Mike Leach, the gruff, pioneering and unfiltered college football coach who served revolutionize the passing recreation with the Air Raid offense, has died subsequent issues from a heart issue, Mississippi Point out mentioned Tuesday. He was 61.
Leach, who was in his 3rd time as head coach at Mississippi State, fell unwell Sunday at his property in Starkville, Mississippi. He was handled at a community healthcare facility before becoming airlifted to College of Mississippi Healthcare Heart in Jackson, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) away.
“Mike was a offering and attentive husband, father and grandfather. He was able to participate in organ donation at UMMC as a closing act of charity,” the family mentioned in a assertion issued by Mississippi Condition. “We are supported and uplifted by the outpouring of like and prayers from family, mates, Mississippi Condition University, the medical center team, and football fans close to the entire world. Thank you for sharing in the pleasure of our beloved husband and father’s daily life.”
In 21 seasons as a head mentor at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State, Leach went 158-107.
Leach fought by way of a bout with pneumonia late in this year, coughing uncontrollably at periods through news conferences, but seemed to be increasing, in accordance to those who worked with him.
Information of him falling gravely sick swept through college or university football the earlier couple days and remaining lots of who knew him shocked, hoping and praying for Leach’s recovery beneath grim situation.
His influence on all levels of football — from substantial college to the NFL — above the last two a long time runs deep and will carry on for decades to appear.
“Mike’s keen intellect and unvarnished candor built him a single of the nation’s true coaching legends,” Mississippi State President Mark Keenum said. “His passing provides great unhappiness to our college, to the Southeastern Conference, and to all who beloved university football. I will skip Mike’s profound curiosity, his honesty, and his large-open up technique to pursuing excellence in all factors.”
Leach was recognized for his pass-content offense, huge-ranging passions — he wrote a reserve about Native American chief Geronimo, had a enthusiasm for pirates and taught a course about insurgent warfare — and rambling, off-the-cuff news conferences.
An job interview with Leach was as probably to veer off into politics, wedding ceremony scheduling or hypothetical mascot fights as it was to stick to football. He thought of Donald Trump a good friend ahead of the billionaire businessman ran for president and then campaigned for him in 2016.
He traveled all more than the entire world and his curiosity understood no bounds. He most appreciated those people who stepped outside the house of their abilities.
“One of the most significant issues I admire about Michael Jordan, he received condemned a good deal for actively playing baseball. I completely admired that,” Leach told The Related Push previous spring. “I mean, you’re gonna be lifeless in 100 decades anyway. You’ve mastered basketball and you’re gonna go try out to grasp some thing else, and adhere your neck out and you’re not scared to do it, and know that a great deal of folks are gonna be seeing you when you do it. I imagined it was awesome.”
Leach’s teams were reliable winners at courses exactly where success did not arrive straightforward. And his quarterbacks put up significant passing figures, running a relatively straightforward offense referred to as the Air Raid that he did not invent but definitely mastered.
As much as Leach savored digging into matters other than football, he was excellent at the X’s and O’s.
6 of the 20 best passing seasons in main higher education football background had been by quarterbacks who played for Leach, including four of the top 6.
Calling performs from a folded piece of paper more compact than an index card, Leach turned passers these types of as B.J. Symons (448.7 yards per game), Graham Harrell (438.8), Connor Halliday (430.3) and Anthony Gordon (429.2) into report-setters and Heisman Trophy contenders.
“You have to make decisions and limit what you are going to train and what you are going to do. Which is the tough section,” Leach instructed the AP about the Air Raid’s affordable playbook.
Leach also experienced a penchant for butting heads with authority, and he was not shy about criticizing gamers he felt were not enjoying with ample toughness.
A convergence of individuals traits price Leach his to start with head coaching position. He went 84-43 with the Purple Raiders, by no means having a losing season at the Large 12 college and achieving No. 2 in the nation in 2008 with a group that went 11-2 and matched a school record for victories.
But he was fired by Texas Tech in December 2009 soon after remaining accused of mistreating a participant, Adam Jones — the son of previous ESPN announcer and NFL player Craig James — who experienced endured a concussion.
He clashed with his bosses in its place of apologizing for the conflict, and inevitably sued Texas Tech for wrongful termination. The college was secured by state law, but Leach never stopped seeking to battle that situation. He also submitted a lawsuit against ESPN and Craig James that was afterwards dismissed.
Leach was out of coaching for two seasons. He and his wife, Sharon, purchased a residence in Key West, Florida, where by he spent time using his bicycle around city and knocking again beverages at the regional bars.
He returned to coaching but never ever gave up that beloved household in the Keys.
Leach landed in the Pac-12 at Washington Condition in 2012. Right after three shedding seasons, the Cougars shortly looked very a lot like his Texas Tech groups. In 2018, Washington Condition went 11-2, setting a school file for victories, and was ranked as superior as No. 7 in the region.
Leach moved to the Southeastern Meeting in 2020, getting about at Mississippi Condition.
Immediately after several years of inquiries about no matter if Leach’s unfold offense could be thriving in the nation’s most gifted soccer meeting, the Bulldogs established an SEC document for yards passing in his very first game versus defending countrywide winner LSU.
Born March 9, 1961, in tiny Susanville, California, Leach grew up in even more compact Cody, Wyoming. Lifted as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he attended BYU and afterwards received a law diploma from Pepperdine.
“It was tricky for me when I was in college or university, narrowing down what to review,” Leach told the AP.
Leach did not participate in college football, but watching the impressive passing attack utilised by then-Cougars coach LaVell Edwards at a time when most teams had been nevertheless operate-large piqued his fascination in drawing up plays.
In 1987, he broke into university coaching at Cal Poly, but it was at Iowa Wesleyan where he identified his muse. Head coach Hal Mumme experienced invented the Air Raid although coaching high school in Texas. At Iowa Wesleyan, with Leach as offensive coordinator, it commenced to just take keep and essentially adjust the way soccer was performed.
Leach adopted Mumme to Valdosta State and then to the SEC at Kentucky, smashing passing information along the way. He spent just one period as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 1999 just before obtaining his have method at Texas Tech.
From there, the Air Raid spread like wild and became the predominant way offense was run in the Massive 12.
Leach’s substantial coaching tree incorporates USC’s Lincoln Riley, TCU’s Sonny Dykes, Houston’s Dana Holgorsen and Kliff Kingsbury of the Arizona Cardinals.
This earlier time, Leach’s Mississippi Point out team finished 8-4, which includes a 24-22 victory Thanksgiving evening in excess of Mississippi in the intense rivalry recognised as the Egg Bowl. It was his ultimate sport.
Leach is survived by his wife and 4 kids, Janeen, Kimberly, Cody and Kiersten.
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