November 29, 2004

Leach, Edsall, Leavitt Stand Atop Illini List

The Chicago Tribune has reported that Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther intends to interview Texas Tech's Mike Leach for the vacant Illini head football coaching position. The same story indicated that UConn head coach Randy Edsall and South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt are also getting consideration.

UI fired head coach Ron Turner a week ago after a 3-8 season, his third consecutive losing campaign.

To date, there are no confirmations of requests for permission to talk to any candidates by Illinois. Leach's name has been bantered about this season for a number of high profile openings and potential openings, from Washington to Florida. Leavitt, who has extensive ties in the Midwest, has been wooed by a number of major programs, most recently having been interviewed by Alabama in 2002.

Chicago Tribune columinst Teddy Greenstein wrote that wooing Leach could get pricey for UI, since he earns over $1 million per year at Texas Tech and would likely demand a significant increase to make what many would consider to be a lateral move. The move might be appealing, though, as Illinois won a Big Ten title as recently as 2001 while Tech appears hopelessly mired behind Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 South pecking order.

Last week, Leach skirted questions about the Illini job, as did Jim Leavitt. Leavitt told the Tampa Tribune, "I love South Florida and I'm excited about going into the Big East and building an extremely powerful program.'' USF joins the Big East next season.

An additional candidate could be San Diego Chargers assistant head coach Tim Brewster, a former Illini player, who is openly lobbying for the job. It is unclear, however, whether UI is seriously considering him.

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