RTT Tennessee Volunteers Head Football Coach Search, Round 3

But I think most people aren’t sure about Leach as a person. There’s nothing wrong with the guy, but he is an odd duck. Even if he isn’t hired, I would love to know if the boosters would even be willing to consider him.

He will need to recruit some offensive lineman who actually block. It’ll be tough for the first year or so.

…although I probably wouldn’t use the word terrible. Let’s just say it would be strange marriage at first.

Also I worry about Leach’s ability to recruit the future pro’s. Aside from Wes Welker, name one pro from Leach’s time at Texas Tech that has made a name for himself in the NFL. Sammy Morris? Eh. Tennessee’s bread and butter in the recruiting world has been its ability to churn out future pros on both sides of the ball. I’m not so sure that recruits will be that enamored with Leach’s track record in developing professional talent. I know that this track record has done Tennessee very little good lately but I cringe at the thought of turning our backs towards that aspect of our coaching tradition. How do you recruit nationally? By taking the talent you got and turning them into Sunday football players. Show that you can teach them how to prepare for the next level and you will get recruits from all over.

With Leach it seems that he takes less talented players (not named Michael Crabtree) and turns them, via his spread system, into statistical monsters. However, not one of his insanely productive quarterbacks has done anything in the NFL.

Is Leach a recruiter? Hard to say. Recruiting in Texas is like looking for porn on the internet….
(Mrs. Leach on Mike’s Trip through Texas) Did you see any good recruits, honey?
(Coach Leach) Only when I open my eyes, Honey….

So with Leach, I think the question you have to ask yourself is this: Would you rather watch future pros, or would you rather watch overachieving players that are less successful at the next level? Hard to say. I’m much more of a college football fan than I am of the NFL but I have to say that it would be strange if we didn’t have Vols like Manning, Witten, Lewis, Henderson, and Haynesworth in the NFL.

We’ll see. Anyway that’s my only concern with Leach. If he brings us back to Atlanta, I won’t care if he fields the first all female team. Wait a minute…Yes I would. Scratch that.

Much as I love to watch his teams and his own antics, I’ve heard too many stories out of that locker room re: how he treats his players to be entirely comfortable with him as a candidate. Our boys have low enough morale as is.

I’ve always done that because of the Tampa defense. Yes, I know he inherited it.

The expectations are part a function of culture and part a function of past experience. The fanbase/boosters/whodawhatsits at a “major” program in the ESSSSSSSSS-EEEEEEEEEE-CEEEEEEEEEEEE always goes ga-ga over putting people in the NFL. It’s viewed as a kind of validation of this whole superiority thing people get up on a high horse about. Also, having won a nat’l championship in the BCS/Bowl Alliance era gives the crowd a different expectation. Add onto it that every Vol’s favorite player is Peyton Manning (yes, that’s hyperbole, but you understand) and that he’s a clear HOFer in the NFL, and it gets to be a priority to place players in the NFL.

Besides, I think you’ll see more Tech guys go to the league soon enough. Leach has been getting more highly-touted recruits recently and the on-field results are no longer dismissable as a “system” effect – your athletes are very good.

BTW, thanks for chatting so much about Leach over here. Fortunately for both of us, nobody is going to make a decision about him based on blogs, so it’s great to have the conversation. Even if he doesn’t come here (most likely result, IMO), it’s been a fascinating ride: living vicariously off your offense.

The reason I bring up NFL development for our players is because that is probably one of our best recruiting draws. Tennessee is not a talent flush state by any means. So we have to go all over the USA to find our players.

It’s not so much that we enjoy the name recognition as it is being able to point to our ability to advertise player development for the next level.

And while I haven’t looked at Tech’s roster, I’m willing to bet that over half of the roster is from Texas. We need a recruiter who is comfortable looking all over…not just Texas.