Winner of the RTT Head Coaching Search Vote-a-Thon: Mike Leach

With over 800 votes cast (an RTT record by a significant margin), Mike Leach bested Jon Gruden as the "most desired as the next head coach" winner.

(Copy/pasted because the poll recall thingy glitched on me.)

With 820 votes, the simple margin of error is just under 4%; the difference in votes cast falls juuuust within the margin.  That basically means that while Leach won, it wasn't an overwhelming victory.  Since Leach is the oft-discussed name, I believe this speaks more to the split opinion on Leach than it does on Gruden.

A few notes on what I noticed through the voting rounds:

1. Head Coaches are more desired.  The head coaches very consistently received more votes than assistants.  With Muschamp selling his sould to the long-horned devil, this is probably just as well.
2. Offense, offense, offense!  Coaches with noted offenses scored better than defensive coaches.  This may also explain some of Leach's popularity.  (Ok, it explains all of Leach's popularity.)  Face it, we Vols fans miss offense.
3. Recruiting on my mind.  A lot of discussion has been generated about the next coach's ability to recruit.  The lynchpin seems to be whether the new coach has anything we can look to as the source of his recruiting schtick.  For example, Leach has the offense of doom.  Gruden can wear his Super Bowl ring.  Kelly is often compared to Bruce Pearl.  Davis had Miami.
4. Style points are not important.  System didn't matter to people very much.  There wasn't any big enthusiasm for Urban-esque spreads, or WCOs, or what-have-you.  All people wanted was an offense that scores points and can score points in the SEC.  There seems to be an underlying assumption that the defense will take care of itself; very few people mention concerns about the defense next year.

Well, there you have it.  It was fun, and it carries basically zero weight with the actual decision-makers, but I learned a bit out of it.  Let's just all agree on one thing:  whoever the new coach may be, let's give him our full support for at least the first full year.  I don't think I can handle another year with as much negative ju-ju as this one, and I'd like a break.  kthx.