The Leach Method: why no one else tries it

[Jacie]

In 2008, Tech's qb was Graham Harrell. QB Rating=160.0, 442 completions(1) in 626 attempts(1) for 5111 yards(1), 393.2 ypg(1), and 45 touchdowns(3)

In 2007, Tech's qb was Graham Harrell. QB Rating=157.3, 512 completions(1) in 713 attempts(1) for 5705 yards(1), 438.8 ypg(1), and 48 touchdowns(1)

In 2006, Tech's qb was Graham Harrell. QB Rating=145.5, 412 completions(1) in 617 attempts(1) for 4555 yards(3), 350.4 ypg(3), and 38 touchdowns(2)

In 2005, Tech's qb was Cody Hodges. QB Rating=148.3, 353 completions(1) in 531 attempts(1) for 4238 yards(2), 353.2 ypg(2), and 31 touchdowns(4)

In 2004, Tech's qb was Sonny Cumbie. QB Rating=138.5, 421 completions(1) in 642 attempts(1) for 4742 yards(1), 395.2 ypg(1), and 32 touchdowns(t-5)

In 2003, Tech's qb was B.J. Symons. QB Rating=151.3, 470 completions(1) in 719 attempts(1) for 5833 yards(1), 448.7 ypg(1), and 52 touchdowns(1)

Numbers in ( ) are their rank versus all Division 1 qb's that season.

So why hasn't even one other coach tried to do what Mike Leach does, given the statistical edge his teams have enjoyed in the passing game?

[JLEW1818]

how many big 12 championships has he won? BCS ?

[ashley]

The point is that they have done better than they should have. TT is not on an even playinf field with a few of the other big 12 schools.

[Eielson]

I think we've already seen the best we will see from Tech. They win lots of games, but not championships. They are pretty much an 8-10 win team, nothing more. Yes, some teams would be excited to do that well, but most teams won't be able to do it as well as them.

[soonerinabilene]

Im glad they are losing a lot of guys from this past team, because the QB taking over for Harrell, Taylor Potts, is a freaking stud, and would be deadly with the weapons they had this year.

[hobbes2702]

The problem that Tech faces is the inability to get athletes on the defensive side of the ball. They can get players that aren't as athletic and put them in the offensive system and they can excel. They simply cannot recruit well enough to steal enough athletes from OU/TEX/LSU/A&M.

[soonermix]

its not that leach can't get athelets on the defensive side of the ball its that he just doesn't.
he recruites nothing but offensive players.
those that that can't catch = db's and lb's
those that forget the snap count = DL
and the qb's that can't throw = ball boys

[Jason White's Third Knee]

So, in conclusion no one runs Leach's scheme because Tech has peaked and they can't recruit.

Okie doke.

[OUTrumpet]

I'd say it's more like it places your defense in bad situations too many times. Not a good way to manage a game.

Yes, you'll blow teams out that have lesser talent or coaching.

There is a reason why Tech has never beaten OU and Texas in the same season.

Look back at 2007 when we almost came back on them despite being down 35-7. There were times when they would throw (incomplete) throw (incomplete) throw (incomplete) punt and less than 20 game clock seconds would come off. The offense is also so fast paced, it's really easy to get the defensive side of the ball worn out, especially if the offense gets knocked out of rythym.

[ashley]

I say it is because they are limited with the type of defensive players, period, no fancy philsophies.

[JLEW1818]

Just imagine if a team in the SEC ran this... that is why i was hoping leach would go to Tennessee... give them fits.

[BoulderSooner79]

One of the reasons it works for tech is because they are not perennial contenders for the conference title. If they were, then the other teams would be forced to come up with defensive schemes to try to compete with them. As it is now, most teams must try to find a way to beat OU or UT to get to the next level. There is a similar effect with the military academies running the wishbone. It is gimmicky and it gets them more wins than they would get otherwise because their opponents only see it once a year and have bigger fish to fry. If Georgia Tech becomes a big threat in the ACC, the other ACC teams will figure out a way to defend to bone very quickly.

[OUTrumpet]

I say it is because they are limited with the type of defensive players, period, no fancy philsophies.

Even with the athletes we had on defense last year we gave up quite a few points. I think after the KSU game we were giving up a score on one in 6 or 7 touches...and we were still giving up 28 points a game.

Tech gives the opponents a lot of opportunities for possessions.

If Leach goes to another school he will continue to have the same problems with defense with this same scheme.

[ashley]

If he went to a top 15 program with a great location he could eaisly get the defensive players he needs to compliment his offense. Don't kid yourself, it is all about players.

[royalfan5]

I'm pretty sure there ain't that much difference between what Leach does, and what June Jones does.

[snp]

I'm pretty sure there ain't that much difference between what Leach does, and what June Jones does.

The Airraid offense differs slightly from the Run N Shoot. More sprint/rollouts in the RNS and protection schemes differ but they're very similar.

University of Houston runs the Airraid - former Tech OC Dana Holgerson brought it there and had a great first season. Some pretty talented WR, returning QB, and a quality RB should mean that UH will be very potent on offense again next year.

[goingoneight]

How quickly we forget what won us the 2000 National Championship.

[BoulderSooner79]

The defense sealed the deal in 2000. The offense was starting to tail off at the end of the year for whatever reason.

[RedstickSooner]

The biggest reason nobody tries the system is that coaches are basically cowardly lemmings and won't adopt wholesale changes to a system until enough other coaches have done so that the changes are no longer revolutionary. In other words, four or five coaches at podunk schools have to successfully adopt Leach's approach before any "real" coaches are gonna try it.

Frankly, the fact that so many major Division 1 programs have failed to try to hire Leach shows how moribund the sport is. He's coaching at a crap school with no built-in recruiting strength, yet he is consistently posting very strong results while coaching in the toughest division of college football (the big 12 south).

Come up with all the explanations for why his system clearly sucks (in spite of its objective accomplishments) you want, fact is, nobody has done more with less for longer than Leach. Give him an average Tejas or Oklahoma squad of defensive players, and he'd probably be in the championship discussion every season.

The only legitimate critique you could make is that, as a "gimmick" offense, his system only works until it bumps up against a certain overall team talent level, and then falls apart. Sort of like how our 80s team was superb until we hit the team speed of Miami, at which point our offense simply couldn't function because that speed shrunk the field too far.

Even then, I can't help wondering if he got the talent upgrade which would come with a gig at a real school, if his system might also improve in terms of who it could beat. The fact that none of those schools have hired him to find out shows that they're all cut from the same cloth of mediocrity.

For all the talk of innovation, football is an astonishingly conservative and dogmatic sport. Being a pragmatist like Leach, in such an environment, almost makes you some kind of wild-eyed heretic. At least by comparison.

What's more, those of you dismissing Leach's offense as being a gimmick which could never win the big game are conveniently forgetting history. His offense already won the national championship -- or do you really think the plays Heupel called at the line were things he learned from Mangino?

In football, the greatest fear is (seemingly) to be called a fool. So, while running the same offense as every other team may be foolish when there's a superior alternative out there, nobody calls you a fool for doing just like everyone else (even if it might be foolish). But if you try to innovate and it fails, they'll delight in pointing out how stupid it was to experiment. This fear is, I believe, what keeps Leach where he is.

And, yes, if more teams ran his offense and teams started to truly prepare for it, he'd lose some potency... But even in the Big-12 south, where we all have to play him every season, he's beating us and Tejas fairly often. So, clearly, it's not exactly *easy* to counter what he's doing.

[badger]

His bowl record at Tech is 5-4. However, he's taken his teams to bowl every year he's coached at Tech.

As for his Big 12 record, he's never finished below 4th in the South. Four times, his teams have been ranked, with his highest ranking at No. 12 last season.

I do not buy the argument that he cannot get recruits at Tech. He is in the state of Texas, for cripes sake. EVERYONE can get quality recruits out of Texas, even if you are the fifth, sixth, seventh choice of the top recruits. This is why schools are only allowed to sign about 20-25 guys every year, so that everyone can get a chance to get good athletes... and so good athletes don't end up sitting on the bench.

Ugh, I got off on a Mikey tangent there. To just simply answer the thread's questions of WHY nobody does the Leach method, it's simple: Most college coaches have played the college game. There are only, like five coaches or so that haven't - Fightin' Mangina, Fatty Weis, the Ga Tech guy, the Dukie that failed at Ole Miss, the liar... ok, I guess that makes six including Mikey.

The reason nobody thinks like Mikey or would want to is their own playing experience. Quite frankly, Texas Tech ball reminds me of guys playing Playstation or XBox. :D

[Jason White's Third Knee]

His bowl record at Tech is 5-4. However, he's taken his teams to bowl every year he's coached at Tech.

As for his Big 12 record, he's never finished below 4th in the South. Four times, his teams have been ranked, with his highest ranking at No. 12 last season.

I do not buy the argument that he cannot get recruits at Tech. He is in the state of Texas, for cripes sake. EVERYONE can get quality recruits out of Texas, even if you are the fifth, sixth, seventh choice of the top recruits. This is why schools are only allowed to sign about 20-25 guys every year, so that everyone can get a chance to get good athletes... and so good athletes don't end up sitting on the bench.

Ugh, I got off on a Mikey tangent there. To just simply answer the thread's questions of WHY nobody does the Leach method, it's simple: Most college coaches have played the college game. There are only, like five coaches or so that haven't - Fightin' Mangina, Fatty Weis, the Ga Tech guy, the Dukie that failed at Ole Miss, the liar... ok, I guess that makes six including Mikey.

The reason nobody thinks like Mikey or would want to is their own playing experience.

I DO by the argument that he can't get quality recruits... or at least not many. The top few guys (and there are always a select few) are never going to Tech over UT or OU. TT will never have the depth to over come attrition on a regular basis. Our programs are far more attractive via history and facilities. Couple that with TT being in Lubbock and you have a tough recruiting hill to climb. The will get some decent players, but not like the top programs will.

[RedstickSooner]

I think, as a team which has been getting top talent out of Texas for much of, what, the past half century? We're a bit spoiled. Yes, Texas is full of talent -- but to suggest that simply by virtue of being a college team in Texas, you're automatically gonna fill your roster with stellar athletes... Well, I strongly disagree.

The dregs of Texas are not much better than the dregs of anywhere else. Once the good schools like Tejas and Oklahoma have had their pick, and a handful of players have gone out of state, the leftovers, while far more gifted than I am, certainly won't be on par with what the elite 1-A schools have to work with.

If the players Mike Leach works with were so awesome, we would've been after them. I truly feel that it isn't so much that they were great to begin with (although some argue, and I'll admit they probably have some merit to their arguments, that he's also really good at spotting talent) as it is that he has put together a system that works really well.

And, it's interesting to bring up the whole angle that because he didn't play the game, he seems to coach it sort of like a guy playing on the X-Box. I think you very well could be right: And maybe that's a good thing. Video game players play very differently. For one thing, if a play works, they run it over and over again. Which isn't "realistic", because, y'know, if you really did that, then obviously the defense would pick up on it and shut you down.

Only... Leach does that, and, well, most of the time it works.

Honestly seems to be one of his greatest strength -- he ignores all the "rules" about football and just coaches based on the notion that it something works, it's a good idea.

Which is kinda refreshing to me. And maybe it's another part of why he gets ignored in the larger discussion: What he's doing isn't supposed to succeed. So if they just pretend he's not there, they can go on pretending that conventional wisdom is correct, even when it ain't :D

[badger]

And, it's interesting to bring up the whole angle that because he didn't play the game, he seems to coach it sort of like a guy playing on the X-Box.

Search your feelings, you KNOW it to be true :D

Top recruits or not, the thread's about why nobody coaches like Leach and I think that him never playing college ball himself has a lot to do with it... oh, and another factor is that he is Mikey and he has a quirky personality. You could have a normal person (like Mark Mangino, who a lot of Americans can probably relate to) and have a different coaching style even if you didn't play college ball. However, the quirky factor in addition to not playing college ball himself leads me to think that nobody else will ever coach like him, not even his assistant coaches or players should they go on to lead their own programs.

But, so long as you're questioning my recruiting statement, remember that recruiting is not about seeing which players have five stars (or four, or even three) next to their name on rivals and trying to go after them. It's about finding the best athletes for your program (and Mikey's program is weird to begin with, so he's not going to go after traditional recruits!). If he can't find players that can play the style he wants to play in the football hotbed Texas, then something is wrong. So far, he's done that quite well.

[ashley]

Don't kid yourself, he goes after the same top guys everyone is after, he usually can't beat tu, OU, and the rest of the top destinations. Just because they don't go there doesn't mean he is not after them.