Washington State coach Mike Leach is know to be a bizarre soundbite. He's known to talk conspiracies, politics and dating advice. On Monday, Leach held his weekly press conference in the lead up to the team's game with 11th-ranked Oregon this week.

When the questions turned to Oregon, the Cougar coach said this year's team, despite being coached by a third different coach in as many years, offered similarities to what he's seen from Duck teams during his eight years in the Pac-12 conference. Leach is 3-4 against the Ducks to date, including three straight wins.

“They’ve been really hard-fought games all of them," he said of previous meeting with the Ducks. "I think this one will be the same. They’re very fast guys. They always seem to be very fast moving games too… There’s always a quick pace to it. It’s come to down to whoever is willing to slug it out in the end.

“They’re similar type of athletes. They have a lot of team speed flashing around there."

Leach was also complimentary of Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert. Herbert ranks second behind WSU's Gardner Minshew (403.7 to 268.8) among Pac-12 passers in passing yards per game and first in pass efficiency (171.2).

Leach described Herbert as a "good quarterback" multiple times and was also high on his ability to lead Oregon's offense. But when pressed on where he ranked among QBs he's faced in his time in the conference, he didn't offer a definitive answer.

"That’s difficult to answer in a lot of ways," he said. "I think he’s a good quarterback. Where he belongs as far as the top of this conference, there’s been a lot of good ones in this conference, so, that’s a fairly crowded field."

Herbert has also been rumored to be a possible top NFL Draft choice. That prognosis has remained constant regardless of whether he enters early and joins the 2019 Draft class or returns for his senior and is draft eligible in 2020. Leach didn't seem to have an answer for how Herbert projected as an NFL player either.

“As a far as draft picks, there’s a lot of irrational behavior that exists in the NFL with regards to drafting quarterbacks," he explained. "Nearly every team has drafted a quarterback in the first round, but almost none of them have a starter that’s a first round pick. So you can do the math right there on how successful they’ve been with that sort of thing. They’re idiosyncratic as far as what they run, and what they’re looking for. A lot of times guys drafted by people who aren’t coaches.

“But I think he’s a good quarterback. I don’t think there’s any question about that."

It is important to note that of the 32 teams in the NFL, 23 employ a starting quarterback who were take in the first round of the NFL draft.