Mike Leach, Football Coach With an ‘Air Raid’ Offense, Dies at 61

Michael Charles Leach was born on March 9, 1961, in Susanville, Calif., in the northwest part of the state. His father, Frank, was a forester, and his mother, Sandra (Rich) Leach, was a homemaker.

He was raised mostly in Cody, Wyo., where he was on his high school football team. While attending Brigham Young University, he played rugby but kept an eye on the wide-open offense engineered by LaVell Edwards, B.Y.U.’s head football coach. He graduated in 1983.

He earned a master’s degree from the United States Sports Academy in Alabama and studied law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. But after getting his degree in 1986, he realized he did not want to be a lawyer. Instead, he told The Times, he wanted to use his talent for making legal arguments in devising offensive plays.

Leach began his coaching life as an assistant at California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo, in 1987. He moved to the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., the next year and then on to a European league, coaching a Finland team, in 1989, when Iowa Wesleyan College hired him. Its head coach, Hal Mumme, had developed what became the Air Raid offense.

Mumme, as head coach, and Leach, as offensive coordinator, together took that offense, with increasing success, to Valdosta State University in 1992 and the University of Kentucky in 1997, before Leach moved on his own to the University of Oklahoma.

With Leach as the offensive coordinator under Coach Bob Stoops, the Sooners rose in points scored per game from 101st in 1998 to sixth in 1999 in the top level of college football teams. The quarterback, Josh Heupel, threw for far more yards than any quarterback in Oklahoma’s history.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/sports/ncaafootball/mike-leach-dead.html