Doing Whatever It Takes To Win

[aggiejazz]

Complaints about not playing freshmen brings made me think about coaches who are innovative and willing to do things out of the norm to win.

Texas Tech found themselves a few years ago not being about to compete with the powerhouses of the Big XII. A coach named Mike Leach was hired who brought with him a brand of offense that using a spreadout passing game to compete with the powerhouses of the Big XII. Leach later fine tuned it to add a more lethal running game.

Mike Leach has the ability to be innovative, make decisive changes and do whatever it takes to win.

Texas Tech had two kickers who couldn’t even kick extra points this season. Even though Texas Tech was scoring a gazillion points the coach realized that sooner than later those missed extra points or a missed field goal will cause his team to lose. During halftime at Texas Tech a student, Matt Williams got the chance to kick a field goal for a contest and actually made a 30 yard field goal and won his prize. It took Texas Tech coach no more than a few minutes to have a ‘gofer’ go get Matt from the stands. In 48 hours Matt was on the team as the new kicker in the kicking stable.

Well, it paid dividends in the most important game in Texas Tech history since the late 1930’s. Matt Williams kicked two field goals against its number 1 rival and the nation’s number 1 ranked team, Texas Longhorns, in a tight game won by Texas Tech. All of this happened after Texas Tech top kicker got his field goal attempt blocked in the first half.

Could you imagine Aggie football coach being this innovative and daring? Will A&T hire such a person? Note: Mike Leach early beginnings started at Iowa Wesleyan College and then went to Valdosta State. Leach spent only 3 years in Division One before becoming Texas Tech head coach but he blazed a trail between Valdosta State Texas Tech. He spent 2 years at Kentucky and produced an offense that set records and turned Oklahoma’s offense from last to first in the Big XII.

Two years ago, I posted that A&T should hire Texas Tech young QB coach as offensive coordinator. Of course my influence on the athletic department was nil.

By the way, a lot of you may know Texas Tech defensive coordinator, Ruffin McNeill, from NC. He played at ECU and after graduation coached at Lumberton High School for 4 or five years and spent a lot time coaching in Div-1AA football including coaching at App State.

[DOOMS]

Yeah, 'cause qb coaches from I-A always want to become coordinators at underfunded hbcus. Especially for what would probably be less money.

And also, there are dozens of black kickers sitting in the stands at hbcu games.

C'mon jazzy. I know it's Monday but seriously... I agree that it wouldn't hurt to try because you never know, but you can't run an athletic department off that mantra.

[aggiejazz]

I may be wrong on hiring a QB coach as offensive coordinator but my bigger point is there are very good coaches that can be found in the lower divisions and some of those coaches are innovative in their approach to building a winning team. The key to hiring the right person is knowing exactly what the prospective hire actually did in his job as coach and track his success.

Leach had a very good track record and his foundation was formed in D-II. We should be looking at D-III and D-II coaches because we should be able to afford them and their staff.

There was period of time that A&T did have prospective kickers walking around on campus. They would play soccer over by Bennett College.

[aggiejazz]

I stand corrected. I am talking about Texas Tech Off line coach Matt Moore. Heck, he could be our head coach.





texastech.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/moore_matt00.html