Mike Leach was colorful and eccentric, but don't let that detract from his influence on the game

Bill Bender

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Mike Leach was colorful and eccentric, but don't let that detract from his influence on the game image

The anticipation for the conversation made it impossible for the conversation to live up to expectations. 

That is how I felt waiting for a call from Mike Leach – then at Washington State – for a feature on quarterback Luke Falk back in 2015. Washington State was 5-2 heading into a showdown with No. 8 Stanford, Falk was the new "Air Raid" sensation, and Leach's reputation as the coach next door made it worth the late-night wait. 

Leach finally called. He discussed Falk's role in great detail, spun off into his thoughts about his plan for a 64-team College Football Playoff and offered little if anything about the upcoming game against Stanford. There were no mentions of pirates, aliens or anything else that made Leach – who died at age 61 – well, quintessential Leach. The conversation ran well past the requested 15-minute window and bounced around until it was over. 

I questioned myself: "Man, if you can't get Mike Leach to talk about Bigfoot living in the Pacific Northwest, then how good can you be?" 

It was a missed opportunity on Halloween week. I should have simply asked him about candy corn. That would have been the scoop for this legendary take from 2021:

When I listened to the conversation, though, Leach spent most of the interview talking about Falk. That was the who the story was about. 

Besides, Leach's unfiltered press conferences that everyone shared were the best material. The greatest hits included thoughts on anything from weddings to mascot fights. Even this year, when he criticized players – he did it in a fashion that was anything but scripted. Take this example after No. 6 Alabama beat Mississippi State 30-6 on Oct. 22, 2022: 

"Well I think we need to use our hands better. We don't move our hands very good. You know, when I was a kid and I was in grade school, there was this nice big dinosaur guy. I can't remember the gas station, but they would give you a free dinosaur (toy) if you filled up there. That's back when they had commercials on TV and then they would give something to the kids like me," Leach said via Saturday Down South. "Then the idea was that you should raise hell with your parents every time you're in the station wagon. We had one, a good classic like one off the Wonder Years, one of those fake woody ones, you know, fake painted-on wood. But then the best is it would always without exception the finish and the varnish on it would peel. So then it looked more bogus than ever."

That's so much better than, "We need to catch the damn ball better." 

There are hundreds of better Leach conversations that will pour out on social media over the next few days about the coach whose go-anywhere-thoughts were a gift for reporters who had a chance to cover Leach across stints at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State. 

Those sound bytes overshadowed the real genius Leach the football coach – who was able to make football fun in Power 5 outposts such as Lubbock, Texas; and Pullman, Wash., and Starkville, Miss. He had a winning record in all three places – one that accumulated to 158-107. He is No. 1 at Texas Tech and No. 3 at Washington State in all-time wins.

From a football standpoint, Leach will be remembered for pioneering the "Air Raid" – which he developed with Hal Mumme in the 1990s. That was Leach's signature on FBS football, and it isn't appreciated as much as it should be. It's the inverse of the option football played by Army, Air Force and Navy. 

In 21 seasons, Leach's teams ranked first in passing attempts 17 times, second three times and third once. Those teams averaged more than 50 passing attempts 19 times. 

A total of 10 quarterbacks passed for 4,000 yards under Leach and four different quarterbacks topped 5,000 yards. That list includes Kliff Kingsbury – who took a variation of that system to the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie and West Virginia offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. Lincoln Riley also learned from Leach as an assistant coach at Texas Tech from 2003-09. Riley, of course, has a great Leach story. 

The Leach influence on college football will last into the next several generations of college football. Former assistants Riley (USC), Sonny Dykes (TCU), Dana Holgorsen (Houston) and Art Briles (Baylor) have all left their mark in the college game. The vision to change football, and not just into a pass-first game. With Leach, it was a pass-all-the-time game, a philosophy that has trickled down to the junior-high level of football. Leach could talk about that – or about wanting to have a pet raccoon – and you would listen. 

That is because above everything, Leach was fun. Watching a team throw 60 times a game was fun. Listening to Leach talk about football was fun. In a sport where the press conferences have become prepackaged  statements and endless turns on the cliche wheel, Leach gave us something different. Not all of the time, but in a spontaneous fashion that made everything a little more fun. 

Leach was the buddy you would text a hypothetical question and engage in a hypothetical debate. Music. Movies. Sports. What's your favorite pet? Who could forget Leach on cats? 

That is what college football lost today. Anybody who had at talked with Leach will tell you the same thing. Those conversations are what we will miss the most. 

In that regard, Leach always lived up to expectations.

Bill Bender

Bill Bender Photo

Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.