Mike Leach, Washington State Cougars (photo by WSU Marketing, via Wikimedia).
When I read about Mike Leach’s passing this morning, it was hard to swallow. At just 61 years old, the former Washington State Cougars head coach seemed like he had plenty left in the tank until a heart attack took him away.
I don’t claim to be a Mike Leach expert, but I watched a bunch of games he coached. I respected the heck out of the guy and what he did for the Washington State Cougars.
Leach and Hal Mumme are the “Godfathers” of the “Air Raid” offense. They were innovators in a game that’s hard to come up with something new.
A school like Washington State isn’t on the beaten path. Leach’s creativity led to results that put the Cougs on the map. His Air Raid offense was a show that garnered high-profile recruits and media attention.
It took a little time to get the program headed in the right direction. The Cougs didn’t have a winning record in any of his first three seasons on the Palouse, posting a combined 12-23 record with one bowl appearance. Then came the golden era.
From 2015-18, the Washington State Cougars were 37-15. Among the highlights was a 26-10 Pac-12 record, four bowl games, and finishing the 2018 season ranked 10th in the polls.
Along the way, Leach was a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year and the 2018 AFCA (American Football Coaches Association) Coach of the Year. Between a successful team and the WSU flag bearers’ incredible streak, they drew ESPN College GameDay to Pullman in 2018.
Through his system, Cougar quarterbacks Jeff Tuel, Luke Falk, Gardner Minshew, and Anthony Gordon all had shots at playing in the National Football League. Quarterbacks get headlines, but 19 other players from Leach’s eight-year tenure at Washington State also went to the NFL. And surprise, almost half of them played defense.
Then there were his press conferences. Generally, these are pretty dull affairs. There is an occasional nugget or two of information buried within a coach’s rambling.
But not with Mike Leach at the podium. These were 20-30 minutes of must-watch streaming every week.
On the football side, he was opinionated and informative. I remember watching one press conference that almost had me choking on a donut.
The Washington State Cougars beat Utah 28-24 on September 29, 2018, despite 0 yards rushing for the game. Leach was asked about a balanced offense in his Monday presser. His answer was priceless.
“I want all the positions to touch it. There’s nothing balanced about 50 percent run and 50 percent pass. Because that’s 50 percent stupid. Now what is balanced is when you have five skill positions and all five are contributing to the offensive effort in a somewhat equal fashion, then that’s balanced. But this notion that if you hand it to one guy 50 percent of the time and you throw it to a combination of two guys the other 50 percent of the time and you’re balanced and you proudly pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that — and people have been doing that for decades — well you’re delusional.”
Mike Leach, November 1, 2018 Press Conference, h/t Nick Bromberg, Yahoo Sports.
If there was ever one statement that summed up Leach as a coach, that was it. But there was more to his press conferences than football.
From his worst date to wedding advice to golf apparel to Halloween costumes to bigfoot, there wasn’t much Leach wouldn’t talk about. That’s what made him so much fun to watch week in and week out.
I could go on about his love of history, especially pirates, or which college mascots would win in a mythical fight. Just thinking about that puts a smile on my face.
His decision to leave the Washington State Cougars for Mississippi State after the 2019 season was disappointing for CougNation but understandable. It was an SEC job at a school with more money for both him and his assistant coaches.
MSU was a perennial bottom-feeder in the SEC West. However, just like he did with Wazzu, Leach had the Bulldogs headed in the right direction.
2022 was his third season in Starkville. Mississippi State finished with an 8-4 record, ranked 22 in the most recent Coaches Poll and headed to the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa.
Leached will be missed by all those his life touched. His football legacy lives on through the many successful coaches that developed in his system as either players or assistants.
Among them are current head coaches Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Sonny Dykes (TCU), Dave Aranda (Baylor), Lincoln Riley (USC), Dana Holgorsen (Houston), Neal Brown (West Virginia), Eric Morris (North Texas, 2022 Washington State Cougars Offensive Coordinator), Ken Wilson (Nevada), Sonny Cumbie (Louisiana Tech) and Kliff Kingsbury (Arizona Cardinals). Former head coaches Seth Littrell, Greg McMackin, Ruffin McNeill, and Art Briles also played or coached under Leach.
R.I.P. Mike Leach, you were an original.