Texas Football: Mike Leach-Mississippi State hiring sends shockwaves

What is likely one of the biggest final head coaching hires heading into the 2020 offseason, a former foe of Texas football Mike Leach landed with Miss. St.

The Texas football program used to be a conference rival with head coach Mike Leach back when he was with the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the 2000’s. But Leach spent the last eight eight seasons with the Washington State Cougars in the PAC-12.

It seemed like Leach was about done with Pullman and decided to go for an even tougher head coaching spot to succeed at, with the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the SEC West. Mississippi State is the program that faces about the toughest uphill battle in terms of recruiting in the SEC West too. They have to battle the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies, etc. on the recruiting trail just in their same division.

What adds fuel to the flame there is the fact that Mississippi State isn’t even usually the best recruiting program in their state. The Ole Miss Rebels tend to command the recruiting territory in the state of Mississippi.

However, it will be fun to watch the battles on the recruiting trail and on the gridiron now between Leach and recently hired Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. Leach and Kiffin are coming in from opposite regions of the country to link up with the two main college football programs in the state of Mississippi.

The Egg Bowl will now be a must-watch on Thanksgiving Week year in and year out, at least as long as both Kiffin and Leach are at the helm with these respective programs.

At Ole Miss, Kiffin replaced former head coach Matt Luke. In the Sugar Bowl, Luke was sighted coaching the offensive line of the Georgia Bulldogs in their win over the Baylor Bears back on Jan. 1.

And Leach will be replacing the former head coach Joe Moorehead at Mississippi State. The confusion between whether Mississippi State wanted to get rid of or retain Moorehead amounted to a very shocking hiring.

However, Leach geographically working his way to a program closer to the Texas Longhorns football program means a lot. Mississippi State doesn’t usually meet up with the Longhorns on the gridiron, but they could now more on the recruiting trail.

With former Ohio State passing game coordinator Mike Yurcich and head coach Tom Herman, running an offensive scheme more like what Leach likes to, the recruiting battles could be more similar in nature between these two programs.

This also shows the complete chaos that can ensue on the coaching carousel in the college football landscape even nearly halfway into the month of January. The coaching carousel chaos can go on for a long time. Black Sunday isn’t the only time where head coaching hirings and firings run rampant.

Mississippi State rounded out their 2019 campaign with a record of 6-7 (3-5 SEC) after a loss to the Louisville Cardinals in the Music City Bowl by the final score of 38-28. That was the final straw for Moorehead before he saw the door in Starkville.

The last straw for Luke in his Ole Miss coaching tenure came with the Egg Bowl loss to Mississippi State on a miss extra-point attempt.