Mike Leach criticism of N.J. football a ‘slap in the face’ to coaches

PISCATAWAY – Mike Leach popularized the Air Raid offense, but he may be better off ducking for cover if he runs into any local high school football coaches this weekend.

The Washington State football coach criticized New Jersey high school football last October and his words – “New Jersey has good players, but bad football” and there are “a bunch of teams I could play on” – remain fresh in the minds of those who felt insulted as Leach comes to town.

Rutgers will host Washington State at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s a slap in the face to the high school coaches to tell us we don’t play competitive football,” said former longtime East Brunswick coach Marcus Borden.

“It just seems ridiculous and arrogant of someone to make a statement like that. Who has he recruited out of Jersey? What schools has he gone to? Has he looked at rosters? How do you make a statement like that?”

More than anything, the coaches say their experiences suggest Leach’s assessment is simply wrong.

Manalapan’s Ed Gurrieri coached 2014 national recruit Saeed Blacknall – a wide receiver who first committed to Rutgers but flipped to Penn State – and he remembers a conversation with an Ohio State recruiter.

“I was told that one of the first orders of business Urban Meyer had at Ohio State was to make sure that he had a major presence in New Jersey,” Gurrieri said. “To be successful, he needed to get kids from New Jersey. That’s one of the top programs in the country. So that’s all you need to know right there.”

Kevin Carty Sr. was an assistant coach at Rutgers for six years in the 1980s, before building a strong program at Somerville. He now is an assistant coach on his son’s staff at Hillsborough, but he knows where to find all his old friends on the recruiting trail in the weeks leading up to National Signing Day.

“Check out the Newark Airport Marriott every December through the first Wednesday in February,” he said, “and there are more college coaches hanging out at that place than you could shake a stick at.”

New Jersey produced the 12th-most three-, four- and five-star recruits over a period of five classes from 2011-15, according to SBNation.com, and had the ninth-most players on NFL rosters when the 2014 season began, according to BestTickets.com.

The Garden State is smaller geographically than all of those it trails in both categories.

“Usually a coach that has to recruit would never burn bridges anywhere and that’s what he was doing,” Carteret’s Matt Yascko said.

“It just shocks me because we are considered a Top 10 state nationally. I always liked him – the way his offense is wide open and he kind of has that attitude that he doesn’t care about anything – but for him to bash high school football in New Jersey leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Leach is 12-26 at Washington State and last week opened his fourth season by losing to 31-point underdog Portland State. He was ranked as the most overpaid coach in the country by CBSSports.com.

“If you recruit New Jersey football, you wouldn’t lose to Portland State,” said Colonia athletics director Ben LaSala, who, like Borden, is a former president of the New Jersey Football Coaches Association and a NJFCA Hall of Famer.

“He should do a little bit more recruiting around here, I guess, because things aren’t going real well for him.”

Rutgers, which has 56 New Jerseyans on its roster, beat Washington State in Seattle last season.

Rutgers coach Kyle Flood jumped to the defense of the state last season and again Monday in saying the football programs and coaches in New Jersey are some of the best in the country.

“For good and bad, Rutgers holds the football title in the state,” said Yascko, who coached Jason Worilds of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“If they go out and have a 2-10 season, everybody is going to look at Jersey football as being a joke. But they’ve been successful now for 10 years in a row. I don’t understand why there is any lack of respect.”

Given a chance Tuesday to clarify remarks made on his weekly radio show, Leach initially said he didn't remember "exactly what I said" other than that he "pointed out they start (the season) late and they have a short playoff."

Pressed for more, Leach said, "I did say they were a state with great players, but the point of the matter was I thought that when they came to college they developed quite a lot. I did suggest that is a pretty good place to recruit and I also pointed out that they have a fairly big presence in the NFL. Then, of course, whoever quoted me took that out of context."

Leach said he recruited New Jersey "some at Kentucky" in 1997-98. Since then, he has been the head coach at Texas Tech and Washington State.

“That’s some broad stroke,” Gurrieri said. “I’ve ever had anybody come through from any of his staffs. I guess he doesn’t want to come here because I can’t see any coach who knows what’s going on being very welcoming to him. Jersey coaches have long memories. Let’s put it that way.”

LaSala, who coached Eric LeGrand, expects that Leach will “take a shellacking from the fans” Saturday.

“For somebody to insult us and make that kind of statement, before you are playing our state university, that’s unbelievable,” said Borden, whose most prominent alum (Josh Miller) punted in the PAC-12 at Arizona and in the NFL. “You are trying to set the place on fire before you even get here.”

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleavy@gannettnj.com