Mike Leach was a rogue, an innovator, and man who belongs within the Corridor of Fame

RJ Younger

FOX Sports activities Faculty Soccer Analyst

In 2018, Jeremy Schaap interviewed Mike Leach in Pullman, Washington. Leach was coming off an ideal season through which he led Washington State to 11 wins and earned his second nationwide coach of the 12 months honor.

Schaap requested Leach how he wished to be remembered.

"Properly, that is their drawback," Leach stated. "They're those writing the obituary. What do I care? I am useless."

See that? That is Mike Leach, kiddos.

Leach was the plug within the socket. The snigger in your stomach. The whoopee in your cushion.

He gave marriage ceremony recommendation that amounted to "elope."

And he hated — hated — sweet corn.

His remark to Schaap, although, was one of the best reminder that obituaries — like the necessity to mourn, like funeral rites — are for the dwelling. After the dying of Leach on Tuesday on the age of 61, I select to recollect what made the person a real unique.

He was profiled by Michael Lewis — you already know, the "Blind Aspect" and "Moneyball" man — in The New York Occasions in 2005.

He wrote his autobiography by way of the lens of a black sail pirate. He wrote one other about Geronimo.

[Related: Mike Leach, pioneering coach, dies at 61]

He earned a regulation diploma from Pepperdine, however reasonably than follow as an legal professional, he took a job as an assistant coach at an NAIA college referred to as Iowa Wesleyan as a result of he did not need to be like everyone else. Later in his life, he advised Bruce Feldman as a lot.

"[If] you’re doing the identical previous factor that everyone else is doing, that’s who you develop into — everyone else."

At Iowa Wesleyan in 1989, he started to study to run the Air Raid offense from legend Hal Mumme. The 2 shortly grew to become profitable, and took their present to Valdosta, Georgia, in 1992, the place Leach continued to hone his play-calling skill and sharpen the offense.

As an assistant at Valdosta State, he satisfied a fraternity to mount an air raid siren on their frat home roof after which to crank it each time the Blazers scored. The siren was banned shortly thereafter, and in 1997, Mumme and Leach took their present to the SEC by the use of Kentucky.

After the duo produced record-breaking quarterback and No. 1 general NFL draft decide Tim Sofa in 1999, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops efficiently employed Leach to run and revolutionize the Sooners’ offense.

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Stoops employed Leach as a result of he remembered how powerful it was to arrange for UK’s offense when he was the defensive coordinator at Florida, the place Stoops had helped win a nationwide title.

As soon as, as Sooners offensive coordinator in 1999, Leach planted a faux play-call sheet close to the Texas sideline, in line with ESPN.

Throughout pregame warmups, the script that supposedly outlined OU’s opening offensive performs was noticed by certainly one of Texas’ pupil assistants, who scooped it up and took it to Longhorns defensive coordinator Carl Reese. To the closely favored Longhorns, it appeared as in the event that they’d caught an infinite break.

"We had been attempting to determine if it was genuine," Reese stated. "We had been on this state of, ‘Can we imagine this?'"

They shouldn’t have.

It was a faux, a part of a plot hatched by Leach. The Longhorns shortly fell behind 17-0 earlier than realizing they’d been duped.

A 12 months later, with a little-known JUCO quarterback named Josh Heupel, Stoops, Leach and the Sooners received the 2000 nationwide title.

See that, there? That’s Mike Leach, kiddos.

He was the hi-YAW in your yippee ki-yay. The recent sauce in your grits. The cowbell banging at your ball.

He beloved the phantasm of a small play-call sheet, though it's a full-size piece of paper.

Having carried out the job at OU, Leach grew to become head coach at Texas Tech in 2000 and put collectively fairly the run.

With the sport on the road in opposition to No. 1-ranked Texas, and quarterback Graham Harrell and wideout Michael Crabtree begging for the prospect to go win the sport, Leach referred to as up "4 Verticals," making a play stuffed with go-routes well-known as Crabtree tiptoed the sideline on the way in which to the most important win in Pink Raiders historical past.

At Lubbock, Leach by no means didn't win fewer than seven video games. He received 9 or extra 4 instances, together with 11 in 2008.

After a public falling out with Texas Tech in 2009 following allegations of mistreatment from a Pink Raiders large receiver, Leach took over as head coach at Washington State in 2012. There, he developed, amongst others, Gardner Minshew, who completed fifth within the Heisman voting, and Luke Falk, who received the Burlsworth Award.

By the point Leach left Pullman in 2019, he was the third-winningest coach in class historical past.

He grew to become head coach at Mississippi State in a return to the SEC. He flipped this system right into a seven-win workforce only one 12 months after taking up and developed Will Rogers into the varsity’s most prolific passer.

Whereas at Mississippi State, Leach went to the state Capitol of Mississippi in 2020 to advocate for the elimination of the Accomplice battle emblem from the state flag, as a result of he knew lots of the gamers he had coached considered it as a racist image.

After all, that is all earlier than we discuss Leach's prodigious teaching tree, which incorporates USC coach Lincoln Riley, TCU coach Sonny Dykes and Houston coach Dana Holgorsen amongst others. And Leach by no means performed a down of school soccer.

However Mike Leach is not eligible for the Faculty Soccer Corridor of Fame as a result of he did not win 60% of his video games as a head coach. He received 59.6%.

I've requested the Nationwide Soccer Basis, which oversees the induction choice course of for the game’s corridor of fame, to alter the rule, as I and others did for Toledo quarterback Chuck Ealey.

They finally took our suggestion and granted Ealey entrance into the Corridor of Fame. I'm optimistic that the NFF will make room for one of many sport’s greatest ambassadors and a rattling high-quality soccer coach.

In any case, the Corridor of Fame is for us — the dwelling — to recollect these from the previous, and we'd do ourselves a disservice as faculty soccer followers to depart out the person who was a spoonful of cinnamon in your espresso, a rogue jalapeño in your burger and probably the most colourful coach within the historical past of the game.

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RJ Younger is a nationwide faculty soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities and the host of the podcast "The Quantity One Faculty Soccer Present." Comply with him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The RJ Younger Present" on YouTube.

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