As the 2015 NCAA football regular season nears its end, before the onslaught of an unprecedented 42 BOWL GAMES, many with forgettable names lacking any semblance of tradition or history, (see: Taxslayer Bowl, Quick Lane Bowl, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl) there are the traditional, largely in-state rivalry games, many going back 100 years are more.
For my money, this is the best thing going in sports. Unfailingly passionate match-ups that add one more page to a long history full of elation, and heartbreak, and narrow escapes more often than crushing victories.
The Apple Cup between the Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars played out its 108th edition last weekend, and in recent decades, regular season wins and losses usually have little say in the competitiveness of the game, or the victor. The Huskies defense did a smashing job holding the nation’s leading pass attack to just one touchdown, and scored three touchdowns of their own on the way to a lopsided 45-10 result. Yet, as this year’s Apple Cup becomes but a memory, the stark contrast between the teams’ respective Head Coaches endures.
Both UW’s Chris Petersen and WSU’s Mike Leach were known quantities before arriving at their respective schools in the Evergreen State, and each has carved a niche in the world of college football. They are proven winners at their previous programs, yet both are still in the early stages of building proven winners in their current jobs. Now that they split the share of football loyalties in the State of Washington, it has suddenly become so very clear: they are the Odd Couple of the Pac-12.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Neil Simon’s famous pair, who appeared on stage, silver screen and television, feel free to look it up. Just believe me when I tell you that Chris Petersen is the Felix Unger to Mike Leach’s Oscar Madison. In the world of College football where players come and go in a few years time, it’s the coaches that provide the bedrock and face of the program. Young players who have yet to be exposed to the business and money of the NFL are much more prone to take on the character of their leader and mentor. The Cult of Personality is pervasive in college football. Take the modern day examples of Nick Saban or Urban Meyer, and the mythos and reverence that surround their names.
And just like Neil Simon’s famous characters, Leach and Petersen have to share space. For Felix and Oscar it was an apartment, for Leach and Petersen it is the football fortunes of the State of Washington, and every November, the right to claim the manor as their own- for a year anyway.
The differences are readily apparent.
Petersen emphasizes the importance of molding his players into upstanding men and instilling principles they can carry for the rest of their lives.
Leach, brash and surly, speaks of his admiration for pirates.
Petersen’s visage is tight lipped and gaunt. He is in shape the way an obsessive runner is, with the mug of a youth pastor or politician.
Leach’s unkempt hair, soft midsection and puffy face make him resemble a puppet from the British satire Spitting Image.
Mike Leach thrived in the dry South Plains of Lubbock, the 11th most populous city in the Lone Star State, where the Texas Longhorns and the Aggies of A & M cast a long shadow over programs like Texas Tech. Leach pushed the philosophy of the spread offense to its limits in his 10 years there and took the program to unprecedented heights, until an acrimonious firing that brought his character and regard for players into question. Lawsuits followed, and Leach spent the next two seasons out of football- sailing off Key West and listening to Jimmy Buffet.
Hired in 2011 as the Head Coach of WSU football, Leach may well have found his hidden pirate outpost in the remote reaches of Eastern Washington’s Palouse Hills. His interests, antics, and interviews (that can range from bizarre to downright rude) are well-known and near legendary held against the backdrop of the typical NCAA head football coach.
The Cougars have long been underappreciated nationally, often been looked down upon by their rival Husky fans, and despite distinct periods of convincing success, have always had the wacky and lovable loser reputation (google Popcorn Guy)- or maybe I just know too many people that went there. I can’t think of a more perfect fit for WSU than Mike Leach.
And once again, Leach is racking up record numbers with his Air Raid offense. Sophomore quarterback Luke Falk, who didn’t play in the Apple Cup due to concussion, averaged 38 of 54 for 388 yards per game. Prior to last weekend he had more attempts, completions and yards than anyone in the nation , and he is second in passing efficiency. Leach’s Cougars had a 12-23 record, with two 3-9 seasons, in his first three years as Head Coach. This 8-4 season of theirs seems no fluke though, rather it appears to be a team that has at last become what its head coach has envisioned. While Leach was in Lubbock, then-Texas Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie told The Oklahoman newspaper. “The players [take] on the personality of Coach Leach. They believe strongly in what they do.”
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Leach is now in his fourth year and can truly claim this team for himself, made up of all his own players who have been in his system long enough to understand and embrace it. Petersen is still in the throes of turning the Washington program into his own, and has turned to the younger members of the squad who spent little if any time under Steve Sarkisian’s tutelage.
You will not see Petersen chest-bumping his players as they run off the field, and his demeanor, while alternating between agitated and pensive, can at the very least never be considered casual. Petersen’s squeaky clean image runs contrary to Leach’s swashbuckling, unorthodox persona. And Petersen has put much emphasis on recruiting and grooming players he considers “Our Kind of Guys”- young men with character and dedication. This phrase has been uttered so often he could trademark it. At Boise State, Petersen took overlooked players, typically those without 4 and 5 stars, and made them into a unit that challenged the best programs in the country, all at a school that had only entered the Division I ranks in 1997.
Mike Piellucci of Vice Sports had this to say in an article from August 2, 2015: “[Petersen is] interesting because he does earnestness so well that his players describe him by unwittingly invoking how rare basic decency is in big-time college athletics.” “This is a dude who convinces his players it’s cool to make lists outlining their goals of how they can be better sons and brothers. This would be considered tacky if it weren’t so uncompromisingly genuine.”
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And while their public personas seem so disparate, these two coaches achievements share remarkable similarities. In the process of bringing unlauded programs to national recognition, both coaches became known for the following:
GIANT KILLERS
Petersen’s Boise State beat Big 12 champ Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, one of the most memorable bowl games in modern times.
Leach’s Red Raiders beat #1 Texas in 2008, the first time Texas Tech had toppled a top-ranked opponent.
UNORTHODOX METHODS
While Leach uses an extreme version of the Spread Offense, Petersen is also known for his love of gadget plays, the historic 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory being convincing proof.
TREND UPSETTERS
Petersen is the 4th rookie head coach to lead a team to a BCS bowl and was WAC Coach of the Year in 2008.
Leach is one of 4 NCAA Division I head coaches to not have played at the college level and was Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2008.
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This being only the second year of Leach vs Petersen, little has been made of any rivalry between the two. And while WSU has had a season by all rights exceptional (just a missed field goal away from an 8-game winning streak), Washington has had a season equal parts disappointing and encouraging.
As impatient as UW fans are to return to the glory days of the Don James era, most recently enduring Steve Starkisian’s satisfactory but ultimately underwhelming 5-year reign, it would serve Dawg fans well to remember that this is just Petersen’s second year at the helm, with true Freshmen starting at quarterback and running back, a young defense, and an O-line laden with underclassmen. Across the Cascades, Leach is demonstrating that a Head Coach with a distinct and unflinching philosophy can win when given time to turn the ship around. In Leach’s case, a pirate ship flying the blood-red Crimson flag of WSU.
Husky Nation has to believe that Petersen is here for the long haul, a rare security in NCAA football these days. At age 51, and with such reluctance to depart Boise State year after year, nothing of Petersen’s nature or tenure casts UW as a stepping stone for bigger things. Of course if Petersen can repeat in Seattle the success he had in Boise, the suitors will come a-calling, but that’s a conversation for a later date. Similarly, if this season’s successes in Pullman are a portent of the future, WSU will hold onto Leach with both hands. In any case, here’s to both coaches staying for a very long time- all the better to fashion a new epoch of the annual rivalry, with each team molded in the shape of their contrasting head coaches. The State of Washington and the Pac-12 will be the better for it.
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