Before we knew Mike Leach was a first-ballot corridor of fame interview, earlier than the sideline dissertations about marriage or sweet or something on the earth, actually, there was Mike Leach, the soccer genius.
Leach, who died Monday night time at 61, doubtless would scoff at that notion, that anybody wanted to be a genius to do one thing like coach soccer. But all of the off-field quirkiness apart, his introduction to main school soccer at Oklahoma, adopted by a trailblazing tenure at Texas Tech, spawned a revolution within the sport.
When former Sooners head coach Bob Stoops arrived in Norman in 1999, he introduced Leach, who had been Hal Mumme’s offensive coordinator at Kentucky and had pissed off Stoops, Florida’s defensive coordinator at a spot that wasn’t alleged to problem the SEC’s finest groups. It marked a seismic shift at Oklahoma, however the outcomes have been instant, with a nationwide championship in 2000 a 12 months after Leach departed for Lubbock.
Two many years later, Leach’s air present dominates the game at each degree. It started at Oklahoma however quickly conquered the state of Texas and the Big 12. It grew to become a staple of excessive colleges all around the nation, and now NFL famous person Patrick Mahomes, a baby of the Air Raid at Texas Tech, is working the identical offense as an NFL MVP in Kansas City.
“Mike had a bigger impact on football, whether pro football, high school football or college football, than anybody in my generation,” stated TCU coach Sonny Dykes, a former Leach assistant at Kentucky and Texas Tech. “He just changed the way people approach the game.”
It’s straightforward to overlook, in any case these years of mind-bending factors on the scoreboard and record-setting performances, simply how stark the transformation has been. In 1998, Oklahoma was held to 17 or fewer factors in six of its 11 video games. The Sooners ranked fifth-to-last nationally in passing, with 9 landing passes to 16 interceptions in 1998. Among Big 12 groups, solely Texas and Kansas State ranked within the high 50 within the nation in passing. In 1999, with an unheralded switch quarterback — Josh Heupel, from Snow College in Ephraim, Utah — working a wide-open passing assault the place Barry Switzer’s Wishbone groups used to run up and down the sector, there was a wholesome dose of skepticism.
“There was a period of time where the two most wanted guys in the state of Oklahoma were me and Josh Heupel,” Leach instructed ESPN in 2017. “Me for suggesting that you could throw the ball at Oklahoma and in the Big 12. And Josh Heupel for having the temerity to play quarterback and not be able to run faster than 5 flat.”
But Stoops dedicated to Leach’s offense and the Big 12 was placed on discover. A brand new period was ushered into school soccer.
“Mike Leach’s offense presented problems that we had never had to address,” stated former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum, a legendary defensive thoughts who produced among the best defenses of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties and all however broke the run ‘n’ shoot offense, one other pass-happy scheme. “I thought we were pretty good on defense. And he made us scratch our heads, and me scratch my head, more than any coach I’ve ever faced. I had a great admiration for him.”
Leach not solely produced record-setting quarterbacks; he pressured competitors to maintain up with him. By 2008, the Big 12 had 5 of the ten highest-scoring offenses in school soccer. And Leach drew the curiosity of people that have been considering a brand new mind-set in school soccer.
Like a walk-on quarterback from Muleshoe, Texas, about 70 miles from Lubbock, named Lincoln Riley.
“They kind of captured the attention of everybody,” he stated. “That’s why I went to Texas Tech. I loved what they were doing and I wanted to find some way to get a chance to be a part of it.”
Mumme, the creator of the Air Raid, would be the first to let you know that whereas he could have designed it and unfold the phrase when he was at Kentucky, Leach grew to become its champion in Lubbock. While rewriting document books, Leach additionally threw open the doorways.
In the early 2000s, coaches made pilgrimages to Texas Tech, the place they could not imagine the simplicity of the offense. What they discovered, as an alternative, was a dedication to repetition and particulars and a fearless willpower to do what you do. And Leach would inform anybody something.
“A lot of coaches keep secrets, “Dykes stated. “Mike felt like part of his job as a coach was to teach. He taught a lot of people the offense. I think he felt like it was good for the game of football.”
And the extra the merrier for Leach, who liked to satisfy attention-grabbing folks from all backgrounds. He took pleasure within the recognition of his philosophy, as soon as dismissed as a gimmick.
“I’ve never been to a place where you had more coaches around constantly,” Lincoln Riley stated. “So many people. You think just Texas high school coaches. No, I’m talking professional coaches, I’m talking college coaches, high school coaches from all over the country. Every single year we had somebody come from abroad. There was a group from Japan that came every year, groups from England that came over I mean, you name it.”
And like at Oklahoma, the Air Raid took flight at locations that beforehand weren’t precisely recognized for his or her fondness for the ahead move.
“When Kliff Kingsbury was the head coach at Texas Tech, he once told us that he thought that 75% of the high schools in Texas ran our offense,” Mumme stated.
Leach earned the respect of among the legends of the sport alongside the best way.
“Mike Leach has won everywhere he’s been,” Barry Switzer, an enormous Leach fan, instructed ESPN final 12 months. “He won at Texas Tech, at Washington State, has taken Mississippi State to bowl games. Everywhere he goes, he wins.”
Leach by no means received a convention title, however all the time coached at historic have-nots within the Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. He by no means bought a shot at one of many sport’s powers, both, as a result of folks thought his unorthodox model would not work on the large stage, or due to his mouth and his tendency to say no matter he felt.
“Like all innovators in sports, he finds himself in an uncertain social position,” “Moneyball” writer Michael Lewis wrote in a New York Times journal profile. “He has committed a faux pas: he has suggested by his methods that there is more going on out there on the (unlevel) field of play than his competitors realize, which reflects badly on them.”
But his tenure at every place was hardly ever matched in historical past.
Before Leach’s arrival, Texas Tech had been to the Cotton Bowl, traditionally a desired vacation spot for Texas colleges, simply twice — in 1939 and 1995. Under Leach, they went twice in 9 seasons, in 2006 and 2009. They haven’t been again since his departure in 2010. He’s the one coach in 103 years to win 11 video games at Washington State.
Fittingly, Leach’s final win, Mississippi State’s 24-22 conquer Ole Miss within the Egg Bowl, was the Bulldogs’ seventh win over a staff ranked within the AP ballot whereas the Bulldogs have been unranked beneath Leach prior to now three seasons. No different college has greater than 4 unranked vs. ranked wins in that span.
“He gave us all confidence that we could be ourselves and we didn’t have to emulate Lou Holtz,” Dykes stated. “That was probably the biggest lesson that I learned, that you can see the world differently and still be a successful college football coach.”
As a outcome, a gaggle of coaches who grew up watching Leach’s cussed insistence on spreading the sector have pressured colleges like Alabama to bend to them, not the opposite means round. Nick Saban famously stated, “Is this what we want football to be?” about no-huddle offenses, and a technology responded within the affirmative. Now, Saban and contemporaries like Bill Belichick are working the identical wide-open ideas.
“It all boils down to creativity and most importantly, courage,” Riley stated. “It’s hard to go against the status quo, especially in a game like football where there’s such a rigid way of doing it. He broke through and found another way, which a lot of people have tried. He’s one of the very few that has done it successfully.”
His subsequent wave of protégés has gotten the alternatives he by no means had and seized them. Leach’s affect has hardly ever been felt as strongly because it has this 12 months. Dykes crashed the College Football Playoff in Year 1 at TCU, a 12 months after a 5-7 season. Riley took over a 4-8 USC staff, went 11-2 and coached his third Heisman Trophy winner in six years in Caleb Williams. The runner-up, Max Duggan, performed for Riley’s brother, Garrett, who works for Dykes and is one other former Tech quarterback. Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, who completed fifth, performed for Heupel, the man who jump-started every little thing for Leach in Norman.
“Look at the people that were fortunate enough to work for him,” Dykes stated. “They’ve all had a tremendous amount of success. Mike’s way of teaching empowered young people. That’s one thing he did better than anybody. He wasn’t afraid to take a 22-year-old kid and give him a bunch of power if he believed in him.”
Those former assistants took that to coronary heart too, and ushered in a brand new wave of coaches who’ve nontraditional backgrounds, as a result of Leach, a former lawyer who performed rugby at BYU, did not care. Dykes was a school baseball participant. Baylor coach Dave Aranda was a philosophy main who did not play school soccer. Dana Holgorsen performed for Mumme and Leach at Iowa Wesleyan, which simply occurred to be in Holgorsen’s hometown of Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
And Riley, the walk-on, has ascended to the bluest of blue bloods within the sport, going 66-12 at Oklahoma and USC.
“He didn’t really care where people came from or pedigree or or anything like that,” Riley stated. “It’s always been about, are you smart? Are you interesting enough that he’s going to learn something from you or enjoy conversation? That was one of his greatest gifts. He was such a great evaluator of coaches. You see his hand prints on everything around college football right now.”
Mumme’s offense and Leach’s character collectively modified soccer perpetually. Mumme, who stated Leach was like a brother to him, remembers how outstanding it’s that the 2 ended up collectively. Mumme had two candidates for the Iowa Wesleyan offensive line teaching job. One was Leach, who had graduated from Pepperdine regulation college however determined to enter teaching, so Mumme stated he bought the job form of by default.
“He could have gone to L.A. and sat there and drank two martinis for lunch and made $200,000 a year,” Mumme stated. “But instead he came to work for me and made 12 grand.”
The finish outcome was one of the crucial influential careers in soccer historical past. And by the best way, he made certain the present was definitely worth the value of admission too, which Leach all the time felt was the purpose of sports activities.
“Mike has made football more fun for people than they deserved,” Mumme stated. “If you watched Mike Leach, you had fun watching.”
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