(Image source: Houston Chronicle) 

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BY BRAD GALBREATH

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

The Pirate has made port at Washington State. KING-TV in Seattle explains.

“Cougars athletic director Bill Moos wanted a football coach who likes high powered offenses and who can put butts in the seats at the stadium. Today he hits a homerun on both accounts. Mike Leach agrees to a five-year deal, averaging over 2 million a season. Leach is a winner. He guided Texas Tech to 10 bowls in 10 seasons.”

The captain of the Air-Raid offense may have had success on the field, but there’s been plenty of trouble off of it. Tech fired Leach in 2009 after he allegedly forced a player to stay in an equipment shed. ESPN’s Joe Schad gives his take on how closely Leach will be watched.

“Any school that was going to hire Mike Leach was going to do so with the knowledge that there are a couple of unresolved lawsuits, one involving ESPN and one involving his former employer Texas Tech… Surely, you would imagine that Mike Leach, how his medical staff, training staff deal with players, that will obviously be a situation that will be monitored moving forward.”

But Chuck Carlton from The Dallas Morning News thinks the stigma has worn off.

“But given 24 months and interesting details revealed in Leach’s book ‘Swing Your Sword,’ he was no longer toxic. He can make a comeback out of the media spotlight where he’ll be a charmingly eccentric again.”

Leach won’t be the only one making a comeback. The Seattle Times writer Steve Kelley thinks the ship has sailed on the Cougars losing ways.

“With this hire, Washington State emerges from the deep shadows of college football and back into the spotlight. The nation will pay attention to Leach… He brought the nation to Lubbock. History says he will do it in Pullman. He will fill Martin Stadium. He will cause a commotion.”

So Leach can be successful in Pullman. But is it a good fit for Leach? ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. thinks so.

“I think it's a great fit, simply because Washington State hasn’t obviously been a great program over the years. You think back to Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson, you go back to Mike Price, the success that some of these coaches have had, a number of coaches have had over the years with the Cougars up in Pullman have been outstanding. They have used it as a springboard to be successful in other places.”

So could Leach set sail after a few years of success? Maybe. One Wall Street Journal writer thinks the Pac-12 could look a little different in a few years.

“The arrival of Mike Leach in Pullman also indicates the ongoing evolution of the Pac-12 into a conference of ever higher expectations. Already facing strong or rising programs at Oregon, Stanford, USC and Washington, Leach will start the same year as former West Virginia and Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez.”

Transcript by Newsy.