The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Although I teach at UCLA and my alma mater is Stanford, my favorite team during this upcoming college football season will be Washington State. The reason? Its coach, Mike Leach.
Leach is widely considered an offensive genius, known for transforming the game with his version of the "spread" offense. When he became head coach at Texas Tech in 2000, the Red Raiders were known as a mediocre, primarily run-oriented team. Once Leach took over, however, the team would typically pass more than 50 plays in a game, and it would often score more than 50 points in a game. By 2008, Leach had led the team--which consisted mainly of players who had been rejected by bigger name schools such as Texas and Oklahoma--to the number 12 ranking in the nation.
The next year he was fired. One of his players suffered a concussion and was ordered not to practice by a doctor. At the next practice, while that player watched from the sidelines, Leach thought the player had become a distraction to the team. Leach punished him by ordering him to stand in an equipment room near the team's practice facility.
Leach did not coach during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Washington State hired him for the upcoming 2012 season, and on August 30, he will coach the Cougars in its opener against Brigham Young.
Leach is widely considered one of the most colorful characters in all college football. Here's what Sports Illustrated wrote about him recently:
In May, five months after he was hired to coax Washington State football out of its coma, Leach bagged a 7½-foot black bear on a hunt in Canada, then tweeted a picture of himself, posing beside his trophy/victim. Thus did he manage to antagonize the Cal Bears, UCLA Bruins and PETA, all in one blast. Leach did not shrink from the inevitable blowback, speculating on Seattle radio that if he really "got to know" the animal rights activists who disapproved of his hunting, "I'm sure I could find plenty of things that they do that I disagree with." His olive-branch takeaway: Life would be "pretty boring" if everyone had the same opinion.
In 2005, Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short, wrote a fascinating 9,000-word article about Leach. Here are a couple passages:
"Thinking man's football" is a bit like "classy stripper": if the adjective modifies the noun too energetically, it undermines the nature of the thing. "Football's the most violent sport," Leach says. "And because of that, the most intense and emotional." Truth is, he loves the violence. ("Aw, yeah, the violence is awesome. That's the best part.") Back in the early 1980's, when he was a student at B.Y.U., he spotted a poster for a seminar, "Violence in American Sports." It was given by a visiting professor who bemoaned the influence of football on the American mind. To dramatize the point, the professor played a video of especially shocking blows delivered in college and pro football. "It had all the great hits in football you remembered and wanted to see again," Leach recalls. "Word got around campus that this guy had this great tape, and the place was jammed. Everybody was cheering the hits. I went twice."
...
Mike Leach, 44, entered the locker room with the quizzical air of a man who has successfully bushwhacked his way through a jungle but isn't quite sure what country he has emerged into. "When you first meet him," Jarrett Hicks, a junior wide receiver, told me, "you think he's an equipment manager." Leach's agent, Gary O'Hagan of I.M.G., who represents dozens of other big-time college and N.F.L. coaches, put it this way, "He's so different from every other football coach it's hard to understand how he's a coach."
Leach shouted, "All right, everybody up!" Seventy players pushed into the middle of the room and bent down on one knee. ("That's the great thing about football," Leach says. "All you gotta do is yell.")
Leach isn't really sure that there's anything a coach can say to football players minutes before a game that will inspire them to put aside their pain and their problems and play their best. He thinks that revenge is a silly motive and that waxing poetic on how history will judge you is distracting. Two weeks earlier, his team was ranked seventh in the country but then lost badly to the University of Texas, the nation's No. 2 team, which ended Texas Tech's surprising shot at a national championship. Now they were 7-1, ranked 15th and still within sniffing distance of a major bowl game. Not worth mentioning, in Leach's view.
"Everyone find someone," he yelled. Hands sought hands and clasped. The room swelled with the disturbingly deep rumble of 70 football players speaking in unison. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.. . .("Basically I'm a religious person, but with some clear obedience and discipline issues," Leach says.) "All right," he cried, after the Lord's Prayer. "Three things." He jumped up onto a little green stool and looked down on his players, all larger than he. "Do your job. DO - YOUR - JOB!"
He was talking to the entire team, but his mind was on the offense, which Leach coordinates, unlike most head coaches. He watches the tape, draws up the game plan, schools the quarterbacks and calls the plays.
"No. 2," he said, "play together with great tempo."
He had been harping on tempo all week: he thinks the team that wins is the team that moves fastest, and the team that moves fastest is the team that wants to. He believes that both failure and success slow players down, unless they will themselves not to slow down. "When they fail, they become frustrated," he says. "When they have success, they want to become the thinking-man's football team. They start having these quilting bees, these little bridge parties at the line of scrimmage." His 45-second pregame speech set a certain tempo, but he had one final thing to say:
"Your body is your sword. Swing your sword."
Each off-season, Leach picks something he is curious about and learns as much as he can about it: Geronimo, Daniel Boone, whales, chimpanzees, grizzly bears, Jackson Pollock. The list goes on, and if you can find the common thread, you are a step ahead of his football players. One year, he studied pirates. When he learned that a pirate ship was a functional democracy; that pirates disciplined themselves; that, loathed by others, they nevertheless found ways to work together, the pirate ship became a metaphor for his football team. Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates. Leach read from his favorite pirate history, "Under the Black Flag," by David Cordingly (the passages about homosexuality on pirate ships had been crossed out). The analogy to football held up for a few minutes, but after a bit, it was clear that Coach Leach was just . . . talking about pirates. The quarterback Cody Hodges says of his coach: "You learn not to ask questions. If you ask questions, it just goes on longer."
Hodges knows - the players all do - that their coach is a walking parenthesis, without a companion to bracket his stray thoughts. They suspect, but aren't certain, that his wide-ranging curiosity benefits their offense. Of all the things motivating Texas Tech to beat Texas A.&M. this night, however, the keenest may have been the desire to avoid another lecture about pirates. Even now, their beloved coach had his left arm in the air, wielding his imaginary sword.
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Dec '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Oh my goodness- Mike Leach is my hero- my most revered NCAA coach!!
For the first and only time in my life, my "letter to the editor" was published in the NYT Magazine on 12/18/05 based upon Michael Lewis' excellent article about Leach's bold, unorthodox approach to offense at Texas Tech.
And for shame, there is a certain Rico member living in Lubbock who I have beseeched persistently to post on this man; perhaps he'll take up the gauntlet now? :))
Jun '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
When your opponent doesn't see you getting worn out, it's very demoralizing for them.
May '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Many people think the best coach in any sport ever was John Wooden. The contrast with Leach is significant but I bet Leach leaves his players with anecdotes and lessons on life that they will ponder for the rest of their lives.
Aug '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
I understand that Mike Leach's capacity or flair for irritating people is so extensive and intensive that the Texas Tech alumni booster club in Hobbs, New Mexico banned him from visiting. You'd never guess it to look at Hobbs, New Mexico, but it seems folks there sternly review their entertainment options.
Jul '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Leach is a genius and will put the roar back in the Cougars who have had some glory days with Drew Bledsoe (much he needed a transfusion) and then the ill fated Ryan Leaf. TT has missed the man and his firing over a relatively minor issue with a primadonna triggered a down turn in the Red Raider program.
On an important side note. No one but one contributes as much to animal conservation and habitat as hunters. PETA and Sierra Club lunatics are fools we should not suffer. I have no desire to shoot a bear but think my friends who have are cool dudes.
Edited on August 23, 2012 at 1:26amDec '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Meh.
I seem to recall my Gators actually won the national championship with this mysterious spread offense, around that time.
Meanwhile, I will make my annual plug for a team to watch in pro ball, (as most college allegiences are set). Watch the Jacksonville Jaguars, if you are interested in philosophies and coaches. One tid-bit, that may attract some notice. Coach Mularkey donates $250 to the Ronald MacDonald House and the team matches it, whenever a player hands the ball to the referee, instead of spiking/dancing. It has an impact. Hand the ball to the ref, act like you have been there before, then go celebrate with your teammates.
Jul '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
CJRun, Gabbert to Blackmon could be a fantasy hit.
Dec '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Here's the original article that so intrigued my imagination:
Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep - New ... - The New York Times
May '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Mike Leach on players' girlfriends
Aug '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
I hope Leech revives WSU since none of the good teams in the PAC12 will play my BYU Cougars since they don't want to get beat (even long time rival Utah is dropping them from the schedule).
Dec '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
I promise- my last comment on this thread- but I so wanted to highlight this observation from one of Leach's former TT players:
Cody Hodges, who has spent the last four years marveling at Leach's in-game refusal to accept that his offense might have to be so conservative as to punt, says, "There's been lots of times I'm on the sidelines, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, we're going for it!' We went for it on fourth and 5 on our own 23 - in the first quarter. We went for it once on fourth and 18 - and we were ahead."
Just gotta love it!
Edited on August 23, 2012 at 2:13amJul '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Here you go Cal and UCLA,
And CJRun, those gators were so very very long ago. There's only one SEC and national champ hope this year in the conference and it ain't a your gators.
Jul '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
EThompson: I promise- my last comment on this thread- but I so wanted to highlight this observation from one of Leach's former TT players:
Cody Hodges, who has spent the last four years marveling at Leach's in-game refusal to accept that his offense might have to be so conservative as to punt, says,"There's been lots of times I'm on the sidelines, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, we're going for it!' We went for it on fourth and 5 on our own 23 -in the first quarter. We went for it once on fourth and 18 -and we were ahead."
Just gotta love it! · 31 minutes ago
Edited 31 minutes ago
Keep posting! There's only so many nutcases that like this stuff here.
Dec '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
DocJay
EThompson: I promise- my last comment on this thread- but I so wanted to highlight this observation from one of Leach's former TT players:
Cody Hodges, who has spent the last four years marveling at Leach's in-game refusal to accept that his offense might have to be so conservative as to punt, says,"There's been lots of times I'm on the sidelines, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, we're going for it!' We went for it on fourth and 5 on our own 23 -in the first quarter. We went for it once on fourth and 18 -and we were ahead."
Just gotta love it!
Keep posting! There's only so many nutcases that like this stuff here.
Whew... I'm so glad I'm not alone.
Sep '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
The sonofagun who got Leach fired at Tech somehow thought he would be an excellent US Senator. Thankfully, the vast majority of my fellow Texans send him a strong message his candidacy was not wanted.
Jun '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Hard for me to get excited about college coaches. Most of them have a two-fold core competence: kissing high school athlete/parent tochis, then intimidating them into performing once they're locked in at a school. That said, Leach at least entertains and doesn't take himself too seriously.
Aug '12
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
I'm surprised Leach did not latch onto an NFL team. I think my Chicago Bears could have been much better off with him rather than that doofus Martz, in spite of Leach shooting a brown bear(!). I'm almost tempted to vote for him for President - he'd hit the ground running and it would tick off a few liberals.
Jun '11
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Less than three percent in Lubbock County, 3.5 statewide.
Mar '12
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
Tim, thank you for posting this.
I believe it was GK Chesterton who compared the insane who saw in everything a conspiracy (locked in the orbit of a single idea), and the sane person who was able to kick the grass as he was out walking. The sane man's mind was open. The insane man's mind was closed.
While Ricochet is ostensibly a center/right website, and therefore political in nature, its participants should be able to appreciate a coach who brings obscure players into championship contention by the brilliance of his mind. That appeals to the sane part of me. I don't want to think about politics 24/7. That would make me both insane and a liberal. Why a liberal? Because liberals are practical atheists who have no redemption once death claims them. If it is important, they have to get it done here and now.
Being a Catholic who enjoys football, at least well played football, I have hope beyond this life, and I still love Joe Montana and those 49er teams which contended for championships; and even the great John Wooden and his Bruin basketball teams.
Thank you again.
Edited on August 23, 2012 at 4:18pmDec '10
Re: The Most Interesting Coach in the World, Mike Leach
You're right, DocJay. My Gators are past tense, these days, after so many changes and years. My point was that while TT was using the spread offense, so were others, and they actually won the national championship doing so, so it was hardly obscure.
I'm more of a pro ball fan, as it isn't so hectic and unpredictable. I prefer not to hang my hat on the Slinky that is college ball. Jacksonville is going to be a growing force, that's my guess. They just seem to be doing everything right and they have wonderful players and coaches.
I will be glued to my laptop, tomorrow night, as they take on the Ravens in the 3rd preseason game. The third game is the one that starters play the most time and, it's the Ravens - a very tough defensive team. I'll be watching here. It's a cheap plan the NFL offers for viewing every preseason game. Please join me!