It finally, happened. After Saturday’s embarrassing loss at Michigan, Chris Ash was fired as the Rutgers football coach. The next man to lead the program should be Mike Leach.

The search is on for the next Rutgers football coach. Chris Ash was fired after his team was humiliated at Michigan 52-0 last weekend. How he managed to keep his job this long as he did with a sub .250 winning percentage at RU in three-plus seasons is a mystery. In the interim, former Bergen Catholic head coach, and Rutgers assistant Nunzio Campanile was named interim head coach.

Some prominent names have already been attached to the vacancy. Former Rutgers headman Greg Schiano is one of them. When he ran the Scarlet Knights program, Schiano had a 68-67 record and six bowl appearances in 11 seasons from 2001-2011. Back then RU was a member of the Big East.

Another prominent name attached to the head coaching job is Alabama assistant coach Butch Jones. The 51-year-old, had previous head coaching positions at Central Michigan (2007-09), Cincinnati (2010-2012), and most recently Tennessee (2013-17). He has a career record of 84-54. With all due respect to candidates, Washington State head coach Mike Leach is the man Rutgers AD Pat Hobbs should be focused on.

Washington State University is in Pullman, Washington, population 33,500 or so. It’s a pure college town. As a member of the PAC 10, they have to compete against some huge football schools such as Southern Cal, Oregon, Stanford, and their intra-state rivals, Washington. WSU Cougars head coach Mike Leach has been able to compete with the big boys despite the school not having the same reputation or amenities.

Last year, I covered the WSU Cougars and was thoroughly impressed over the way Leach ran his program. He is at the forefront of innovation as the mastermind of the “Air Raid” offense. The Cougars are not only competitive in their Conference under Leach, but they have also proved that they can beat ranked opponents on a regular basis.

The Rutgers fan base is frustrated with the team. They need to win games. When CBS Sports runs a story titled: Why Rutgers football ‘is a Big Ten program in name only,’ its time to do something different. Leach has been successful at two different Power 5 schools.

He is the all-time winningest coach at Texas Tech with 84 wins. Leach followed that up by building a winner at WSU. If he can recruit and win at Lubbock, TX, and Pullman, WA, he can do the same in New Jersey. Maybe even more importantly, his entertaining brand of football will put butts in seats. If they need to step up and buy out his Washington State contract, then so be it.

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