Mike Leach had an incredible coaching career but what should not be lost in the tragedy of his untimely death is just how many coaches and players he positively impacted over head coaching stops at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State.
Leach was lucky to have coached with many of these elite coaches and players but many of them are also incredibly fortunate to cross paths with Leach, who changed their lives forever.
COACHING TREE
The outpouring of support from coaches ever since the news broke that Leach suffered a heart attack Sunday and since his death was announced early Tuesday has come from across the college football landscape, many of whom have been on Leach’s staffs over the years and now run their own programs.
The staff Leach put together at Texas Tech was incredibly deep and filled with current head coaches including TCU’s Sonny Dykes, who is leading the Horned Frogs into the College Football Playoff this season. Dykes coached wide receivers in Lubbock.
Houston coach Dana Holgorsen coached inside receivers and was the offensive coordinator under Leach. USC coach Lincoln Riley was a student assistant and then a graduate assistant for the Red Raiders before coaching receivers. Art Briles coached running backs at Texas Tech before taking the Houston job.
His coaching tree at Texas Tech will go down in history as one of the best ever. Those were some of the big names there but there were others, as Baylor coach Dave Aranda was a graduate assistant in Lubbock and then Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie played and was a GA for Leach there as well.
Nevada coach Ken Wilson was one of the biggest names who worked with Leach during his time at Washington State. Interim Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett, the defensive coordinator, has been tied to other jobs and is absolutely one of the up-and-coming assistants nationally.
Those were many of the major coaches who were with Leach during his coaching career. He also coached a bunch of players who ended up getting into the coaching profession and are still making a huge impact.
Texas Tech legend Kliff Kingsbury was a star quarterback in the early years for Leach in Lubbock before he himself coached the Red Raiders for six seasons and eventually landed the Arizona Cardinals job.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown, former North Texas coach Seth Littrell, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, Cumbie and Washington State offensive coordinator Eric Morris were some other big-timers.
PLAYER TREE
The effect and influence Leach had on players over the years at all three head coaching stops is immeasurable. So many quarterbacks made their careers in his Air Raid offense, others went from no-names to NFL Draft picks and so many of them posted record-breaking numbers along the way.
Here’s a look at some of the highest-profile players:
In Leach’s early years at Texas Tech, before he was a big-time coach, Kingsbury had three huge seasons at Texas Tech. He finished his career as one of only three players to throw for more than 10,000 yards, gain more than 10,000 yards in total offense and complete more than 1,000 passes.
What speaks to Leach’s genius was that after Kingsbury, BJ Symons became the starter and in one season had better numbers than Kingsbury ever had. Symons, who would be a seventh-round pick after Kingsbury was a sixth-rounder the year before, threw for 5,833 yards with 52 touchdowns and 22 interceptions for the Red Raiders.
It helped that Kingsbury and Symons were throwing to future NFL star receiver Wes Welker (who amazingly went undrafted) as he had 86 catches for 1,054 yards and seven touchdowns in 2002 and then posted even better numbers in 2003 with Symons. That season, Texas Tech had three receivers with more than 1,000 receiving yards and a fourth was only 25 receiving yards away.
Cumbie, the Louisiana Tech coach, would start for Leach in 2004 and threw for more than 4,700 yards before star Graham Harrell, currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at West Virginia, took over in 2006.
Harrell, receiver Joel Filani and stud WR Michael Crabtree put together some of Leach’s best years in Lubbock. In 2007, Harrell completed a mind-boggling 512 passes. In comparison, Leach’s QB this season at Mississippi State, Will Rogers, led the NCAA with 386 completions.
Crabtree was a superstar because of Leach’s pass-happy offense and had nearly 2,000 receiving yards in 2007 and then 1,135 yards and 18 TDs the following season.
Leach was so ahead of his time in terms of passing offenses – and then he took it to Washington State. In the year before Leach got to Pullman, the Cougars’ quarterback threw 19 touchdown passes. Two seasons later, Connor Halliday threw for 4,597 yards with 34 TDs. The following year Halliday had 32 TDs and receiver Vince Mayle, who struggled to catch on elsewhere, had 106 catches for 1,483 yards and nine touchdowns before becoming a fourth-round NFL Draft pick.
Then Luke Falk, who committed to Cornell but backed off that pledge to walk on at Washington State, took over and threw for around 4,500 in each of his first two seasons in Pullman with 38 TDs in each campaign. He then had a great 2017 season before becoming a sixth-round pick.
The 2018 season was especially memorable because it was Minshew Mania as Gardner Minshew, another quarterback who didn’t have a ton going on, revitalized his career in one season with Leach. After playing at Northwest Mississippi Community College and then East Carolina, Minshew transferred to Washington State for one season where he threw for 4,779 yards with 38 touchdowns and nine picks before becoming a sixth-round pick. Minshew is still in the NFL.
That’s the season Leach wore a fake mustache so terribly misplaced during a post-game interview (to honor Minshew’s season) that everybody had to laugh. It was so Leach.
What Leach did with Will Rogers is not only another example of the incredible success he’s had developing quarterbacks and making them see his offensive vision but also taking someone and making them have more NFL potential than ever imaginable.
A high three-star with only one other Power Five offer (Washington State), Rogers split time with Stanford transfer KJ Costello in his first season, throwing for just 1,976 yards with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Then Rogers completely took off in Leach’s offense with 4,739 yards, 36 TDs and nine picks the following year and then 3,713 yards with 34 and six this season.
Leach was funny, quirky, brilliant, thoughtful, strange in his own special way with unique interests. He was human.
And he was one hell of a coach and mentor, one of the best in recent memory. The numbers – and the people he helped along the way – spell that out.
Gone, but cannot be forgotten.
