Greg McElroy recalls first meeting with Mike Leach, response to Alabama flip

Before he was a national champion quarterback at Alabama, Greg McElroy intended to play for Mike Leach at Texas Tech. He committed to the Red Raiders before, ultimately, flipping to sign with then-coach Mike Shula.

As Texas Tech pursued McElroy, it meant he’d get to know Leach — the pioneer of the Air Raid offense who passed away last year at age 61. He was looking forward to learning more about the innovative scheme and what his role was going to be.

Then, McElroy met Leach for the first time and learned about more than football. In fact, that topic didn’t even come up.

“You would imagine, as a quarterback — a prep quarterback — you’re coming out, you’re sitting there thinking like, ‘Man, this is gonna be awesome. I get an hour with Coach Leach. We’re going to talk ball, I’m gonna get on the board, I’m gonna learn everything there is to know about the Air Raid,'” McElroy recalled during the College Football Awards show Friday night. “I walk in, very much excited, with my spiral notebook to take notes. Every single part of the Air Raid offense, I was gonna have mastered by the time I left that room.

“And he decides to go into the conversation — that is obviously so applicable to football — by asking, ‘How many rooms do you think a house needs to be what you would consider to be a successful [house]?’ I said, ‘Well, a bathroom, I guess, would be practical. Living room, perhaps? Kitchen?’ ‘No, kitchen’s overrated. Get a stove and a grill, what more do you need?’ Basically, we sat there for an hour and we talked about the practicalities of how you would build a home.”

In addition to his success with the Air Raid, Leach was known for his eccentric personality. He’d go through entire halftime interviews without talking about the game. Whether it be about the existence of Bigfoot or which Pac-12 mascot would win in a fight, Leach was ready to talk about anything.

For McElroy, that made for an interesting first meeting during the recruiting process. He quickly learned Leach didn’t always talk football. In fact, that didn’t happen until McElroy decided to flip. That’s when Leach — with his quick wit — delivered an all-time line.

“Not one conversation, in the year and a half that I was being recruited by Mike Leach, not one conversation about football — until when I decommitted,” McElroy said. “When I decommitted to tell him I was going to Alabama, I called him. I said, ‘Coach. I just want you to know, I’m going to be going Alabama.’

“He goes, ‘Oh, well, have fun throwing it six times a game.’ … That was him, man. He did it his way. And he didn’t want to march to the beat of the drum that everyone expected him to march to, and that’s what I think made him so unique and so special.”

Leach received the NFCAA Contributions to College Football Award Friday night. It recognized his contributions to the game, especially with the Air Raid. The honor came just four days before the one-year anniversary of his death — but his legacy lives on.