Tulsa World: A coach of substance

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A coach of substance

Mike Leach has guided the Red Raiders to eight straight bowl appearances, winning five. Associated Press file

By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
Published: 11/6/2008 2:18 AM
Last Modified: 11/6/2008 3:23 AM

Quirky Leach has built a national force

During Mike Leach's nine-season run at Texas Tech, there has been as much media coverage of his unique personality as of his football program.

Leach is a head coach who doesn't take himself too seriously.

He is a graduate of the Pepperdine University law school. He is a California native who coached in Finland for one year. He can converse intelligently on subjects ranging from pirates to politics to rock music.

In his office at Jones AT&T Stadium, Leach has a 6-foot robotic pirate.

"I know that he likes pirates," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. "Mike and I have talked quite a bit, but I don't think we've ever discussed football. We talk about everything other than football. He's an interesting guy."

Said Red Raider quarterback Graham Harrell: "I go meet with (Leach) every day, and every day there's a new story. We talk about pirates or whatever his new interest of the week might be."

Leach's foremost "interest of the week" is formulating a game plan for Saturday's 7 p.m., ABC-televised Big 12 clash with Oklahoma State in Lubbock.

"Oklahoma State," Leach quipped, "is now the biggest game in the history of this year."

This season, substance is equal to style at Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are 9-0 overall, 5-0 in the Big 12 and are No. 2 both in the Associated Press Top 25 and Bowl Championship Series standings.

OSU (8-1, 4-1) is No. 8 in the AP poll and No. 9 in the BCS.

Leach's Red Raiders are typical in that they lead the nation in passing, rank second in total offense and third in scoring.

With Leach coordinating the offense, Tech always ranks among national leaders in those categories.

But this Texas Tech team also plays respectable defense and last week celebrated the most important victory in school history — a 39-33 triumph over then-No. 1-ranked Texas, with Red Raider wide receiver Michael Crabtree scoring on a 28-yard pass play with one second left.

After facing OSU, the Red Raiders play at sixth-ranked Oklahoma on Nov. 22.

"For quite some time, me and other coaches in the Big 12 have felt that the Big 12 is the best conference in the country," Leach said. "I think it is, although I guess the SEC is right there.

"Whoever is going to end up being the worst team in the Big 12, they're a tough team, too. They're tougher than a whole bunch of people in other conferences."

In 1998, Oklahoma was 107th nationally in passing and 101st in scoring. In 1999, the Sooners had a new head coach (Bob Stoops), a new offensive coordinator (Leach) and a new quarterback (Josh Heupel). Leach installed his spread passing attack and the results were sensational. The Sooners were ninth nationally in passing and eighth in scoring. Leach's offense set six Big 12 records and 17 school records.

After that 1999 season, Leach was hired at Texas Tech.

His Red Raider teams have made eight consecutive bowl appearances (winning in five of them) and his overall record stands at 74-37.

Including the current season, Texas Tech has led the nation in passing in six of the last seven years.

"I guess maybe some people underestimate him as a coach because of what is perceived as his quirkiness," Heupel, now OU's quarterbacks coach, said of Leach. "But he does as good a job as anybody (of) running a program.

"He's a very smart guy. There's a rhyme or reason behind everything he's doing."

Spike Dykes, Leach's head-coaching predecessor at Texas Tech, said he is "amazed" by Leach's success in Lubbock.

"He's like a mad scientist, and I don't mean that in a derogatory fashion," Dykes told the Houston Chronicle. "He's not afraid to try anything."

The 47-year-old Leach has been viewed as a passing-game genius but doesn't seem to have been considered a real coaching heavyweight. When a Nebraska or LSU type of job has been vacant, Leach's name rarely was included on candidate lists.

Decision-makers at Tennessee, Clemson and Washington are in the process of searching for new head coaches.

Would an old-school SEC program like Tennessee consider a candidate who would take to Knoxville a robotic pirate and an outrageously prolific passing offense?

As a preemptive strike, Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said he plans to renegotiate Leach's contract.

Baylor coach Art Briles, who was on the Texas Tech staff in 2000-03, says Leach didn't need the Texas victory or a No. 2 ranking to be validated as an elite head coach.

"I think his reputation has been good prior to this," Briles said. "He has certainly earned the credibility that goes with being a very successful head coach."

Bill Haisten 581-8397
bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com

THE LEACH ERA

Facts and figures related to the nine-season Mike Leach era at Texas Tech:

Texas Tech has recorded at least eight wins each of the last six seasons. The Red Raiders made a bowl appearance in each of Leach’s first eight seasons on the job.

Tech’s 9-0 start is the school’s best since 1938.

The Red Raiders have an 11-game win streak —the longest in Division I-A.

With Leach coordinating the offense, Texas Tech quarterbacks have thrown for 43,177 yards — or 24.5 miles.

Leach’s offense has produced 340 touchdown passes in nine seasons. In 20 seasons before his arrival, Texas Tech had 232 TD passes.

Since the start of the 2003 season, Texas Tech has a home record of 31-5.

The Red Raiders have scored at least 30 points in 25 of their last 27 games, including the last 13 in a row.

This year, for the first time in the program’s 84-year history, Texas Tech sold all of its season tickets. Saturday’s game against Oklahoma State, at 52,882-seat Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, already has been declared a sellout.

By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer

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conserv-o-king, (11/6/2008 1:06:11 PM)

I wonder what Bear Bryant would think of Leach's football philosophy and/or mechanical pirate.

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