How One Coach Made Offenses Unstoppable

[@anthonyc8499]

What Leach did at WSU was amazing. He took a backwater PAC-12 school that struggled to land even 3-star talent and turned it into a perennial contender with a scrapyard dog mentality that was a joy to watch on Saturdays. The best Pirate Takes were the ones he gave during his time on the Palouse. We lost a national treasure when he passed. Rest in Peace Mike.

[@TheColtonStreeter]

I loved it because Wazzu was always the Dynasty I would rebuild on the NCAA games, NCAA06 made me a Washington State fan (OU fan first and foremost, Boomer Sooner!)

[@MarkMay-cr6bv]

Washington State was down when Mike Leach got there, but WSU was hardly a "backwater school." Jim Walden, Dennis Erickson and Mike Price among others all put together very good teams with plenty of future NFL players over the years.

[@tominator028]

@@MarkMay-cr6bvWashington state was 9-40 combined in the last 4 seasons before leach got there. Them and Kansas were the worst P5 teams at that time by a long shot.

[@gloriousleader3203]

@@MarkMay-cr6bv i'm a lifetime coug fan, and a two time coug grad (BA and MA). I'm not sure its fair to call any power 5 team a backwater, but if one of them was, it was WSU. absolutely impossible to recruit to, a tiny town made up of the students and a few thousand permanant residents, its about as backwater a power 5 school can get. We had moments of success, but so does every sports program that has existed for over 100 years.

[@CodyBroom-ml3tg]

As a Miss St fan it hurts to think what we could've done if he wouldn't have passed. Had a full roster of seniors coming off of an 8-4 season, we were ready to compete.

[@IsaacPunts]

Historically, you guys were about to be high conference contenders and probably have your schools best season up to now.

[@CodyBroom-ml3tg]

@IsaacPunts we were looking as good as we had since those 2014-15 years with Prescott, then Leach died and the new oc decided to go from an air raid to a run first pro style offense in one summer

[@dylandouglas4820]

Hail state. If Mullen had stayed one more year, and if Mike Leach would’ve made it one or two more, God bless him. Why Arnett brought in Kevin Barbay to run that offense is one of the seven wonders of the damn world

[@ChristopherMosley-dj3kt]

Miss State would have won ten plus games if he hadn't passed away

[@ChristopherMosley-dj3kt]

​@@CodyBroom-ml3tgwhy did Arnett do that?!? He ruined everything forcing that offense on that group

[@juanpatlan4437]

“There’s no such thing as good defense. Only bad offense.” -God speaking to Leach in a dream sometime in the 80s

[@Cowboybrian01]

I still can’t believe he was a lawyer that just decided to coach football one day. It’s awesome.

[@totallynotalpharius2283]

I’m convinced that Leach just coached football as a cover for a serious of hilarious legally nebulous misadventures

[@crackerbarreIkid55]

Great video Isaac, what a tribute to a great coach and hilarious man. RIP Mike

[@thebeauchinator]

You forgot to mention the fact that Mike Leach's offense is the sole offense run by 99% of Madden players.

[@nickinportland]

Non tech fans like to say oh y’all didn’t do anything with leach blah blah. But they don’t understand, we were having a fucking blast.

[@PurdueFansAnon]

That Texas game was an all time classic. That Crabtree TD was a capital-M Moment.

[@jimmytwoknives7007]

@@PurdueFansAnon Crabtree pulls free...one of the best nights in Lubbock during my time in college

[@gloriousleader3203]

Same at WSU. We never made it to the rose bowl, but it was such a wild and fun ride

[@lochfoster1514]

Leach is the reason I became a football coach.

[@rutgers182]

can you come to rutgers please lol

[@lochfoster1514]

@@rutgers182 Kirk Ciarrocca ain’t bad. I do wish he’d replicate some of that 2019 pass/run split.

[@Lithixleo342]

As a huskies fan the apple cups vs wazzu when Mike leach was at wazzu and Chris Peterson was at UW were so good man

[@georgelucas2571]

It was good because UW blew Leach and Wazzu out year after year. It was always an easy win going up against them.

[@MarkMiller-kz8nm]

As a WAZZU fan I can honestly say I had more fun in the Leach Era than any other time except for the 1997 Rose Bowl Team. He restored pride in WSU Football and gave us something to be excited about after that joke of a coach Paul Wulff who isn't smart enough to manage the graveyard shift at a Denny's let alone a major college football team. Coach Leach belongs in the CFB HOF. We miss you Coach..Thanks for all you did for the Cougs and Pullman, WA... May you Rest in Peace.

[@bwayne40004]

Colt's #15 was Earl Morrall, probably one of the best backup quarterbacks around when it came to getting to the Super Bowl. Great video.

[@54raynor]

To say Leach succeeded with nobodies under center dramatically understates what he did at Wazzu. Luke Falk came to Wazzu as a walk-on, and ended his tenure as the all-time leading passer in PAC history. Gardner Minshew was another former walk-on, and Wazzu was his fourth school after losing the starting job at East Carolina the previous year. Even his last QB, Anthony Gordon, had just one scholarship offer coming out of the JC ranks. And while he found success as a walk-on elsewhere, Leach was also the only P5 coach to offer Baker Mayfield a scholarship in high school.

[@HolySpicoli]

Three of these are NFL quarterbacks. He didn’t succeed with nobodies, he found great quarterbacks that were overlooked.

[@Nunya7211]

Don Coryell and Mike Leach are pretty much singlehandedly responsible for modern passing

[@hughgpauwels]

The Air Raid appeared in the natty this year even though Washington didnt win it. They did that sadly at the expense of my Texas Longhorns but its crazy to see just how much the influence of the air raid has grown

[@j-swae5105]

Former Iowa Wesleyan football player here (2022-23) school shut down my freshman year. We always will be known as the air raid counsel

[@josephlozano3143]

For sure

[@timblankenship3797]

SEC Media days with Saban, Leach and Kiffin was absolute magic

[@LokiBrokii]

RIP Mike.

[@PurdueFansAnon]

Would love a comparison between the Air Raid offense and the Houston Run and Shoot offense. Those guys put up some serious numbers.

[@peterbeardsley7475]

The run and shoot was very real predecessor to the air raid. The run and shoot was the brainchild of Tiger Ellison, college teammate of Woody Hayes, who ran it at the high school level. It heavily influenced BYU in the 80s, which was a huge influence on Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan.

[@xerosolar307]

Fantastic video, love me some good football history lesson

[@cory8080]

Coach Leach was the coach that gave me my first offer so he always has a special place in my heart. My opinion of the offense is it's perfect for places he coached but if the goal is national title contention then you should probably stay away from a pure air-raid offense.

[@WhatUp-hy8eb]

The reason his w/l record wasn’t better is because he viewed defense as the part of the game when the offense got to rest. While at tech, I dont know how many seasons we had a top 10 offense and bottom ten defense. The year Tech had an above average defense he won 11 games and beat 7 top 25 teams.

[@jeffreysmith5230]

The early 2000s big 12 were some fun times.

[@SleepyGrapes]

Saying that leach turned his teams into powerhouses is a pretty heavy overstatement considering he never won a conference title and only going to two conference title games his whole career, but his influence on the modern game is definitely huge and you see his influence everywhere in all levels of the game

[@odo27epic-cage83]

Leach was my childhood coach for my cougars and he’s truly iconic RIP

[@Marvint82]

Was at UK when he showed up with Mumme

[@philgod420]

Mike Leach gave Nebraska their most lopsided loss ever. 70-10.

[@trashcangus]

WVU SIGHTING AT THE BEGINNING ps you should do a video about the rise of the spread offense at WVU w Pat White that was a running heavy spread offense. One of my favorite teams ever

[@schergerbear]

He must have consulted those Harry Potter activists for air attack tips

[@jonathanfeldheim6554]

Another great video, sir. Would love to know what you think about Chip Kelly

[@ikepigott]

Great stuff. My only quibble is you just had Leach teleport to Wazzu, and ignored how he was railroaded out of Lubbock. (Not a lot of detail needed, just that he didn’t willingly run off from there.)

[@IsaacPunts]

I agree that I did kind of ignore his whole being forced out by the AD and a News anchor storyline, I just wanted to focus on football and he wasn't forced out because of really anything football (performance) related.

[@ikepigott]

@@IsaacPunts you do a great job, don’t get me wrong. And you shouldn’t have spent more than a sentence on it - way too many convoluted details to deep dive it. (Craig James cough cough five dead hookers cough allegedly cough cough in the trunk.) Leech was a legend. Tech could have changed the balance of the Big 12 had he stayed, but instead he spent time in coaching purgatory until Wazzu called.

[@gusbrewer770]

Opening line mentions Johnny U and is clearly Earl Morrall

[@Twin_ep]

Cody Campbell carrying him on the shoulders

[@SteveGee1986]

Actually, Doug Scovil, to Bill Walsh, to Hal Mumme. Then Mike Leach.

[@TheMimic12]

For anyone who would like more on this, the book "The Perfect Pass" is a more detailed look into the history of Mumme, Leach and the Air Raid

[@cwilson32123]

It’s my favorite football book, I probably reread it once a year. It’s kind of sad honestly, most assume Leach came up with the air raid on his own when really he was the apprentice to the true creator, Hal Mumme.

[@mraBJJ33]

My dad missed leach at texas tech every single year since he left. Kinda wish ypud have gone into why he got fired and the odd stuff surrounding that whole thing

[@firehammer7585]

Forget the Air Raid. What I want to know is: there is football in Poland?

[@jmgonzales7701]

even in japan

[@OneoftheCaesars]

Do you have anything about the rpo? Love your content bro

[@peterbeardsley7475]

Joe Paterno was running the RPO at Brown under Rip Engle back in the 40s. Today’s RPO is just that in more spread formations.

[@considerthetruth]

Can't talk about Mike Leach without mentioning Levell Edwards

[@itsmychannel]

Put. Him. In. The. Hall.

[@jonperry4863]

I haven’t watched all the way through but the “Air Coryell” offense was the originator of the air raid in the 1950s. They threw around 40-55 passes a game.

[@downinthebend2670]

Byu Lavell Edward's and the wcu were more direct ancestors of the air raid

[@jmgonzales7701]

damn thats alot

[@mightycw7309]

LaVell Edwards and Norm Chow broke the “balanced football” orthodoxy with a pass first attack at BYU years before Mumme and Leach. It’s more accurate to say Mumme adapted Norm Chow’s version of the west coast playbook in developing the Air Raid. This isn’t sour grapes btw; the air raid guys have always been open about the inspiration.

[@tkimcarolinas]

Not surprised at all. Wasn’t Leach a student at BYU when he saw Edward’s offense in full display.

[@nathanvandyke9951]

​@@tkimcarolinasyes he was, he was on the rugby team.

[@aarontracy5160]

Norms Offense was spectacular... at USC

[@HolySpicoli]

You are half right. But chow didn’t take over as OC until ‘96 so it’s more accurate to attribute the inspiration to Edwards. Too bad this video was so poorly researched or we might have better answers here.

[@cwilson32123]

Read SC Gwynn’s “the perfect Pass”. It goes deep into the history of the air raid. Basically Hal Mumme was OC at UTEP and wanted to create a pass first offense, he took concepts from Walsh’s West Coast, Lavell Edward’s BYU offenses and the run-and-shoot and merged them into a raw prototype air raid he tested out when he became HC at Copporas Cove HS. Eventually he got a HC job at Iowa Wesleyan where he met Leach and the two of them developed what eventually became the modern air raid

[@vanderbiltalexsingleton2041]

Rip king

[@re8746]

Texas Tech should never have run him off. The program has regressed.

[@bobbymunroe4363]

That’s Earl Morrell not Johnny Unitas.

[@JoeCab]

When you drop back to pass 5 things can happen and 4 of them are bad.

[@ddddd9665]

The core objective of the Air Raid offense is to minimize the likelihood of negative outcomes while capitalizing on the high EPA of successful pass plays. At the same time, it manipulates the defensive box count to open up opportunities in the running game.

[@williammoore1980]

This video is trying so hard to prove its point while shooting itself in the foot multiple times too.

[@porterwake3898]

So unstoppable he never won a conference title or national championship.

[@jprovorse4159]

Say hello to Art Briles.

[@lexerdaniel4843]

No one wants to like this but it is Briles’ system that many of the best offensive minds use today. But you’d be stupid to give him credit for anything after what he did.

[@jj3a1]

How can someone who never won a natty “break” CFB

[@IsaacPunts]

Simple, he never cared about defense, he broke offenses wide open and made the passing game jump forward like 50 years. But he as far as I could tell was never actually interested in winning big, he just wanted to score points

[@Cooe.]

1:00 Does the fun documentary talk about all his god awful racism? 🤦😑 Leach got his image whitewashed in death like no coach ever.

[@TheColtonStreeter]

Fun fact, Mike Leach never played football, remember this when someone assumes you cant see whats happening because you never played at an elite level.

[@L34VITT]

He played in high school, but never at the college level. A few D1 coaches around the years have as well, Chip Kelly and Jedd Fisch from Washington are a few that come to mind

[@rockerfarm6445]

Saban is the GOAT but Mike Leach is the GOAT of offense

[@IsaacPunts]

I would say there is a difference between being a phenomenal football mind compared to a phenomenal Coach, Saban compared to Leach exemplifies that

[@Muddybagclean]

Jesus Loves You

[@watcherofthewest8597]

Leach was a great coach. But Leach never came close to winning a national title. Throwing and spread O is the worse thing to happen to football ...bama, uga, michigan....all revent champuons, all huge and run ball with norhing special at qb....I live mike leach, but he was uniqe. Didn't break football

[@insurgencybuffoonery8065]

All of those teams run spread concepts lol

[@watcherofthewest8597]

@@insurgencybuffoonery8065 they sure do...but they also have some of biggest OL, best RBs and TEs in the country...and they use spread but can go 12 and 13 and 22 personnel sets as well. I know it's just a catchy title, but Leach didn't break or revolutionize championship winning football. He definitely had an influence on it though.

[@jmgonzales7701]

why such disdain for the passing game?

[@watcherofthewest8597]

@@jmgonzales7701 because little WRs and fancy QBs think they are so special cause all the rules got changed to allow the forward pass to take over....then coaches who were back qbs who never hit a pad in their life come into the game and call themselves QB gurus and make the pass even more prevalent. We use to have a badass game made up of the biggest badest linemen and running backs and line backs smashing in the mud and dust and blood of the trenches. Now we got whatever the hell football is now with penalties for touching and the dumbest kickoff rules changes that make things look awful

[@jmgonzales7701]

@@watcherofthewest8597 thats called murder. Also the passing game allowed more points. Lessen injuries. This is all thanks to the west coast system, more passing more exciting football. Also atleeast nowadays any body type can play football. Back then only tall mofo