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Sep. 9—The story was originally published Dec. 7, 2011, the day after Mike Leach was introduced as Washington State’s football coach. Leach was posthumously inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame this past weekend.
PULLMAN — Before anyone had a chance to ask the most obvious question, Mike Leach furnished the most flattering answer.
“People asked me, ‘Why Washington State?’ ” the coveted football coach said Tuesday after being introduced at a lavish news conference attended by perhaps 700 fans. “Once I get past, in the back of my mind, thinking, ‘Well, that’s a stupid question’…”
He paused, sensing applause. It lasted 11 seconds — this after the standing ovation he had received upon introduction.
Leach said all the right things, and wore all the right colors, as he made acquaintance with a school hungry for romance and wins. Cheerleaders, marching-band musicians and perhaps 40 football players showed up at the Senior Ballroom of the Compton Union Building to welcome the former Texas Tech coach who had claimed 10 bowl berths in as many years before taking an involuntary two-year hiatus.
His name, seemingly cleared of whatever stigma had been attached to it after his firing at Lubbock, Texas, has been mentioned in connection with virtually every coaching vacancy in the country this year. That’s why people, in the week since his hiring was announced, have been asking him, “Why Washington State?”
“I roll that through my mind but I don’t say it,” Leach said of his stupid-question remark. “Then I immediately blurt out the very obvious answers: the commitment to excellence in every phase of the university, the excitement around the community, and the fact that you can win here and win big, I believe.”
Leach, 50, who has made his home lately at Key West, Fla., answered questions at the podium for several minutes,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/archives-honeymoon-begins-leach-wsu-121800152.html
Author : Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
Publish date : 2024-09-09 12:18:00
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