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Mike Leach to Maryland? Could this be bad for Arizona?

by on Dec. 18, 2010, under Sports

Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach might resurface at Maryland. Photo by Bruce Thorson-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats football fans should keep an eye on a head coaching situation taking place about 2,300 miles away.

Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, 63, has reportedly agreed to a contract buyout, with former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach emerging as a leading candidate.

Leach has ties to three Arizona offensive coaches — offensive line coach and co-coordinator Bill Bedenbaugh, running backs coach and co-offensive coordinator Seth Littrell and outside receivers coach Dave Nichol.

Leach was an assistant coach at Iowa Wesleyan in 1991 when Bedenbaugh played there. Bedenbaugh was on the same coaching staff as Leach in 1996 at Valdosta State under head coach Hal Mumme.

When Leach became a head coach at Texas Tech in 2000, he brought in Bedenbaugh, who stayed through the 2006 season before joining Arizona.

Littrell played for Oklahoma in 1999, when Leach was the Sooners’ offensive coordinator. Littrell coached for Leach at Texas Tech from 2005 to 2008.

Nichol was a Texas Tech student assistant in 2000 and 2001, later joining Leach’s staff as a graduate assistant in 2003 and 2005.

Leach, who was fired after a successful 10-season run at Texas Tech after last season amid allegations of mistreatment of a player, certainly would be looking to hire assistants familiar with his Air Raid passing offense should he get the Maryland job.

Another potential problem for Arizona head coach Mike Stoops is that Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen will become the head coach in-waiting at West Virginia after the Cowboys play the Wildcats in the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl.

Holgorsen is another former Texas Tech assistant who has strong ties to that trio of Arizona coaches. Even though he won’t become the West Virginia head coach until after the 2011 season, Holgorsen could begin to remake the Mountaineers’ offensive coaching staff this offseason.

Might there be a situation in which Leach and Holgorsen are each trying to hire their old coaching buddies? Sure looks that way, so it could get very interesting for Arizona this offseason.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Jackie Jennings

    Either scenario BB is gone at minimum.  I tend to think of it as a credit to Stoops in developing coaches that are in demand like when Sonny Dykes moved on last year.  An ever changing, ever evolving team won’t get stale, keeping things fresh and exciting.
     

  • Carlos J. M.

    Of the three – Bedenbaugh, Littrell and Nichol – the one UA can least afford to lose is…Nichol, I think.  Criner, the Bug Man, Douglas, Roberts, Miller, Morrison and some of the other up and coming WRs were not exactly world beaters, recruited by all when they signed on for duty.  Yet Nichol has done an admirable jod developing the raw talent. 

    And quite frankly, after the last couple of seasons, It’d be refreshing to see the Cats go in another direction at OL and RB.  There’s just been too much talent at those two positions for Arizona to be getting the kind of performances we’ve seen game in and game out.  And if saying !Adios! to BB and SL means more room to say
    !Bienvenido (otra vez)! to Dickey (OL) and Hunley (LBs), I say, Go for it!  There’s got to be a RB coach in-waiting on the staff, about town or in the country somewhere.  And man, wouldn’t Scelfo look awfully nice at OC and QB coach?! 

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  • Jackie Jennings

    Wow Carlos you said it all.  BB and SL have major issues with coaching style.  There is only one way talent like that does not perform and that is coaching.  We need to all remember who they came up through the ranks with, Mike Leach.  In his whole tenure as head coach, Mike Leach was always so close but no cigar.  Sound familiar?  BB and SL just don’t get it, gone are the days of verbally beating a player into submission with degrading talk.  (aka “old school”)  Don’t get me wrong, tuff coaching and pushing players to give their all on every down is a great thing but players want to be mentored and inspired so to keep their love of the game alive.  BB had zero NFL recruits under him at Texas Tech and the one he coached for Arizona went into the NFL the same year BB came to Arizona.  Even the talent on the line this year was pretty much here when he got here in 2006.  Another BB observation is recruiting this year.  In years past he would get four if not five OL recruits and almost every year there was a four star in the class.  This year he has an unranked local kid and Jr College transfer.  All of this in a year his entire OL is graduating.  I think he had it in his mind he was moving on after this year anyway.  This way he can go recruit for West Virginia after the bowl game.  I say good buy Mr. BB and lets get an OL coach in here to unite our boys not tare them apart.

  • suitsoot

    He can have the two offensive coordinators.  I thought this year was a huge step back in our play calling.  Last year, you never knew what was coming.

  • pd

    Would like to see what Mike can do with good recruits. At TT all he had was what Tx,TA&M,OU and Neb didn’t want, the pirate kicked the cornhuskers but bad every time he played them. He beat Tx and OU in Lubbock and killed A&M. So you people in Maryland want some excitement hire Leach. I was a TT fan over 40yrs but not anymore,enough is enough. James boy was a wuss Mike was fired pure and simple because Gerald Myers the useless AD hated him, Mike didn’t play Myers games and be a good ole boy required in Lubbock and TT. I wish Maryland Football well as I do the crafty old pirate.

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