Mike Leach Named Head Football Coach
December 09, 1999 | Football
Dec. 9, 1999
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LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech culminated a national search for a head football coach by naming Mike Leach to the position Thursday. Ironically, Leach will begin his career as a collegiate head coach in the place where he coached his last game as an assistant.
?I?m just excited for the opportunity to try to continue the great tradition of Texas Tech University and the Red Raider football program,? Leach said. ?Texas Tech is a great institution athletically and academically, and to be a part of that is a great honor for me and my family.
?The Big 12 is the best conference in the country and to be able to be a head coach in this league is a great challenge and a great honor,? Leach said. ?We are ready to hit the ground running.?
Known in college football circles as one of the brightest head coaching prospects in the nation, Leach comes to Texas Tech from Oklahoma, where he served as offensive coordinator. The naming of Leach, 38, concludes the search which began after Spike Dykes announced his retirement following the Red Raiders? season-ending victory over the Sooners at Jones Stadium Nov. 20.
?Early in the process we set parameters for what we wanted in a head coach and we didn?t waiver from those parameters,? Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said. ?We wanted a tenacious young coach who would open up the offense and run a disciplined football program.
?It was important we find a `players coach? who can build on the foundation already in place and continue to take us to the next level,? Myers said. ?We put together an extensive list of possible candidates and made and received hundreds of phone calls and recommendations.
?Through it all, one of the names which kept coming back to us was Mike Leach,? Myers said. ?We believe we have landed the brightest rising coaching star in college football today and are looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship.?
In just one season at Oklahoma, Leach directed a Sooner offense which went from one of the worst in the Big 12 Conference to one of the best. Under Leach?s tutelage, OU quarterback Josh Heupel was named 1999 Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year.
Leach guided an Oklahoma offense that went from 11th in the Big 12 in 1998 to first this season, 101st in the nation to 11th. In just one year, OU total offense numbers improved from 293.3 to 427.2 yards per game.
The rise in passing and scoring offense categories is just as impressive. Oklahoma went from last to first in the Big 12 in passing offense in one year, from107th in the country to ninth. Under Leach, the Sooners improved from 109.9 yards passing per game to 321.7 yards per game.
In 1998 Oklahoma was last in the Big 12 and 101st in the country in scoring offense at 16.7 points per game. This season the Sooners improved to second in the league and eighth in the country in scoring at 36.8 points per game, an increase of just over 20 points per game.
Under Leach, the Oklahoma offense set six Big 12 Conference and 17 Sooners? school records this season. The Sooners were one of only two schools in the nation to have six players with 20 or more receptions this season.
Prior to joining Bob Stoops? Oklahoma staff, Leach served as offensive coordinator for Hal Mumme at the University of Kentucky and Valdosta (Ga.) State University.
For two years at Kentucky Leach masterminded a Wildcat offense that was one of the most explosive in Southeastern Conference history. Under Leach, the Kentucky offense set six NCAA records, 41 Southeastern Conference records and 116 school records in just 22 games.
Kentucky?s offense produced more than 500 yards total offense in seven games, including a school-record 801 against Louisville in 1998. Leach?s offense featured the talents of quarterback Tim Couch, who passed for 4,275 yards and 34 touchdowns as a senior. Kentucky receiver Craig Yeast ended the 1998 season as the top receiver in the SEC with 85 receptions for 1,311 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Named 1996 Division II Offensive Coordinator of the Year by American Football Quarterly magazine, Leach helped lead Valdosta State to a 40-17-1 record. The 1993 Blazer offense smashed 66 school records, 22 conference records and seven national records. In 1994, Valdosta State advanced to the Division II playoffs with Leach?s offense shattering 80 school records, 35 conference records and seven more national marks.
Leach and Mumme first teamed up at Iowa Wesleyan College in 1989. From 1989 to 1991 he served as offensive coordinator and line coach for an offense which led the NAIA in passing yardage one season and finished second the other two. Iowa Wesleyan passed for more than 11,000 yards in Leach?s three seasons and broke 26 national records.
Leach has also made coaching stops in Pori, Finland, where he served as head coach in the European Football League (1989), as well as one-year assistant stints at College of the Desert (1988) and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (1987).
After graduating with honors from Brigham Young in 1983, Leach earned a Master?s Degree from the United States Sports Academy and his law degree from Pepperdine University, where he graduated in the top one-third of his class.
He and his wife Sharon are the parents of four children, Janeen (13), Kim (9), Cody (2) and Kiersten (1).
The Mike Leach File
Born: March 9, 1961Hometown: Cody, WyomingMarried: SharonChildren: Daughters Janeen, Kim and Kiersten, son Cody
High School: Cody High SchoolCollege: Brigham Young University, 1983Graduate: Juris Doctor, Pepperdine University School of Law, 1986, Master?s of Sports Science/Coaching, United States Sports Academy, 1988
Coaching Experience1999: University of Oklahoma Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
1997-98: University of Kentucky Off. Coordinator/Receivers 1992-96 Valdosta State University Off. Coordinator/Off. Line (94-96) Off. Coordinator/Receivers/QBs (92-93)
1989-91 Iowa Wesleyan Off. Coordinator/Off. Line
1989 Pori, Finland (European Football League) Head Coach
1988 College of the Desert Assistant Coach/Linebackers
1987 Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Assistant Coach/Off. Line