"Leach is the top coach in the P12" by Jake Curtis

3. Chris Petersen, Washington
Putting Petersen this low may seem like heresy considering the success Petersen has had. Athlon ranked Petersen the No. 3 head coach in the country, and it’s easy to see why. Boise State was a national power under Petersen, and the Huskies are ruling the conference again with Petersen in charge. But Boise State was strong before he got there and has regressed only slightly since Petersen left, and Washington was nationally ranked the year before Petersen took over. Putting Petersen at No. 3 says more about the coaches ahead of him than about Petersen.

2. David Shaw, Stanford
You may wonder how we could put Shaw ahead of Petersen. While it’s true that the Cardinal began its rise to national prominence under Jim Harbaugh, what Shaw has done in Palo Alto is unprecedented. Under Shaw, Stanford has won three Pac-12 championship games, more than any other school, and it has played in four of them, also more than any other school. Shaw has won 10 games or more five times, has finished ranked among the top seven in the nation three times, and has won at least eight games in all eight seasons as Stanford’s head coach. All this at a place where it was considered impossible to win consistently. Stanford had finished alone in first place in the conference just once in the 39 years before Shaw became head coach, and losing seasons had become a habit. It could be the case that Shaw, a Stanford alum, is simply the perfect fit for the Stanford program, but that does not diminish his status.

1. Mike Leach, Washington State
Before Leach arrived in Pullman, the Cougars had gone eight straight seasons without a winning record. Leach has taken Washington State to a bowl game each of the past four years, and the Cougars’ No. 10 ranking in last year’s final poll was the best of any Pac-12 school. Rarely does Washington State get a top recruit, but Leach somehow has created winners, just as he did at Texas Tech, which finished ranked in the top 25 in five of his final six seasons there. Gardner Minshew wasn’t even a regular starter at East Carolina, but Leach turned him into the Pac-12 offensive player of the year in one season. You get the sense that Leach could take you, me and nine library workers and average 30 points a game.