4, Tennessee unexpectedly featured mesh in a fourth-and-five situation on Florida’s 30-yard line, down 24-14 with 6 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The mesh point between receivers Jimmy Calloway and Cedric Tillman was not closed or tight enough, something that can be perfected with more reps in practice. The Vols’ mesh play against Florida can be viewed above.
By not closing the mesh point tight enough, it allowed for a defender to escape and cause a distraction with footsteps behind Calloway. The result was not being able to complete Hendon Hooker’s passing attempt.
On Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference teleconference, Leach discussed how often Mississippi State practices and executes mesh during game week.
“We practice it a lot,” Leach said of mesh. “You just work on it every day, it’s a part of your package, and you do it every day.”
Heupel also discussed running mesh at Florida and if it will be something he implements more of in catering to player personnel during the remainder of the season.
“You’ll see a combination of stuff as we continue to grow offensively,” Heupel said on Wednesday’s SEC teleconference. “In year one, you try to get your kids the base understanding of base concepts, of what you are doing, and continue to integrate things into your repertoire, into your game plan that are needed to attack certain things that you see defensively.
“Those things become a natural part of what you are doing, as you continue to grow, just kind of an evolution of who you are and where you’re going as an offense.”
Plenty of storylines for the game on Saturday, one stands out above the rest.
There are plenty of notable storylines to observe in the game between the LSU Tigers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The road team is looking to return the favor to an embarrassment from a season ago. The Bulldogs came into Death Valley and racked up 44 points and over 600 yards of offense. Can Ed Orgeron and company return the favor?
The major storyline to observe is how can the LSU football team build on the last two victories at home as they try for the first road win of the season. They opened out in Los Angeles but fell to UCLA 38-27. Following that loss, the team outscored their opposition at Tiger Stadium 83-28. With a bevy of top opponents on the schedule, can the team get a much-needed win on Saturday?
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LSU’s resounding 49-21 win over a tricky Central Michigan team was a good step forward. But with games against Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss and Alabama on the near horizon, a loss to Mississippi State could trigger quite a slide for the Tigers. – Bill Connelly, ESPN
To do so the Tigers will have to do it without two of their better defenders in all likelihood. The team lost Andre Anthony for the season due to a knee injury suffered against Central Michigan. This week in practice top cornerback Derek Stingley Jr re-injured his “camp” injury and is very questionable against Mississippi State.
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The does get Jay Ward back and he will likely slide over to cornerback along with Dwight McGlothern who just returned to the team last week. They will be tested along with Eli Rick in slowing down the SEC’s top passing attack. To neutralize the offense the nation’s top pass-rushing unit will need to continue their dominance against an offensive line that allows two sacks per game.
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BJ Ojulari and the defense will have a challenge in getting to Will Rogers but this unit has shown to be an attacking unit in three games.
The areas of concern for the LSU Tigers in their SEC class with Mississippi State Bulldogs.
It is time for the LSU Tigers to get a bit of redemption as they head into enemy territory on Saturday. Last year the Tigers fell to the Bulldogs of Mississippi State at home. It is time to return the favor as LSU looks to start off SEC play better than they did a season ago.
The team and Ed Orgeron know the importance of this game and getting off to a 3-1 start before really getting into the thick of their SEC schedule with Auburn, Kentucky, Florida, and Ole Miss in the month of October. It all begins with Mike Leach and the Bulldogs.
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As we look at the game against Mississippi State, we highlight the areas of concern for LSU.
Will we get a repeat of 2020 or a new ending? Expert picks for Saturday’s LSU-Mississippi State game.
Big matchup coming on Saturday from Starkville, Mississippi. The LSU Tigers go on the road to open SEC play against Mississippi State for the second-straight year. This time around there are two different quarterbacks under center with Max Johnson and Will Rogers. We compared the two passers in our ‘Tale of the Tape’.
Neither team has much of a running game as they are ranked No. 13 and No. 14 in the SEC. LSU is ranked No. 120 in the country, while the Bulldogs have the worst rushing offense in the country at No. 130. Can either team get the run game going to help out the offense? Odds are that it would be LSU that would likely be the one to do it.
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Currently, the LSU Tigers are favored in this game by 2.5 according to Tipico Sportsbook. We check in with the experts for this one, who wins on Saturday?
Kerry Miller, Bleacher Report
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Who’s ready for a repeat of that stunning start to SEC play last fall? Neither of these teams runs the ball well and both defenses have done well to defend the run, so it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if Max Johnson and Will Rogers combine for something like 110 pass attempts in this one. And if it plays out that way, I like Mississippi State at home in a four-hour barn-burner. – Miller
Mississippi State 45, LSU 42
Pete Fiutak, College Football News
(Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Everyone’s going to be into the offensive side, but the defenses are going to be the difference.
Neither one will be dominant – both passing games will work – but Mississippi State will do a better job of controlling the ball and the tempo, and the defensive side will take over when it needs to.
Neither team will run well, and at home, Mississippi State’s short-range passing attack will be a bit more effective. – Fiutak
LSU hasn’t been tested since its Week 1 loss to UCLA, but the model sees the Tigers as the more balanced team in this matchup. The simulations show Mike Leach’s squad barely cracking 50 yards of rushing, while LSU goes for over 100 on the ground. With both teams easily topping 300 yards of passing, that’s a big difference in the sides. LSU takes this one by seven points in the simulations, covering almost 60 percent of the time. – CBS Sports on how LSU wins
