Mr. Yost

October 11th, 2015 at 8:40 PM ^

Space cadet for sure.

I'd love to see what he, Gary Busey, and Matthew McConaughey would do if they were locked in one of those Lincoln's for 24 hours.

WFBlue

October 11th, 2015 at 8:44 PM ^

WTF is this priceless piece of film.  Unbelievable and awesome. It's like when my wife is trying to tell me something really "important" about one of her friends.

TennBlue

October 11th, 2015 at 8:57 PM ^

when they had just scored a touchdown. Leach opted to kick the point and go to overtime, where they eventually won - which is why he was ignoring the assistant telling him to go for two.

LSAClassOf2000

October 11th, 2015 at 8:50 PM ^

I like how he sort looks up in reverence at...something...about halfway through that clip, almost as if to say, "Have you ever noticed th austere magnificence of a silenced crowd at Autzen? I certainly had not until this moment."

In any case, a very Leach look indeed.

NittanyFan

October 11th, 2015 at 8:52 PM ^

WSU scores a TD with (literally) 0:01 left to pull within one.  On the road, with a chance to pull a potentially program-changing upset, most coaches would have gone for the win tright then and there.

He didn't.  He showed confidence his team would succeed on a SERIES of plays in OT vs.deciding it all on one play.  Usually, a perceived underdog wants to increase variance vs. reducing it.

Leach is often a gambler but the "long-play" was the right decision here.  Good for him and good for Wazzu.

 

J.

October 11th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^

By "right decision," you mean "wrong decision," then?  Variance is the wrong variable; he should be trying to maximize win probability, not affect variance.  If he has a play that he thinks is 60% likely to score a two-point conversion, he should go for it unless he thinks his team is > 60% likely to prevail in overtime.  Given the talent level of the two squads, and the fact he was on the road, that seems unlikely.  (Also, there needs to be a small correction for the actual probability of making a PAT, which is clearly less than 100%).

The only way in which this is the right decision is if his best two-point conversion play had something like a 40-45% chance of success, in which case, well, "Cougin' it" is the original "Clemsoning."

The only thing he was truly minimizing was the likelihood of being excoriated by ignorant fans and media members if he had lost.

In reply to by J.

NittanyFan

October 11th, 2015 at 11:01 PM ^

And I offer you a bet that "let's flip this coin X number of times, where X is an odd number, and I bet that in the aggregate we get more heads than tails."

I want to maximize X.  The more flips (samples) the better, at least for me.

If X is 1, my odds are 51%.  If X is 11 (rough number of plays in an overtime), my odds of winning are about 53%.  If X is 101, my odds increase to around 58%. 

Leach basically had an attitude of "We may be on the road, we may be Washington State and they may be mighty Oregon, but I feel that we are better.  I feel we have a greater than 50% chance of being more successful than Oregon on an individual play, so why play only one play, let's play more."

Maybe not a perfect analogy, but what I was trying to say in terms of "minimizing varience."

Leach also strikes me as a guy who doesn't care at all about the media and their Monday Morning Quarterbacking.  He'll always do things his way.

goblue16

October 11th, 2015 at 8:58 PM ^

He's a good coach. The loss to Portland state not looking too bad right now. Portland state is a good team. No excuse losing to an fcs team but a bowl game is very likely for WSU

NittanyFan

October 11th, 2015 at 9:30 PM ^

for those who didn't see it, the craziest score of the day yesterday: Portland State 66, North Texas 7.

DESTROYED all types of records in terms of "biggest margin of victory for an FCS team over an FBS team", "most number of points scored in such a game", et cetera.

Also, here is the transitive property gone amuck: Michigan beat UNLV by 21, who beat Idaho State by 72 (!!!), who beat North Dakota by 6, who beat Portland State by 2, who beat North Texas by 59.  

Thus: Michigan 160, North Texas 0.

gwkrlghl

October 11th, 2015 at 9:00 PM ^

"Go for two? Can someone go for something which does not tangibly exist in our world? Does two really exist at all or am I just doing this to cope with the ever imposing reality that I will die one day?"

Danwillhor

October 11th, 2015 at 9:29 PM ^

it's like when Tom Hanks is stunned, taking in the horror around him on a beach in Normandy and one of his soldiers is screaming, asking what they should do next. Hanks doesn't ignore him, he doesn't exist to Hanks for about 30 seconds. That's exactly the same face I see in this. Amazing. I'm crying with laughter. Thanks for posting.

xtramelanin

October 11th, 2015 at 9:35 PM ^

he's contemplating the decision and avoiding visual distractions while he does so.  tilting up at the sky allows for a basically static view, sound in the background, and easier to go through the decision matrices of if/how/when he'd want to go for 2.  and he made the right decision.

 

markusr2007

October 11th, 2015 at 9:34 PM ^

It's hilarious. His face is angry and irritated, then he looks to the sky as if to say "jesus, just let me ask what the flying seahorses advise! Oh great Flying seahorses, should we go for two or just kick the PAT?"




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