Mike Leach Changed College Football in Two Air Raid Seasons at Kentucky

Change is met by friction. Mike Leach never steered his pirate ship away from it throughout his unconventional coaching career. Monday evening he passed away, leaving behind a legacy of innovation that brought the sport into the 21st century. It all started in Lexington, Kentucky.

Creator of the name ‘Air Raid’

Mike Leach did not create the offense pass-happy offense, but his contributions were invaluable. Hal Mumme was the originator of the offense. In the basement of an old gym at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mike Leach gave the Air Raid its name.

“When we were at Iowa Wesleyan College some guy brought in an air raid siren. That was fun at that time to name offenses. There were all the different names they had for a variety of offenses. You know West Coast Offense, Fun and Gun, Run and Shoot…” Leach reminisced before his first game back in Lexington in 2020.

“So he comes in there with this siren and says ‘Look what I’ve got.’ He turns that thing on and it’s loud as can be because it’s echoing off all the walls. [Mimics siren sound] Just letting it rip right. We take it out there and our games would have 1,000 people, maybe 3,000 on a really big crowd, out there playing on a high school field. Bob would stand out there in the end zone. He would turn that thing on when we would score. Then after a while, he and his friends had so much fun with it, they’d just blast it for anything, randomly, whenever they felt like it. Even when the other quarterback was trying to call plays because we didn’t have a lot of crowd noise there. He’d get kicked out of games and stuff and have to go stand on the edge of the fence in the back. It was greatness.

“From there, they started calling it the Air Raid. I’m kind of credited with the idea of calling it the Air Raid.”

From Iowa Wesleyan, Leach followed Mumme to Valdosta State. After record-breaking seasons at the D-II level, C.M. Newton took an unconventional approach and brought the duo to Kentucky.

Basketball on Grass

The Air Raid broke convention. Aside from Steve Spurrier at Florida, the SEC was a “three yards and a cloud of dust” league. This offense used wide splits at the line of scrimmage and a limited playbook with multiple formations to move the ball down the field through the air. Critics questioned its viability in the SEC and were quickly dismissed.

In the Air Raid’s debut Kentucky led Louisville 21-0 after one quarter. Tim Couch set a school record by throwing for 398 yards in a 38-24 win. Four weeks later the Wildcats beat Alabama for the first time in 75 years. Sonny Dykes, the CFB Playoff-bound TCU head coach, was a GA for the Wildcats and still has a piece of the goalpost that was torn down in his office.

Mike Leach helped turn Tim Couch into a Heisman Trophy finalist and the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft. He also developed James Whalen, a former JUCO transfer, into an All-American tight end. Whalen shared insight on Leach in an extensive piece from ESPN.

“His brain is a computer,” Whalen said. “There’s a fine line between brilliance and crazy, and he straddles it.”

As he does to this day, Leach occasionally meandered. Whalen recalled a position meeting after a practice where Leach filibustered about a film.

“Mike has the clicker and hits the first play,” Whalen said. “He gets about halfway through and hits rewind. Then he asks, ‘Has anybody ever seen ‘Another 48 Hours’?’ We were like, ‘Yeah.’ And he never made it through the first play.

“He hit rewind probably 400 times and spent the whole time talking about this movie with Nick Nolte. Finally, after about an hour, he’s like, ‘Alright, y’all can get out of here.’ We didn’t even watch football, didn’t talk about it.”

ESPN

In two seasons at Kentucky Leach helped the Wildcats set six NCAA records, 41 Southeastern Conference records and 116 school records in 22 games. Kentucky went 12-10 and earned an Outback Bowl bid in 1998. After struggling to defend the offense for two years at Florida, Bob Stoops hired Mike Leach as his first offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

The Legacy of Mike Leach

The Air Raid offense Mike Leach used at Kentucky was different than the one he deployed at Mississippi State, finishing his final season with an 8-4 record and a win in the Egg Bowl. It evolved over the years, but the principles remained the same and they are used at all levels of football. Three of the top five Heisman finalists were coached by Air Raid disciples. Mike Leach changed college football for the better and it will not be the same without him on the sidelines every Saturday.