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03-13-2026, 08:40 AM
#161

Originally Posted by
Coach34
Leach- 7 Top 25 finishes in 21 seasons
Tommy Bowden had 5 Top 25's in 12 seasons
Terry Bowden had 5 in 15 D-1 seasons
RC Slocum had 10 in 14 seasons
Butch Davis had 6 in 15 seasons
Lame has 5 in 14 seasons and was cheated out of one when he went 11-3
Houston Nutt- 5 in 14 seasons of D-1
These guys were basically the same or better than Leach- are they HOF also?
Only Tommy Bowden was at a program similar to ours. You're cherry picking coaches who were coaching at schools with much more funding and buy in.
Terry Bowden(Auburn)
RC Slocum(A&M)
Butch Davis(Miami)-When Butch was at Miami and FIU he actually had worse results than Leach.
Kiffin(USC and OM)
Nutt (Arkansas and OM)
Outside of Clemson, and maybe OM, we are a tier or two below any of those other programs. What Mike did here was what he did everywhere else he went. Rebuilt quickly and got back to respectability. He was probably never going to win big at the schools he was at because he was never going to be at a traditional power. I still think Mike Leach at Tennessee would have set the world on fire. I think they would've been really good. Fulmer should never be allowed back in Neyland for screwing that up. Hell, it took a former Leach QB to restore them.
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03-13-2026, 09:44 AM
#162

Originally Posted by
Coach34
Chuck Knox never made a SB and he is in the HOF also. There will be others- like a Marvin Lewis. George Allen made 1 SB and lost and is in.
Again- he was a good coach but he was no better than a Tommy Bowden or RC Slocum
If you polled football fans in general and ask who was the better coach- they would choose Leach over Tommy Bowden and Slocum in a landslide.
And you just proved my point by mentioning Knox.
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03-13-2026, 09:45 AM
#163

Originally Posted by
StarkVegasSteve
Only Tommy Bowden was at a program similar to ours. You're cherry picking coaches who were coaching at schools with much more funding and buy in.
Terry Bowden(Auburn)
RC Slocum(A&M)
Butch Davis(Miami)-When Butch was at Miami and FIU he actually had worse results than Leach.
Kiffin(USC and OM)
Nutt (Arkansas and OM)
Outside of Clemson, and maybe OM, we are a tier or two below any of those other programs. What Mike did here was what he did everywhere else he went. Rebuilt quickly and got back to respectability. He was probably never going to win big at the schools he was at because he was never going to be at a traditional power. I still think Mike Leach at Tennessee would have set the world on fire. I think they would've been really good. Fulmer should never be allowed back in Neyland for screwing that up. Hell, it took a former Leach QB to restore them.
Exactly.
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03-13-2026, 12:42 PM
#164

Originally Posted by
Todd4State
If you polled football fans in general and ask who was the better coach- they would choose Leach over Tommy Bowden and Slocum in a landslide.
Not any football fan with knowledge. Slocum has been in the college football HOF since 2012. Won 4 conference championships and a 123-47 coaching record.
Leach finished ranked 7 times in 21 seasons and his biggest win was in the Gator Bowl. Never won a conference title of any type and had fewer 10 win seasons than your boy Dan Mullen.
Walk like the King or walk like you don't care who the King is
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03-13-2026, 12:55 PM
#165

Originally Posted by
Coach34
Not any football fan with knowledge. Slocum has been in the college football HOF since 2012. Won 4 conference championships and a 123-47 coaching record.
Leach finished ranked 7 times in 21 seasons and his biggest win was in the Gator Bowl. Never won a conference title of any type and had fewer 10 win seasons than your boy Dan Mullen.
lol.
lmao even
"Once the game starts, it's gonna be easy." - Lebron, July 10th, 2010
"No one ever said it's gonna be easy." - Lebron, June 12th, 2011
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03-13-2026, 12:57 PM
#166

Originally Posted by
Coach34
Not any football fan with knowledge. Slocum has been in the college football HOF since 2012. Won 4 conference championships and a 123-47 coaching record.
Leach finished ranked 7 times in 21 seasons and his biggest win was in the Gator Bowl. Never won a conference title of any type and had fewer 10 win seasons than your boy Dan Mullen.
I don't have a problem with Slocum being in the Hall of Fame. Again- Slocum was at A&M and Dan was at Florida. Leach had almost as many ranked wins as Dan did in 1/3 of the time.
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03-13-2026, 01:25 PM
#167

Originally Posted by
StarkVegasSteve
I don't think anyone is saying he wasn't a good coach, at least not that I've seen. I think some people push back on he was this elite program builder and consistent winner at a championship level. He was really good at getting teams out of the cellar and back to respectability and he ran an offense that tailored to programs that weren't able to get elite skill position players. But he wasn't Saban. He wasn't Dabo. He wasn't Kirby. His teams were between 7-9 wins every year with an outlier year where they'd win 11 or lose 8. For Mississippi State that was incredible because that's the type of program we've always been. But that wouldn't have flown at a blue blood program.
Saban was a 7 win coach when he wasn't at Alabama and lsu.
Leach was a good coach. Not elite. The reason he should be in the hall of fame is not purely success but also because his concepts have permeated all levels of football.
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