College Football Genius, Coach Mike Leach, Takes Time to Preview His Washington State Cougars 2016 Season, More
Coming into his fifth season as the head coach of Washington State, Mike Leach is riding a wave of success that the Cougars have not seen in more than a decade. Last year’s 9-4 campaign, with a Sun Bowl win, was a rare season of accomplishment for his football program. This year will focus on whether his team can compete for a Pac 12 crown and take the next step.
On Sunday evening, six days before the first game of the season, between studying football film and practices, NY Times Bestselling Author, 2008 College Football Coach of the Year and CYInterview regular, Mike Leach joined us to talk about his thoughts on his 2016 team.
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Known for the success of his passing attack on offense, Coach Mike Leach’s current quarterback is Luke Falk. The junior put up impressive numbers last year for Washington State and is rated as one of the top quarterbacks to watch during the upcoming NCAA Football season. On Luke Falk’s progression, he said this:
“He’s done really good. He’s a great leader for our team, he’s very even tempered. You know, he’s not one of those guys that gravitates towards that stuff, which is very healthy for him I think and then, just kind of a tireless worker guy. If you have to work on something with Luke Falk, you have to back him off stuff to keep him from over analyzing. I mean, motivation’s never an issue. You know, over eager can be, but not a lack of motivation.”
With the rare success that was accomplished by the 2015 Washington State football program, with its first bowl win in 12 years, I asked Coach Leach if he had told stories to his team about how to handle success and the manner in which they might build off that, if they want to take the next step. He says he has done that and he agreed that was his biggest concern for this team.
“No question. And I think the fact that they’ve embraced that is you know, we’ve told them from the beginning is not one play last year counts. Nothing we did last year counts. And I think they realize that. It’s always gotta be reinforced. But we had really good steady work through our offseason and I think part of it is, is you know, I think they did a pretty good job at that. And it’s the biggest concern, there’s no bigger concern than that, somebody getting satisfied about something.
And then, I’m gonna say we had maybe a practice or two, you know, between fatigue, but also maybe they felt good about what happened the drill before, the day before, where we had opportunities to address and reinforce that. But one thing our group, that I’ve been pleased with up to this point, is we respond real quickly, you know, to any level of coaching or stuff like that. We’ve been pretty quick to respond. So I mean they are receptive.”
It is well known that Mike is a big fan of movies. On what he has seen recently, the coach told us he enjoyed actor Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne movie:
“I thought that was good. I like all the Jason Bourne movies. They’re all the same. They’re all Bourne this or Bourne that. And what they are is and I like all of them. Heavy action and all of them are better than a boring James Bond movie, but not quite as good as a great James Bond movie in my opinion. … My favorite [James Bond movie] though is From Russia with Love.”
You can find more information and purchase a copy of Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior by Mike Leach and Buddy Levy clicking here.
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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