West Texas native here, and I disagree with the ascertion that West Texas is racist as well. By and large, West Texas rednecks are a totally different breed than deep south rednecks. We might be stodgy, but for the most part me and my ilk take pride in treating people fairly based on their individual qualities. That's not to say I haven't known some racists. But its not a prevalent attitude, what-so-ever.
If you take away the 7 Division I-AA wins Leach has in his 10 years vs the 1 Dykes had in his tenure, their win % is virtually identical. You don't think Dykes would have taken advantage of a 12 game season by adding I-AA like most of College Football has? In 08, Tech played 2 1-AA teams in their record tying 11 win season. As far as bowls, 12 game seasons adding a patsy would've helped previous coaches as well. Look and see how many 6-5 years Tech had before leach that would likely be 7-5. With Bowl Expansion, those are bowl years. Leach didn't invent Tech football and I think he may have been near his ceiling with game management and personal issues. I, however, will miss him b/c he was certainly not an assembly line coach. ps. During Leach's tenure, 7 Big 12 teams finished in the top 7 for the ap poll including juggernauts like Kansas and Missouri (we know how everyone holds Pinkel on a pedestal!). Tech did not.
And during Leach's tenure, 11 other teams in the Big XII had a losing season. Tech did not. Barely above historical average? Tech was the worst team in the SWC. Everybody else at least managed an unshared title at some point.
Leach was a revolutionary coach who changed offensive thinking in the Big XII. I don't think anyone can come in there and replace what he has done. I mean Waco is a better place than Lubbock to recruit to. The Tech administration has really crapped in its mess kit this time. All the shameless cheerleading from ESPN won't do them any good when Leach's recruits graduate or leave. I would have thought it impossible, but the Tech administrators are bigger blockheads than the aggies.
I'm another one who would like to see what Ruffin McNeil could do as Raider's head coach. I'm impressed with his performance at the Alamo Bowl, and his ability to hold things together in the week that preceeded it. That being said, I kinda doubt he gets his chance. Not because of racism...west Texas is no more or less racist than other parts of the state. However, if the Tech administration can get Tuberville at any kind of reasonable price, that's the direction I think they'll go. If Tuberville does get offered, and takes the job, he won't do a bad job out in Lubbock, but the team won't be nearly as interesting. They'll play good defense, run a safe, but predictable offense, and win enough most seasons to get into some kind of bowl. Tuberville will NOT make the Raiders more of a danger to UT and okie, but he also won't let them slide into oblivion either.
He seems like a nice guy, but his defense also looked lost at times in that game... it was primarily the offense that won it. I mean how do you not cover their only proven receiver, and leave him wide open? And the reason they were going for it on 4th down at the end is because Ruffin didn't trust his own defense to hold onto the win. Tech's program has been built around Leach's spread offense. And they have attracted some good offensive recruits who wanted to play in Leach's system. I think in order to continue competing in the Big 12, they need to continue that. Otherwise they have no selling point, and it's hard enough to get people to come to Lubbock as it is. So to me, it makes the most sense to go after another offensive coach with a high flying passing offense, who can keep the point machine going and keep attracting offensive talent. Briles, Sumlin, or June Jones make the most sense, IMO. If they go outside that box to make radical changes, then it needs to be a recognizable big name, like Tuberville. Problem is, even if it's obviously justifiable to go after someone more proven than Ruffin, Tech is kind of caught in a spot now. ESPN has "endorsed" him. And now if they dump him for a white guy, the race issue is bound to come up. And that's not a good thing for recruiting. I wouldn't be surprised if Tech just did the easy thing and promoted him to HC. And they would be able to get him cheap, which seems to be Tech's primary motive anyway. Briles or Tuberville, or any of the other coaches mentioned above... they are going to have to shell out some dough. And they are far from paying Leach off, too... Tech is in a tough spot. But they made their bed.
My biggest concern is how OU is going to evaluate QB talent now that Leach is out of the picture. Sam Bradford was not on the radar until Leach took notice. That turned out pretty well for OU until this year. Maybe Josh Heupel will get a shot to do it, since he learned from Leach first hand.
Dykes coached Tech from the (losing) end of the '87 season through '99. This was obviously a good time to have as good a record as possible, considering Tech's two quality conference foes are TEXAS and OU. Neither was much to write home about for much of that stretch. OU was not in the same conference until after it had past its peak. Leach, by contrast, has been coaching against (and still occasionally beating) TEXAS and OU in their decade of dominance. Dykes did not play as many 1AA teams as Leach, but there is no guarantee he would have racked up easy wins had he done so. He played, for example, North Texas (then newly 1A) at home in 1997 and 1999, losing both games to squads which would ultimately finish with a combined 6 wins over the two seasons. Under Leach, Tech always seemed to stumble somewhere. They rarely had meaningful wins away from Lubbock. But beating OU 3 of the last 5, knocking off #1 UT, posting 11 wins while in the B12S, and garnering national attention for a 3rd tier school in West Texas will be difficult acts to follow. Just because Leach was not Mack does not mean that replacing him will be easy. I wish Ruff all the best. Money concerns make it not unlikely that he will get the nod. I will be surprised, however, should he duplicate the degree of success (both on the field and in terms of fueling interest) enjoyed by ML.
Mike Leach has had one great season at Texas Tech (2008) It always amused me how much Bill Snyder got raked over the coals while Leach has really never gotten the criticism at all that his record is inflated by playing very weak teams out of conference. There is really not much difference between Mike Leach and Bill Synder in terms of scheduling patsies. except that: -Snyder had about 8- 10 seasons that were equivalent to Leach's 2008 -Snyder had 4 straight seasons of 11 wins (1997-2000) back when the standard regular season schedule was 11 games. Today that would be equivalent to 12 wins -Unlike Leach, Snyder actually won some major bowls (Fiesta in 1997 and Cotton 2000) won the BIGXII -Did all this when the BIGXII was by far the toughest conference in the country with 5-6 teams that were typically national contenders (Nebraska, Kansas St, Colorado, Texas, OU, Aggy) Im not saying that Leach didnt do a really good job at Texas Tech. But there are way too many people that act like texas tech was accomplishing the same things Kansas St was accomplishing....when the reality is that most years they are 8-4. I understand the Texas and OU argument, but thats no different from having to play Colorado and Nebraska in the 90's. Two programs that combined for 4 national titles in that decade. Texas Tech had a solid program, but it was not something that couldn't be accomplished by another good coach.
