Mike Leach agreed to a contract with Mississippi State today ending his eight year tenure with Washington State. He did a good job during his time in Pullman, but could never quite get over over the hump when it came to the Pac-12 North Championship falling 1 win short in 3 of the last 4 seasons. Despite his regular season success and the regularity with which we reached bowl qualification, his indifference to changing up his approach to the Apple Cup and lack of success there (1-7 over eight years) during the Petersen era grew quite old by the end. His tired appeal to the superiority of UW's talent as was a particularly hollow argument. He's been working on an exit for a few years now and frankly I'm surprised he didn't get a shot immediately after last year's record season. I do feel like he should have been able to better than Mississippi State, but I wish him well and hope he can surprise some people in the SEC.
All eyes are now on WSU AD Pat Chun as he searches for a replacement and I feel pretty good about his ability to get a strong candidate for the position. He did an excellent job picking Kyle Smith to replace Ernie Kent, with the basketball program and although they lost to Cal on the road tonight just got a huge win against UCLA last week.
Out of the various potential candidates mentioned, Oklahoma defensive coordinator Alex Grinch would be my first choice because of his impact in the same role at WSU. During his stint two years ago the defense improved dramatically. Unfortunately I suspect he's a higher quality future head coaching candidate than WSU is liable to land at this point and probably going to hold out for a higher prestige job. If he's not interested then Graham Harrell, the current USC offensive coordinate appears to be another potential possibility.
That said, I wouldn't be shocked to see Chun come up with someone completely unexpected if it's not going to be one of the guys I've mentioned. Pullman is a unique challenge to recruit players to and I'm confident he's going to make a wise choice based on who he thinks can get the job done there. I look forward to seeing how this all shakes out.