One interesting note from the hiring and firing that occupies college football fans for the better part of the holiday season is the hiring of former Nevada and UCLA assistant Jim Mastro by Washington State. Mastro is schooled in the pistol offense, a run-first attack known for cranking out 1,000 yard rushers with regularity. It seems incompatible with Leach's pass-friendly Air Raid scheme, but it may not be as inharmonious a match as you might think.
Leach protege Dana Holgorsen has worked with integrating the pistol formation and other variants of the scheme into his sets at West Virginia and Oklahoma State. In order to keep his attack fresh and unpredictable in his return to coaching, Leach may be looking to do the same thing by going straight to one of the attack's sources. It's a fun tweak, but don't worry, Cougar fans: Leach will still throw the daylights out of the ball, and then probably pass some more even after he's all out of daylights, so to speak.