Former college football coach Mike Leach will be a prominent Saturday figure for Texas Tech and Washington State football.
The Red Raiders will visit the Cougars in a non-conference matchup at 9 p.m. CT Saturday. Before the match at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington, Leach will be posthumously inducted into the Washington State Athletic Hall of Fame. Leach was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame last November.
The legendary coach, who died on Dec. 12, 2022, from a heart attack, coached both teams during his impressive college career, coaching Texas Tech from 2000-09 and Washington State from 2012-19 before finishing his career with Mississippi State from 2020-22.
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Leach pioneered the Air Raid offense, which has become popular in college football. Throughout his coaching career, he earned the nickname "The Pirate."
The meeting will be the first between the programs since 1964 and the third ever. The Red Raiders won the inaugural matchup 16-7 on Sept. 21, 1963, and followed it up with a 28-10 win on Nov. 14, 1964. Both matchups occurred in Lubbock, Texas. This marks the first matchup between the two in Pullman.
Here's what you need to know about Leach, his coaching stats, records, his Air Raid offense, his nickname and more:
Leach began his coaching career under legendary coach Hal Mumme and his Air Raid passing tree with stops at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, and Kentucky together. The duo coached future NFL No. 1 overall pick Tim Couch, who is among his early QB successes.
The air raid offense is predicated upon what is called "10 personnel," or one running back and no tight ends with four wide receivers on the field. It is designed to put receivers in space and is the template for some of the top offenses in the country. The air raid offense sees quarterbacks releasing the ball quickly, so as to mitigate the pressure defenses can inevitably get on a QB operating in the system.
When former Steve Spurrier defensive coordinator Bob Stoops took over as Oklahoma's head coach in 1999, he hired Leach as his offensive coordinator. Under Leach, the Sooners' offense went from 11th-ranked in the Big 12 conference to first. He parlayed that success into the head coaching job at Texas Tech in 2000. One season after Leach departed for Lubbock, the Sooners won the 2000 national championship.
Leach's offenses have led the FBS in passing yards per game 10 times during his career, including his final two at Washington State. According to ESPN , coaches nationwide made trips to Lubbock to pick Leach's brain and learn about his offense and its success.
Leach's coaching tree features several prominent coaches, although some of the biggest names are players.
Sonny Dykes, a former assistant at Texas Tech, now leads a different Texas program in TCU. Baylor's Dave Aranda is also a Leach disciple (though his focus is defensive). USC's Lincoln Riley both played for and coached under The Pirate. Oklahoma offensive coordinator and former North Texas head coach Seth Littrell is also a former Leach protege.
Some notable former players under Leach include West Virginia's Neal Brown, Tennessee's Josh Heupel, and free agent Kliff Kingsbury.
Leach earned the nickname "The Pirate" partly due to his fascination with swashbucklers and the fact he decorated his offices with pirate paraphernalia. In an interview with ESPN's Mark Schlabach in 2008, Leach said his fascination with pirates for much of his adult life.
"Pirates function as a team," Leach said. "There were a lot of castes and classes in England at the time. But with pirates, it didn't matter if you were black, white, rich or poor. The object was to get a treasure. If the captain did a bad job, you could just overthrow him."
According to a 2005 New York Times profile of Leach b y Michael Lewis, the writer of the book 'Moneyball,' Leach used his offseason to learn about specific non-sports topics that interest him. One offseason, pirates were his topic of choice. Leach even delivered a three-hour lecture to his A&M players one year on the history of pirates.
Leach was hired as the Red Raiders coach on Dec. 9, 1999, after his success with Oklahoma in the Big 12. Leach led Texas Tech to three nine-win seasons in 2002, 2005, and 2007. The Red Raiders' best season under Leach came in 2008, when, behind quarterback Graham Harrell and wide receiver Michael Crabtree , Texas Tech finished the regular season 11-1 and reached the Cotton Bowl.
Texas Tech fired Leach on Dec. 30, 2009, after an investigation of alleged inappropriate treatment of Adam James after James suffered a concussion.
2000 (Texas Tech):7-6, 3-5 Big 12
2001 (Texas Tech):7-5, 4-4 Big 12
2002 (Texas Tech):9-5, 5-3 Big 12
2003 (Texas Tech):8-5, 4-4 Big 12
2004 (Texas Tech):8-4, 5-3 Big 12
2005 (Texas Tech):9-2, 6-2 Big 12
2006 (Texas Tech):8-5, 4-4 Big 12
2007 (Texas Tech):9-4, 4-4 Big 12
2008 (Texas Tech):11-2, 7-1 Big 12 (Conference co-champions)
2009 (Texas Tech):8-4, 5-3 Big 12
After two seasons from coaching, Leach was hired as the Washington State football coach on November 30, 2011. He coached WSU football from 2012-19 and helped lead the Cougars to a program-record five straight bowl games. In his second to last season in Pullman, he led the Cougars to an 11-win season, which concluded with a 28-26 victory over Iowa State in the 2018 Alamo Bowl.
The 11-win season came after Leach brought in East Carolina transfer Garnder Minshew to lead the Cougars' passing attack. Behind Minshew and Leach, Washington State reached as high as No. 7 in the AP poll during the season.
While Leach's last coach game for the Cougars came in 2019, a couple of players, kicker Dean Janikowski and linebacker Kyle Thornton, remain on the roster from when Leach coached.
2012 (Washington State):3-9, 1-8 Pac-12
2013 (Washington State):6-7, 4-5 Pac-12
2014 (Washington State):3-9, 2-7 Pac-12
2015 (Washington State):9-4, 6-3 Pac-12
2016 (Washington State):8-5, 7-2 Pac-12
2017 (Washington State):9-4, 6-3 Pac-12
2018 (Washington State):11-2, 7-2 Pac-12
2019 (Washington State):6-7, 3-6 Pac-12
Here's a look at Leach's coaching career, which began with the Red Raiders in 2000 and continued until he died in 2022 while with Mississippi State.
Overall:158-106
Texas Tech:84-43
Washington State:55-47
Mississippi State:19-16
TV channel: FOX
Livestream: Fubo (free trial)
The Red Raiders and Cougars will face off in a nationally televised matchup on FOX. Tim Brando (play-by-play) and Devin Gardner (analyst) will be on the call, while Josh Sims will be the sideline reporter. The game can also be streamed on Fubo , which offers potential subscribers a free trial.
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Mike Leach: Record, stats, nickname for former Texas Tech, Washington State coach
