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RIP Coach Leach

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I'm guessing we will look back at this particular milestone as a very handy hook upon which we will look back in the future and realize that this is extremely symbolic of the death of college football. Not that Mike Leach IS college football, but to a great extent he represents exactly what many of us loved about college football. I don't think there's any denying that CFB has dramatically and rapidly changed in recent years, and the pace of this change is only accelerating. This old geezer doesn't care for any of these changes, nor do I think college football has much chance at all of recapturing the passion of folks like me. RIP, Mike Leach. RIP, CFB.
 
Not a big ESPN fan but this is a great write up on the Pirate & his hand in changing not just college but all of football.

www.espn.com

How Mike Leach took the Air Raid mainstream -- and revolutionized the sport

Mike Leach passed away Monday night at 61. He will be remembered as one of the foremost pioneers of the Air Raid offense, a system that can be seen at every level of modern football.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
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RIP Pirate. I am pouring out a rum for you. College football has lost a good one, and unfortunately, there is not replacement for such a bold, steadfast man. All the best to Coach (Captain) Leach's family.
 
SWFLSWAGG17 said:
Can someone educate me on some of the Coaches who either got their start or were able to learn under Coach Leach?
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- Sonny Dykes
- Art Briles
- Lincoln Riley
- Josh Heupel
- Dana Holgorsen
- Dino Babers
- Graham Harrell
- Dave Aranda
- Jeff Choate
- Greg McMackin
- Seth Littrell
- Kliff Kingsbury
- Ken Wilson
- Neal Brown
- Eric Morris
- Sonny Cumbie
- Ruffin McNeil
- Robert Anae
- Phillip Montgomery
- Tony Franklin
- Kevin Sumlin (although he’s more of a Jim Wacker disciple)
- Jake Spavital
- Bill Bedenbaugh
- Mark Mangino
- Brett Bartolone
- Matt Mumme (Hal’s son)
- Chris Hatcher
- Dave Nichol (RIP)
- Drew Hollingshead
- Clay McGuire
- Guy Morriss
- David Yost (to a lesser extent, he’s more of a Gary Pinkel disciple, but did have a stint under Leach at Wash ST)

The list goes on & on... It’s literally close to a 100+ coaches & that’s not even going into the offshoot branches, of guys who didn’t coach directly under Leach but coached under one of his students.

But it illustrates how vast his Coaching Tree really is, it has a 2nd & 3rd generation; even his Branches grew to become their own trees that have branched off into a whole other Forrest of Coaches.
 
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Memnon said:
- Sonny Dykes
- Art Briles
- Lincoln Riley
- Josh Heupel
- Dana Holgorsen
- Dino Babers
- Graham Harrell
- Dave Aranda
- Jeff Choate
- Greg McMackin
- Seth Littrell
- Kliff Kingsbury
- Ken Wilson
- Neal Brown
- Eric Morris
- Sonny Cumbie
- Ruffin McNeil
- Robert Anae
- Phillip Montgomery
- Tony Franklin
- Kevin Sumlin (although he’s more of a Jim Wacker disciple)
- Jake Spavital
- Bill Bedenbaugh
- Mark Mangino
- Brett Bartolone
- Matt Mumme (Hal’s son)
- Chris Hatcher
- Dave Nichol (RIP)
- Drew Hollingshead
- Clay McGuire
- Guy Morriss
- David Yost (to a lesser extent, he’s more of a Gary Pinkel disciple, but did have a stint under Leach at Wash ST)

The list goes on & on... It’s literally close to a 100+ coaches & that’s not even going into the offshoot branches, of guys who didn’t coach directly under Leach but coaches under one of students.

But it illustrates how vast his Coaching Tree really is, it has a 2nd & 3rd generation; even his Branches grew to become their own trees that have branched off into a whole other Forrest of Coaches.
Click to expand...
Some were players which makes it even more impressive as he was able to teach this at that level.

He even wrote the press releases that named the offense the Air Raid. Truly a special human.
 
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Not being political at all here, just that this is what comes to mind for me... what if???

What if we hired him in 2006 and we got to see him coach Jacory Harris, Geno Smith, Teddy Bridgewater, etc.

I think we missed out on a really cool alternate timeline.

Rest in peace Coach.
 
Dude said:
View attachment 219470

Not being political at all here, just that this is what comes to mind for me... what if???

What if we hired him in 2006 and we got to see him coach Jacory Harris, Geno Smith, Teddy Bridgewater, etc.

I think we missed out on a really cool alternate timeline.

Rest in peace Coach.
Click to expand...

The sad thing was that Shannon would have been a fine DC to Leach as Head coach.
Total social engineering based hire by DS
 
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caneworld said:
The sad thing was that Shannon would have been a fine DC to Leach as Head coach.
Total social engineering based hire by DS
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Would’ve been a great tandem at Miami. In a lot of ways Mike was a great fit for Miami. On field obviously his attacking air raid offenses offer great opportunity to the local recruiting base, but his love for the keys and water, odd ball nature and tendency to say whatever he wanted was very Miami esque. He did it his way and didn’t give a **** what anyone thought of it.
 
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Memnon said:
- Sonny Dykes
- Art Briles
- Lincoln Riley
- Josh Heupel
- Dana Holgorsen
- Dino Babers
- Graham Harrell
- Dave Aranda
- Jeff Choate
- Greg McMackin
- Seth Littrell
- Kliff Kingsbury
- Ken Wilson
- Neal Brown
- Eric Morris
- Sonny Cumbie
- Ruffin McNeil
- Robert Anae
- Phillip Montgomery
- Tony Franklin
- Kevin Sumlin (although he’s more of a Jim Wacker disciple)
- Jake Spavital
- Bill Bedenbaugh
- Mark Mangino
- Brett Bartolone
- Matt Mumme (Hal’s son)
- Chris Hatcher
- Dave Nichol (RIP)
- Drew Hollingshead
- Clay McGuire
- Guy Morriss
- David Yost (to a lesser extent, he’s more of a Gary Pinkel disciple, but did have a stint under Leach at Wash ST)

The list goes on & on... It’s literally close to a 100+ coaches & that’s not even going into the offshoot branches, of guys who didn’t coach directly under Leach but coaches under one of students.

But it illustrates how vast his Coaching Tree really is, it has a 2nd & 3rd generation; even his Branches grew to become their own trees that have branched off into a whole other Forrest of Coaches.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think people fully understand how wide spread this man's coaching tree is. When I say he's literally everywhere...he's literally everywhere.

How many youth football teams in America are running mesh concepts in their first attempt to develop a passing game? A lot. Youth, high school (all of Texas), every level of college, the pros...your favorite team probably has some branch of this tree somewhere on the roster to help integrate some of these concepts.

Its wild.

His QBs and others from this tree would be on NFL rosters, despite not getting a ton of love, just because they were all super smart guys that could do the clipboard thing and be an asset to the 53 man roster just because of that. Many of them are now coaches at some level moving this offense forward.
 
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