Washington State Football: 3 bold predictions vs. Colorado in Week 8

3. Mike Leach will be Nebraska head coach in 2018

Mike Leach has built the Washington State Cougars into a Pac-12 contender. The Cougs finished Leach’s first year in Pullman ranked 101st in the S&P+, after finishing 102nd the year before.

After seven weeks, they’re now sitting at No. 22 and ranked higher in defense than offense. Leach has proven that with a competent staff he can get the defense up to 19th in the S&P+ and that Alex Grinch-led defense is flying around making plays as the cliches say.

When Wazzu AD Bill Moos took the position in Lincoln, that opened the door, and a lot of eyes, on the fact that Leach may follow his former boss to run the Huskers. Leach has always reveled in the underdog role — Washington State vs Washington and Texas Tech vs Texas — but what if Leach got the big dog in Nebraska to drive?

Leach is from Wyoming, went to BYU, and has now been a head coach in Texas and Washington- it’s not like he’s tied to the Pacific Northwest.

I think it would be a weird fit but one that would take less time to cure the ails than at Wazzu or Texas Tech. Nebraska is much closer to competing than those two programs were when he arrived, and the scheme at Nebraska has been multiple receivers for some time. They wouldn’t be the in-state underdog but compared to Big Ten powers like Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan they’re behind the times in 2017 and he’ll make a stark departure from Mike Riley.