Tag: Mike Leach

Kliff Kingsbury’s addition doesn’t mean Commanders will go all-in on Caleb Williams

Kliff Kingsbury’s connection to another one of the top three 2024 QB prospects.

When the Washington Commanders hired Kliff Kingsbury as offensive coordinator last week, the natural assumption was this move was made to make a play for Caleb Williams.

Williams, the USC quarterback and presumed No. 1 overall pick, has a close relationship with Kingsbury. Once the news broke of Kingsbury’s hiring, Williams congratulated him on Instagram. Their relationship began after Kingsbury was fired by the Cardinals and took on the position of senior offensive analyst at USC for his good friend, Lincoln Riley.

Here’s the problem with the Kingsbury/Williams theory: The Commanders have no control over whether they can pair Kingsbury with Williams. The Chicago Bears hold the No. 1 overall pick. They are likely to select Williams, leaving the Commanders to choose between quarterbacks Drake Maye (North Carolina) and Jayden Daniels (LSU) — both phenomenal prospects, too.

So, while it makes for good podcast chatter, so much must happen for it to become a reality. In all likelihood, new Washington coach Dan Quinn wanted to hire the best offensive mind possible to develop a young quarterback, and Kingsbury’s reputation with quarterbacks is outstanding.

After Washington hired Kingsbury, it also added former Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to a prominent role on staff. The Commanders also retained quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard, giving their young quarterbacks (a rookie and Sam Howell) multiple voices in 2024.

While Kingsbury doesn’t have a direct connection to Daniels — the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner — he does have one with Maye.

During Maye’s first two seasons at North Carolina, his offensive coordinator was Phil Longo — also Howell’s college offensive coordinator at UNC. Maye started two seasons, as he was Howell’s backup in 2021, and his best season was in 2022. That was Longo’s final season at North Carolina, as he left last offseason to be Luke Fickell’s new offensive coordinator at Wisconsin.

How does Longo figure into the mix with Kingsbury?

Longo was a high school coach in 1996 when he became fascinated with the Air Raid offense. So, one summer, he packed his bags and drove to Texas to learn from the offense from the great Mike Leach.

That was the start of a mentorship between Leach and Longo that lasted until Leach’s death in Dec. 2022.

Leach was also Kingsbury’s mentor, coaching him for three seasons at Texas Tech. Kingsbury broke numerous school and NCAA records while playing for Leach. It was during those trips to see Leach that Longo met Kingsbury.

In a story from Jesse Simonton for On3, he detailed Longo taking over as Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator last year. Longo talked about how he would talk offensive football and the Air Raid with Leach, Kingsbury and current Purdue offensive coordinator Graham Harrell every offseason until Leach passed away.

Around that same time, Kingsbury was fired as Arizona’s head coach.

“And then Kliff Kingsbury is the other one I love talking Xs and Os with and he’s was out galavanting around in Taiwan and overseas for a while,” Longo said last spring. “Neither one of them had been around as much at all, and it’s been a very quiet spring for me. It’s been so strange.”

Don’t you think Longo can offer Kingsbury some details on Maye — and Howell? Both have played in Longo’s version of the Air Raid.

This also doesn’t mean the Commanders will sell select Maye, either. But Kingsbury will have some inside intel on two of the top three quarterback prospects, and general manager Adam Peters will lean into Kingsbury’s evaluation of Daniels, too.

So, there are plenty of connections here. Right now, they mean nothing. If Washington somehow trades up for the No. 1 pick, then we have a different story.

 

Former Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury a ‘strong candidate’ to be Commanders offensive coordinator

Kingsbury spent the 2023 season at USC, working with presumed No. 1 pick Caleb Williams.

Two days after the Commanders picked Dan Quinn to be their head coach, we’ve begun to learn some of the names in contention to be his first offensive coordinator.

On Saturday, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Kliff Kingsbury recently interviewed with Washington and is considered a “strong candidate” for the job.

Kingsbury, 44, was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for four seasons and had a record of 28-37-1. Before becoming an NFL coach, Kingsbury was head coach at his alma mater — Texas Tech — for six seasons, and he was Patrick Mahomes’ college coach.

Kingsbury is a protege of the late Mike Leach, who he played quarterback for at Texas Tech from 1998-2002.

Like Leach, Kingsbury runs a version of the “Air Raid” offense. However, during his time with the Cardinals, he modified his scheme to adapt to the NFL.

Kingsbury spent the 2023 season as an analyst for the USC Trojans under Lincoln Riley. It was during the last year he developed a close relationship with the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, Caleb Williams.

The Commanders hold the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft and are expected to select a quarterback.

 

It’s time to watch Mike Leach determine which Pac-12 mascot would win a mascot fight

As the Pac-12 conference comes to an end, it’s time to watch legendary coach Mike Leach break down which mascot would win a battle royale.

Legendary college coach Mike Leach, who put together a 158-107 record over 21 years for Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State, was one of the most original offensive thinkers — and thinkers overall — of his era. Leach, who passed away on December 12, 2022, could go off-subject at any time and with the slightest provocation with the media, and as the Pac-12 conference will come to an end after Friday’s Pac-12 Championship game between Oregon and Washington, it’s a good time to take a trip in the wayback machine to a time when Leach broke down in great detail which conference mascot would win a mascot fight.

His answer was legendary.

R.I.P., Pac-12, and R.I.P., Coach Leach.

Alabama vs. Mississippi State: All-time series history, facts

Check out the all-time series history and a few facts about the SEC West rivalry that ends this Saturday.

Alabama and Mississippi State face off for the final time in the foreseeable future, as the SEC alters its scheduling thanks to the addition of Oklahoma and Texas. These two teams have a historic rivalry, but it’s very lopsided.

Saban and the Crimson Tide will travel to Starkville for an SEC West matchup that could be one of the most underrated games of the Week 5 slate.

Mississippi State looks to avoid going 0-3 in conference play and 2-3 overall in Zach Arnett’s first season as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Scroll below for the all-time series history, facts and important games from the meetings between Alabama and Mississippi State.

Even Oklahoma fans will love one thing Lincoln Riley just did at USC

Even Lincoln Riley’s fiercest critics can’t hate one thing the coach just did. Kudos to Riley for thinking about workplace health.

We interrupt this college football season to offer a story everyone can view as a positive development.

We will soon have preseason polls, a reminder that it’s near the time when fans across the country argue about which college football teams are overrated or underrated. Fans will soon get into spirited debates about fraudulent coaches and hot seats and everything else. Oklahoma fans are itching to see USC football suffer, much as Notre Dame fans yearn for Brian Kelly to stumble at LSU.

However, in the midst of the tumult and pressure attached to every college football season, we need to remind ourselves that real human beings — human lives — are attached to these games we watch on Saturdays in the fall. We are critical of the men who coach college football, but purely as a professional critique and not as a verdict on their character or self-worth.

We lost Mike Leach last season. Coaches sometimes don’t pay close-enough attention to their overall health and wellness.

USC assistant coach Dave Nichol, newly hired by Riley when he took the USC job, died in March of 2022 at age 45. The death hit Riley hard, given that Nichol was a central figure in helping Riley to establish his coaching career.

Riley has been affected by Nichol’s death and then Leach’s passing as well.

Guess what? Riley has decided to do something about that:

One would think other college football programs will follow Riley’s — and USC’s — lead in this regard. Kudos to Lincoln Riley for looking at the big picture beyond wins and losses (even though we will soon resume evaluating his coaching performance on that very metric).

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Lincoln Riley reflects on how Mike Leach shaped him as a coach

Riley told John Canzano that Mike Leach “is one of the greatest hirers our sport has ever had.” The explanation is noteworthy. #USC

Lincoln Riley offered public remarks to the full gathering of media members at Pac-12 media day on Friday in Las Vegas. He also made the rounds with individual journalists and talk-show hosts such as John Canzano.

In his discussion with Canzano, Riley talked about Mike Leach’s enormous influence on his coaching career and on his thought process when making decisions. Leach has left a very large imprint on college football in many ways, one of which — according to Riley — has been mentioned less than it should be.

“The one thing I take from him the most professionally,” Riley told Canzano, “he didn’t care what other people thought. He is one of the greatest hirers that our sport has ever had. You look at some guys’ coaching trees, they hired obvious guys that were already pretty good. You look at Mike, Mike hired a bunch of guys nobody ever heard of. He didn’t give a damn what people thought about a hire… he just hired who he thought would do the best job. Stay focused on the things that matter.”

This is a very revealing insight into Riley. We will certainly have more to say about this in the coming weeks and months.

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A few core concepts are foundational elements of the Lincoln Riley offense

Want to learn the Lincoln Riley offense and its structure? Start with one play.

Want to understand the Lincoln Riley offense? Start with his coach at Texas Tech, Mike Leach, who was one of the central developers of Air Raid offensive concepts. From the Air Raid comes an awareness of one basic play every Air Raid quarterback needs to be able to process and execute.

Riley Files analyst Kegan Reneau went into the details:

“Lincoln Riley has a ton of his entire offense based off Y cross, which is very Air Raid-y,” Reneau began. “You hear Mike Leach say and you’ll hear Graham Harrell say that any Air Raid guy’s entire offense is basically built off Y cross, which is just a tight end going over, running an over route or a crossing route across the middle of the field. From there, if you look at Oklahoma’s offense since 2015, if a quarterback failed to consistently process it and consistently attack a defense off a play that’s designed with Y cross in it, if they failed to do that, the passing game typically struggled.”

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Forbes feels Mississippi State prepared him well for the Commanders

Forbes chats with fellow former Mississippi State alum Fred Smoot and tells a great Mike Leach story.

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Emmanuel Forbes told a Mike Leach story this week.

Forbes, who played at Mississippi State under the late head coach, told Fred Smoot that the next team meeting after a loss to Alabama, players were in for a great surprise.

Leach took out a children’s book and read it to the Bulldogs team. Forbes recalled hearing the little train saying, “I think I can, I think I can.” Forbes continued that not only did Leach read the book to the team, but that he started again and read the children’s book five times to the team and then asked some related questions as well.

A couple of days later, a little message had been placed on everyone’s locker reading, “I think I can, I think I can.” Leach wasn’t quite finished. The next day shirts arrived for everyone with the little engine on the front saying, of course, “I think I can, I think I can.”

Leach’s reasoning? Forbes recalled that Leach told the team, he didn’t really see in them that they thought they could win the game against Alabama.

Smoot was direct, asking Forbes if he has found anything that will help increase his playing weight. Smoot told Forbes he needs to start eating steaks and work with the weights to put on needed weight to his frame.

Smoot recalled he watched film and attempted to pattern his game after Deion Sanders. Forbes replied that when he was in high school he would watch film of Jalen Ramsey. “I am physical, and I can tackle,” insisted Forbes.

Smoot warned Forbes that teams will want to attack his slim frame and want to run outside at Forbes. Forbes seemed to think it was simple, “Honestly, it’s mental, just being locked in every play.”

Forbes feels playing at Mississippi State prepared him for the mental awareness he will need in the NFL. “Honestly, I’ve been in the playbook and been watching film, and it’s literally like the same thing. The only thing different is the terminology.”

Six Oklahoma Sooners included in ESPN’s top 75 QB’s of the 2000’s

Six Oklahoma Sooners were included among ESPN’s top 75 quarterbacks since 2000.

Oklahoma’s history of quarterback play is well known at the college football level. Oklahoma and Notre Dame are the only schools with four Heisman trophy winners at the QB position.

The end of the century saw football as we know it change from a run-first style to a game that emphasized balance and explosive plays generated by the passing game. The late Mike Leach brought the air raid to Oklahoma, and it has permeated throughout college football.

Oklahoma’s offensive identity since the turn of the century has been dynamic and explosive. At the core was innovative play calling and extraordinary quarterback play. It should be no surprise that six Oklahoma quarterbacks are ranked in ESPN’s top 75 quarterbacks of the 2000s rankings (ESPN+).

Late Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach had high praise for Emmanuel Forbes

Leach called Forbes one of the greatest players he ever coached.

Late Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach coached many outstanding football players over the years. During his final coaching stop at MSU, he coached cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.

While Leach was known for his offensive wizardry, he saw something special in the slight cornerback from Grenada, Mississippi.

Coming out of Grenada High School in 2020, the four-star cornerback was almost an immediate starter, playing every game for the Bulldogs and starting nine games. Forbes would finish his Mississippi State career playing in 36 games with 34 starts.

Forbes ended his three-year stint in Starkville by picking off 14 passes, including six of which he returned for touchdowns — an FBS record.

Despite all of his individual success, Forbes didn’t always receive the accolades he deserved. He wasn’t an All-American until 2022.

In 2022, a season in which Forbes was a consensus All-American, first-team All-SEC and had six interceptions and three pick-sixes, Forbes didn’t win the C Spire Conerly Trophy.

The Conerly Trophy is given annually to the top college football player in Mississippi. Past winners include Eli Manning, Patrick Willis, Dak Prescott, A.J. Brown and Jeffery Simmons. The 2022 award went to Ole Miss running back Quinshon Jenkins, and that didn’t sit well with Leach.

“I have great respect for the other finalists, but they didn’t rewrite the record books like Emmanuel Forbes,” Leach said via Jon Sokoloff of WCBI TV. “He is the ultimate competitor. One of the greatest players I’ve ever coached.”

Forbes would declare for the 2023 NFL draft shortly thereafter, and many believed he’d skip Mississippi State’s bowl game to prepare for the NFL combine. However, on Dec. 11, Leach suffered a heart attack and tragically died one day later.

Forbes and some of his teammates chose to play in the Bulldogs’ bowl game to honor their late coach.

Early indications are Washington head coach Ron Rivera is excited to coach Forbes after he was selected by the Commanders in the first round of last week’s 2023 NFL draft.