Lincoln Riley makes passionate plea to induct the late Mike Leach into CFB Hall of Fame

There has been rising support for the late Mike Leach to make it into the College Football Hall of Fame, despite not being eligible due to the rules, with USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley being the latest to share his support.

Riley and Leach have a long history together, and it was in his opening statements at his first Big Ten media Days when he chose to make a passionate plea on Leach’s behalf.

“I also want to mention, I know a couple of my counterparts have said some of the same things regarding this notion,” Lincoln Riley said. “But obviously Mike Leach meant a lot to my career. Instrumental in my upbringing. I know there’s been a lot of debate and talk about him belonging in the College Football Hall of Fame and [I] certainly want to voice my support for that happening here on this stage.”

Mike Leach always made his impact felt on college football. That included as a guru of the Air Raid offense, which has permeated the sport as a whole in terms of the concepts used. It was with that offense that Leach was able to create a massive coaching tree and find success in his stops at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State. Along the way, he was always a larger-than-life figure in the sport.

Along the way, one of the people who Mike Leach impacted was Lincoln Riley. He played quarterback at Texas Tech under Leach before getting his start there as an assistant coach. That makes him one of the strongest branches of Leach’s coaching tree.

“That’s something that’s very important to me. He changed the game and changed a lot of people’s lives, mind included in the process of it,” Riley said.

“I know there’s technicalities and rules that have to happen, but I totally agree that the Hall of Fame is simply not complete without Mike Leach being in that. Just certainly wanted to be able to represent that here on this stage.”

As Lincoln Riley pointed out, the CFB Hall of Fame has rules that make it so that Mike Leach is ineligible to be inducted.

In short, a head coach needs to have been active for at least 10 seasons, coaching in 100 games, and have a .600 winning percentage. Leach doesn’t have a .600 winning percentage. He has a .596 winning percentage, largely because he took jobs at schools that had historic disadvantages within their respective conferences.