Coach Mike Leach of Washington State Talks: Bowl or No Bowl? Cannot Discuss 6’4” 400 lbs. High School Running Back Tony Picard, Will See Friend Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas Buyers Club, More
With Washington State’s football team at 5-5, head coach and CYInterview regular Mike Leach has them within striking distance of a bowl. Back in July, we saw Mike down in Key West [see here] and he predicted his team would make postseason play. If the Cougars win one their remaining two games, they will, indeed, make the postseason.
Coach Leach joins us to talk about his team, as well as what he is up to beyond football. The NY Times Bestselling author of Swing Your Sword let us know that he has heard about the 6’4, 400 lbs. high school running back from his state, Tony Picard, who has been grabbing national attention. He also shared with us that he will be seeing his friend Matthew McConaughey’s film, Dallas Buyers Club, which has generated an Oscar buzz.
You can read the highlights and listen to the entire CYInterview below:
Listen to the entire Mike Leach CYInterview:
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Discussing his thoughts on where 5-5 Washington State currently is and their need to have one more win to be eligible for their first bowl game in 10 years, Mike told us this:
“I do think we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on and just steadily improved. So I think that’s been very positive. We’ve had some enthusiastic players to work with and then I think our leadership’s elevated too. Players have developed into various different roles of, you know, kinda what they do, how they do it and also just the rest of the team, you know, responding to them and things like that.”
Washington State hosts Utah this weekend and then finishes up their season with their yearly rivalry game in the Apple Cup at Washington. Coach told us this about the game against Utah this weekend:
“Well, Utah’s a really good team. The biggest thing I guess that, I respect the most about them is they’re a physical, blue collar team, they’re aggressive upfront. The biggest thing just overall, physical complete team and, you know, they’ve had, they played a really tough schedule, but looked really respectable against all the teams they played. So I do think it’s gonna be a tough game.”
At 6’4, 400 lbs., running back Tony Picard from White Swan High School, in the state of Washington, has been grabbing national attention. A YouTube video of some of his football highlights, currently, has over three million views. Tony expressed an interest in playing for Washington State on CNN recently. Mike admits he has heard about Picard, and his desire to play for Washington State, but NCAA rules prevent him from discussing any possible recruiting interest:
“Well, I’ve heard about him, but the thing is, you know, NCAA rules don’t allow me to talk about any recruitable athletes. So, heard about him, but I’m not allowed to say anything with regard to recruiting on him. That’s not just me. Every school’s in the same boat. … There’s been some stuff written in the paper about him. So I’ve seen some of that.”
The 2008 College Football Coach of the Year admits he has not yet seen his friend, actor Matthew McConaughey’s movie, Dallas Buyers Club, yet. However, he plans to take the football team to see it soon:
“Haven’t seen it. Was gonna see it last week and then, which we usually, take the team to a movie before games, but we got delayed, our flight got delayed going to Tucson [, Arizona]. So we got to Tucson way late and had to kind of move meetings around and weren’t able to go to the movie, so maybe this week. … McConaughey lost a bunch of weight for that role and you know, anything he sets his mind to he’s always got a real determined effort. Heck he went from being built like, Magic Mike to losing a whole bunch of weight so it’s pretty impressive.”
You can find more information and purchase a copy of Mike Leach’s paperback edition of Swing Your Sword: Leading The Charge in Football and Life clicking here
You can find Mike Leach’s official Twitter clicking here.
You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com
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