Washington State’s Mike Leach, the Pac-12 football Coach of the Year, has surrounded himself with those who helped Mike Stoops rebuild Arizona’s program and play in three consecutive bowl games between 2008-10.
Dave Emerick is WSU’s “chief of staff.” Brian Odom is the Cougars’ defensive quality control leader. Dave Nichol is Wazzu’s outside receivers coach.
And Joe Salave’a, who hoped to be on Rich Rodriguez’s first UA staff but was bypassed for RichRod’s long time defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, is now a rock star in Pullman.