Had Cohen simply hired at good to competent coach post Don

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Originally Posted by LC Dawg

There's no chance we win 10 games with Leach in 2018. The offensive personnel wasn't there and Leach isn't changing.

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Depends on how the QB sorts itself out. If Minshew is our QB, we probably win 11 games or more.

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Originally Posted by LC Dawg

There's no chance we win 10 games with Leach in 2018. The offensive personnel wasn't there and Leach isn't changing.

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Well, I think he starts Aeris over Hill. I think our receivers actually catch the ball when Fitz hits them in the hands, which he did a lot early in season in losses to KY and FL. Guidry missed several crucial 3rd down passes and Mitchell drops a sure TD against FL. And they would've gotten separation better too. Aeris would have kept him from getting killed so much too. And I also think that while Fitz would maybe not see the field as quickly as Will, his legs would save him a lot. You would've seen more TAM type games from him IMO. And we had a pretty good Oline that would've been even better under Leach.

All we needed was a few more points in 4 games. I think Leach could've done that and we still had the D personnel. I think Leach could've dealt with the personnel on hand myself. We might've been short the quantity of receivers tho. But like I said we just needed a few more points in 4 games and Leach is by far a better coach than JoMo.

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Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

I know Arkansas and Tennessee kicked the tires on that during that time frame.

My question is, do you really think this fan base could have handled the hiring of Mike Leach directly after Dan Mullen? We've had a whole bunch freak out after the Moorhead disaster. With a defense like we knew we had, I think this fan base would have revolted bringing in a guy like Leach who would have brought the 3-3-5 and his reputation.

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I think initially it would have been met with some angst. Our fans are "nice" and we all wanted to see Fitzgerald have a strong senior season after his ankle injury. No way he sits Leach's offense and he would have to have transferred out and I don't think Dan would have taken him at Florida to be honest. Could be wrong about that. We would have gotten Gardner Minchew and our fans would have raised eyebrows about that initially. Grantham ran a 3-4 so the 3-3-5 wouldn't have been that big of a deal. We probably would have had to make Leo Lewis a back up at MLB.

I think Minchew would have done better than Costello did and we would have had some first year issues like we did last year with Leach but I think our defense would have been good enough to overcome them most of the time.

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Originally Posted by PGHBulldogBG

If Miami opens then I think Kiffin bolts. It doesn?t seem as though a lot of the blue bloods are jumping at him though. I think the hesitation is that he is another Houston Nutt which I agree. He never stays long enough to see what he can do at a program for more than 2 years. ADs probably want to see what he can do with a team longer than a year or two. He is not a great recruiter and I think if he stays at Ole Miss his coaching abilities will show by the end of 2023. I?ll be curious to see how he does with a talent deficit and youth the next 2 years.

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I would suspect that the network will be busy in the portal buying a team.

Minshew was a great college q b. He’s also a good pro. He was mobile, could make all the throws, and was just a natural at running the air raid as a mature grad transfer.

He was not a running q b, but he was very difficult to sack. Quick feet great pocket awareness. Without a blizzard he would have been 12-1.

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Originally Posted by WhiskeyPirate

Minshew was a great college q b. He’s also a good pro. He was mobile, could make all the throws, and was just a natural at running the air raid as a mature grad transfer.

He was not a running q b, but he was very difficult to sack. Quick feet great pocket awareness. Without a blizzard he would have been 12-1.

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But remember - Wazzu was an established Air Road school with a team full of players recruited for the system and acclimated to the system. Minshew only had to get up to speed. If Leach and Minshew come here for '18 the result is a lot like last year - a team full of guys not recruited for the air raid with no clue how to run it. We had a hard enough time learning the RPO, no way those guys learn the air raid.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

But remember - Wazzu was an established Air Road school with a team full of players recruited for the system and acclimated to the system. Minshew only had to get up to speed. If Leach and Minshew come here for '18 the result is a lot like last year - a team full of guys not recruited for the air raid with no clue how to run it. We had a hard enough time learning the RPO, no way those guys learn the air raid.

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You may be right about this. The biggest acclimation would've been in Oline blocking and splits probably. But we also struggled with pass blocking under Moorhead too. Leach might could've ended up with a similar record as Moorhead. But I still remember all those key drops in early games then with fans getting all over and blaming Fitz and him losing his confidence. And Hill not blocking LBs.

It's all pretty moot now. Kinda hard to tell what would've really happened in 2018 had Leach been hired. I do believe we would be further along at this point in time now tho. We'll see how next year and 2023 turns out.