In the court of public opinion, Mike Leach is the perfect person to argue the plaintiff's case. Hidden deep in the Pacific Northwest, his Washington State program relied on satellite camps to spread the Cougar gospel away from his hard-to-reach Pullman conclave. In a decade and a half as head coach, Leach has never hesitated from sharing his opinion, on any subject, ever. And he's also the only law school graduate among the FBS head coaching ranks.
Making an appearance on SiriusXM's College Sports Nation on Monday, Leach stated his case for satellite camps. He said he understood the SEC's resistance to satellite camps, reasoning that anyone who recruits primarily within a five-hour radius of their school has no incentive to hold such a camp, since the program would be better served having those kids come on campus.
But that's kind of the entire point, isn't it?
Satellite camps existed for programs who could not subsist on locally-sourced diet. And on that subject, Leach held nothing back. "For those in the SEC that don't like satellite camps, they need to quit being such big babies. Just go ahead and appreciate the fact that often-overlooked student-athletes get opportunities.
This is fruits and vegetables and they don't have an orchard or a garden. It's a national sport that is appreciated all across America. There are no boundaries, or there shouldn't be and now there is, but there shouldn't be any boundaries on recruiting and who gets opportunities to play, so the best talent and best product surfaces to the top. To selfishly manipulate this is counterproductive to everything we pretend to be about."