Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Interview: Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach

Transcript

Interview: Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: J. P. Shattuck, joined by Mike Leach, the head coach
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Washington State Cougars. Coach, how are you? Thank
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you for your time, sir, Well, I'm doing good. Thanks
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for having me on. I know you're in the middle
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of Pack twelve meetings this week and the the schedule
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: is always busy this time of year. But NFL Draft
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is over and the Jaguars picked up Gardnerman's shoes sixth
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: round pick. Overall, he was well traveled before he got
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to Pullman, Washington. When did you first hear about Gardner
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and when did you first make contact and how did
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all that work to get him out to Washington State. Well?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I first heard about him, you know, they they I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: don't know whether it's word of mouth or the computer
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: what comes first nowadays, but basically, um, he was one
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of those, uh, those fifth year senior quarterbacks that was
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: transferring and uh and we were in the market for that,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and so we're keeping our eye out. And then as
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: uh we were sorting it out, um uh he commits
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to Alabama, you know, as we're looking at the others
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and well should we shouldn't we do we like him?
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Let's watch the film and Uh, and we did like him,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and then he's committed to Alabama. But you know, I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: guess we felt like Alabama was closer to having a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: starting quarterback than we were, and um, we felt like
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: he'd ended up sitting on the bench down there. So
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: called him up. He visited the whole thing, and uh,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: we told him, you you want to go holden clipboard
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: at Alabama, you want to leave the nation in passing
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: at Washington State. So he dropped the clipboard and he
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: came to Washington State and led the h led the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: nation in passing U and was the Conference player of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the Year. The connection between you two was that pretty immediate.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Just as a person the person, we hit it off
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: right away. We had very similar personalities. He's very driven,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: passionate about football. He's fearless. Um, you know, he's fearless
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and just a very competitive guy. And I think, um,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the fact that he was so competitive rubbed off on
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the rest of our team. I think it made them
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: excited to be there. I mean, knowing that it really
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: means a great deal to the guy besides you, I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: think kind of helps elevate the enthusiasm and interest of others.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Coach Mike leach with US from Washington States. He went
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: from Troy to Northwest Mississippi Community College, one a JUCO
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: national title there, two years at the backup at East Carolina,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: got his degree there nearly Alabama. As you said, does
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: moving around that much and having to learn different types
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of offense and different approaches to the game, does that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: help a guy learning yet another offense like he's going
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to have to do here. I I think it probably
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: helps him be adaptable. I think it helps the adaptability
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you know where. I think a lot of times when
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: guys go safe from high school to college, you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: how quickly can they adapt will have a impact on
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: how quickly they can contribute. I think the same thing
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from college to the NFL. So he has made plenty
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of moves um which should help his adaptability. Overall. I
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: think you're better off to be able to get established
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and really rooted into one place because you can really
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: build and develop on your game and what you do coach,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: What do you do best? What's his best attribute as
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a quarterback, and maybe something that he can work on
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: at the professional level. I think what he does best
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: is he leads the unit. He energizes the whole unit
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and uh, it moves the ball downfield. The other thing
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that he is an extremely good job of as he
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: never takes negative plays. And I mean there were something
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that we're just you know, not his fault necessarily, but
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: it was a negative play wait and a half and
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: oh my god, here's a sack, you know, or here's
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a tackle for loss. And I mean he would he
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: would literally carve away to not give up a negative
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: play and it was really quite impressive. And then um,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: uh you know, I think, uh, things will work on
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't. I don't really have any specifically, I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: mean progressively better at everything, which I think that's what
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you're ideally looking for. Is the guy that, yeah, you know,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: just incremental overall improvement. But um, you know, maybe sometimes
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: when he gets anxious, preconceived on things a little bit
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and read it through more or relieve. But the thing
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: is is he what he does really well is, uh
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: is after he responds after a bad play and he's
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: ready to go the very next play and not faced
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: by the previous one, no matter how how great or
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: how bad it was. Mike Leech from Washington State with
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: US coach what now without him in Pulman what's next
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: in the quarterback room for you. Well, we've got two
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: guys that are both seniors that he beat out by
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: an eyelash, and I think they're both good and they've
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: gotten a year better and they had his example to follow.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: And then we have a transfer from Eastern Washington who
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: does some good things and um uh, and then we've
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: got some young guys and the c F or they
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: can progress, you know, but a few months is a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: long time as far as people's ability to improve on things. Coach,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: final thought here about an opponent of yours a season ago.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: You played Santa is A State in Week two and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: shut out the Spartans. But Josh Oliver, the tight end
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: for San Jose State, had five catches for fifty one yards.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: He's the Jaguars third round selection this year. What do
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you remember about Oliver and planning for that offense. Well,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: they were kind of they were kind of an explosive offense.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I know, we kept him out of the end zone,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: but they did have some flashy, explosive guys and um
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you know, he was just big, physical and athletic and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and you know, really one of the keys to their offense.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the guys where I felt like
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: they had a mismatch uh in their favor and um.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: And then as we're sitting there looking at him, thinking
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: about what a fine athlete he is, said, jeez, wouldn't
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it be great to have him over here at tight end?
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And then thinking, but also he'd be a pretty good
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: d n too, so um, but yeah, he maybe maybe
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: we might have taken him and letting me a two
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: a go guy, why not, it's been a while since
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: we've had those in college football. Well, we need all
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the help we can get. We need to keep scratching
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and clawn and but hecky escaped before we could get
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: our hands on him. Coach, great to visit with you.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. All right, Well, thanks so much
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: for having me on