No I'm not talking about Brad Pitt, the movie, or even Michael Lewis. Here's part of what I wrote for the latest edition of Cougar Sports Weekly:
Leach clearly isn't viewing special teams as an afterthought, as so many other coaches do. He devoted a significant amount of money to hire one of the nation's top special teams coaches, Eric Russell, away from Tennessee. And a number of other assistant coaches -- notably Jeff Choate, who was Boise State's special teams coordinator before being hired to coach the linebackers here -- have deep special teams ties.
The question, then, is why? What does Leach think he sees that so many other coaches seem to miss?
This is why I used the term "Moneyball" above. If you're familiar with Moneyball by Michael Lewis -- or the movie starring Brad Pitt, which I unfortunately have not seen -- you know that it centers around the statistical revolution in baseball. However, many people end up missing the big point. Moneyball was never about on-base percentage as some magical metric; it was about looking for things that actually help you win games that the competition seems to be overlooking.
There's a good chance that's exactly what Leach is hoping WSU's special teams can be.
I go on to analyze just how it is that special teams might hold the key to squeezing out an extra win out of this bunch. As usual, you can subscribe to Cougar Sports Weekly here, and when you do, I'll forward you a copy of this newsletter and you'll have access to all of our archives.