The college football world woke up to devastating, heartbreaking news on Tuesday morning.
Mike Leach, one of the foremost innovators of the passing game in major college football in the 21st century, and the creator of a very large coaching tree that includes USC head coach Lincoln Riley died at age 61 after suffering a heart attack over the weekend.
Leach was the head coach at Texas Tech for 10 seasons. In 2002, he coached a walk-on quarterback named Lincoln Riley, who played behind a quarterback named Kliff Kingsbury. A member of the 2002 Texas Tech coaching staff was Sonny Dykes, who hired Garrett Riley — Lincoln’s younger brother — as his offensive coordinator at TCU. Garrett Riley was named the 2022 Broyles Award winner as college football’s best assistant coach. The Riley brothers coached the top two Heisman vote-getters this season, Caleb Williams (Lincoln) and Max Duggan (Garrett).
That came from Mike Leach’s influence and his teaching of passing concepts, which have spread throughout college football and revolutionized the sport.
Earlier in 2022, Lincoln Riley and Mike Leach both lost a friend they cared about: Dave Nichol, who was hired by Riley as USC receiver coach but died just months after taking the job. Nichol had to step away to tend to his own medical care, and he died in late March at age 45. Both Nichol and Riley worked for Mike Leach. Riley credits Nichol as a central, formative influence in coaching and a core reason he got into the profession. Mike Leach inspired Dave Nichol and moved him along the path in this industry.
Lincoln Riley, Sonny Dykes, and Dave Nichol are just three of the many former assistant coaches who learned how to teach offense from Mike Leach. That offers a sense of how vast Leach’s influence is.
It should also be noted that USC defensive coordinator and longtime Riley assistant Alex Grinch coached under Mike Leach at Washington State, serving as WSU’s defensive coordinator.
There will be more to say about Mike Leach … and Lincoln Riley will offer a reaction.
Our prayers are to Mike Leach, his family, and the many people he touched in his life.
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