Tennessee Vols Football: Potential Replacements For Butch Jones 3.0

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PULLMAN, WA – SEPTEMBER 03: Head coach Mike Leach of the Washington State Cougars takes the field prior to the start of the game against the Eastern Washington Eagles at Martin Stadium on September 3, 2016 in Pullman, Washington. Eastern Washington defeated Washington State 45-42. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images) /

Mike Leach

Current head coach at Washington State

I’ve went back and forth on Mike Leach over the last week or so. I was very anti-Mike Leach at first, and now I’m starting to see the upside in him.

Leach has done a lot with a little as a head coach. His recruiting classes at Texas Tech, and now at Washington State, haven’t been all that great.

At Washington State, his recruiting classes, over the last several years, have typically been ranked 45-50. And yet he has the Cougars on the cusp of the top ten, coming off a win over a top five team.

Folks might scoff at Leach, because he only has one double digit win season to his credit, but I think he’s proved to be a very, very good X’s and O’s, gameday coach.

If you watched Washington State’s win against USC, then right before halftime you saw Leach put on a coaching clinic. He marvelously navigated the game clock, before making an amazing call to run a counter on second and goal, when everyone in the stadium was one-hundred percent positive the Cougars were throwing the ball. It was quite literally poetry in motion.

That’s not something we’ve seen on Rocky Top in a long time.

And that’s why I think the Vols could do a lot worse than Mike Leach.

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