If the reports that came out Tuesday night have any validity to them at all, there will not be a head coaching vacancy at the University of Miami for much longer.
However, if the Jon Gruden speculation fails to come to fruition, there’s at least one person who feels like Mike Leach would be a perfect candidate for the job -- The Pirate himself.
Speaking to the Palm Beach Post, Leach said that while he hasn’t yet had any contact with the university, the former Texas Tech head coach made a rather impassioned case for himself that there should be contact. And, rather interestingly, he used Gruden’s football playground, the NFL, to highlight why he should be under consideration.
"It’s a great job and I think it would be a great fit,” Leach said. “We’d have an exciting brand of football. We’ll fill the seats and we’ll win games and we’ll win ACC championships.
“If you look at the guys on NFL rosters, in the Big 12 Texas has 32, Oklahoma has 29, Nebraska has 28 and Texas Tech has nine. Still, my record against Nebraska was something like 5-1 and we beat Oklahoma three out of the last five times.
“There are lots of Hurricanes on NFL rosters. That gives you an idea of what you can draw there. If you base it on resources and production, the chances of my success along with my staff are remarkably high.”
That said, Leach-to-Miami, as bad as it seems he wants it, is likely a pipe dream for the coach. The issues that led to his departure from Tech, and the subsequent litigation he’s currently in the midst of, seems to make it unlikely he will be anything more than a peripheral candidate for just about any opening during this hiring cycle, especially when it comes to Miami. Add on to that the fact that he was a candidate for the job the last time it came open in 2006 and reportedly didn’t fare well in the interview, and guiding the Hurricanes from the sidelines probably isn’t in the cards this time around either.
Leach, though, sounded an ominous warning to The U if they do indeed decide to go in another direction.
“They could hire me and we’d have one decade after another of success with students that graduate and don’t get into trouble,” said Leach, “or they can hire somebody else.”
Can somebody please hire Coach Leach and get his ass back into college football where it belongs and is needed?