SkullandBones said:
My point isn't that Leach isn't a good coach, he is. It isn't that he doesn't deserve the honor. He does. In fact he shoud have probably had it last year over fat boy. My point is that if you look at what Pelini has done in his first year, and should they wind up 9-4 with a Gator or Alamo Bowl win, it's pretty damn impressive. With the kind of talent he's (Leach) built down there in Lubbock over the past few years anything less than where the are currently at would be a pretty big let down. Pelini doesn't have, this year, that kind of luxury..and he nearly beat Leach in his own back yard. To take a 5-7 program that was seriously on the rocks and in one year turn them into a surging 9-4 contender would be quite remarkable.
True Leach does have a lot of talent, but that is a big part of being a coach in CFB also. Look at TT last year to this year. They went 8-4 in the regular season last year and have a shot to go 12-0 this year, not including the Big XII title game as regular season. That is a 4 game improvement, assuming NU takes care of business vs. CU their record will improve by 3 games. To magnify TT's improvement even more, consider that they did this while playing in the Big XII south.
They will have played UT, OU, OSU, KU, and NU by seasons end, they all currently have winning records. NU will have played KU, MU, OU, and TT. Fact is TT played, AND beat, two more teams with winning records, UT and OSU, that NU didn't play, both teams were in the top ten at the time and both are still top 5/15 teams. There is no doubt that I love the job Pelini did this year, but if Leach finishes the job I think he deserves the award.