Assistant coaches.

[patdog]

The 2 biggest hires Leach had to make were strength & conditioning coach and defensive coordinator. I think he nailed both hires. Spoke to a friend who is friends with the Minshews a couple of days ago. Gardner said the S&C coach was the best. And apparently, he's already making an impression on our team. Hoping the offense works in the SEC, but I think the team toughness and defense will be much improved from last year. I think the floor is 6-6 type seasons and the ceiling much higher with this staff. Teams will definitely have their work cut out for them to prepare for us. Hail State! Arrgh!

 

[rebsgoingdown]

No matter what, we will be much more entertaining to watch...and I fully expect us to beat some teams we aren't supposed to beat.

 

[The Situation]

The 2 biggest hires Leach had to make were strength & conditioning coach and defensive coordinator. I think he nailed both hires. Spoke to a friend who is friends with the Minshews a couple of days ago. Gardner said the S&C coach was the best. And apparently, he's already making an impression on our team. Hoping the offense works in the SEC, but I think the team toughness and defense will be much improved from last year. I think the floor is 6-6 type seasons and the ceiling much higher with this staff. Teams will definitely have their work cut out for them to prepare for us. Hail State! Arrgh!

https://forums.sixpackspeak.com/sho...-DC-NOT-coming-to-state&p=1725915#post1725915

And they call me bipolar.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I agree with you. The reason for the defense having a higher PPG for Leach, aside from the conferences he's coached in being more offense oriented, are his QBs throwing a lot of INTs and the offense scoring a lot.

Those two combined puts the defense on the field a lot. Leach should be able to get a better quality QB at MSU than he could at WSU, so hopefully INTs are less prevalent than his past WSU QBs. Even if our QB doesn't throw INTs, the defense will get on the field a lot, so more opportunities for the other team to score and put up some garbage points especially.

PPG allowed probably isn't going to be our barometer for success. It's going to be INT thrown by our QBs.

Some WSU QB stats and team record:
2019: 6-7; 16int
2018: 11-2; 10int (Minshew had a 38-9 TD/INT ratio)
2017: 9-4; 20int
2016: 8-5; 12int
2015:9-4; 12int
2014: 3-9; 18int

2017 looks like an outlier. The starting QB (Falk) had a 30-13 TD/INT ratio, but the backup Hilinski had a 7-7 ratio. There may have been injuries or something this season for WSU, bc Hilinski played 3 meaningful games and he threw 6int in those games (4 in one alone), so I think all this data backs up what I said about INT thrown by our QBs will be the ultimate factor for how much success we have.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

I thought we had dispelled this myth, but again, Leach’s defense having to be on the field for an unusual amount of time/plays is flat out factually incorrect. Don’t have the numbers in front of me but I’m pretty sure their defense had one of the fewest average plays defended per game in the Pac 12 in 3 of the last 4 seasons. Statistically their defense was on the field for no more plays per game than ours was in the past several years.

https://forums.sixpackspeak.com/sho...h-Defense-Narrative&highlight=Leach+narrative

Obviously taking care of the football is important for any team, but there is no data that suggests that Leach’s offense inherently puts his defenses in bad positions. As long as we execute offensively (we will see how that goes in year 1), the defense will be no better or worse off than it would have been playing with any other offense.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

WSU Turnover margin and ranking:
2019:-6, tied for 100th (SDSU #2 at +19) record 6-7
2018: +8, 20th; record 11-2
2017: -3, 85th; record 9-4
2016: +6. 28th; record 8-5
2015: -1, 75th; record 9-4
2014: -17, 123rd; record 3-9

Once again 2017 was the outlier bc of Hilinksi

 

[drumrcraig]

I bet if you look at the 6-year history of most teams you will see a strong correlation between turnover margin and overall record. Not sure why the thought is that this is any different for Leach.

 

[patdog]

Looks like they were all over the place with no pattern at all other than more or less alternating between being in the top 1/3 one year and the bottom 1/3 the next. The real outlier is 2014.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I agree, I'm just saying WSU had a lot turnovers from a QB throwing lots of INT. Leach is going to put up yards with whomever is the QB, but sometimes he has really good QBs who don't throw too many INTs.

Turnover margin would be a key metric for nearly all teams, but I saw some teams you'd be surprised who had bad turnover margins like Wisconsin.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I'd say 2014 wasn't an outlier bc Leach was still building the program. Their record leading up to 2014:

2008: 2-10
2009: 1-11
2010: 2-10
2011: 4-8
2012 (Leach hired):3-9
2013: 6-7
2014: 3-9
2015: 9-4

 

[patdog]

What was their turnover margin leading up to 2014? It's hard for any team to be as bad as -17.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I'm sure it was awful judging by their records.

My main point was if the QB takes care of the ball exceptionally well, and we should have a better QB recruits than he's had in the past, we should be extremely successful W/L wise.

Maybe it's better to break it down this way: A QB throwing 15int would much more detrimental to the team W/L record under Mullen/Joe offense than Leach's. That's about what we should expect with Leach on a good year: 12-15int by the starting QB. The QB just throws the ball a crap ton.

Minshew threw 9int and WSU went 11-2. Fitz threw 9int his Sr year and we went 8-5.

ETA: Shradder/Stevens threw a combined 10int this year and we went 6-7.