Leatherneck Nation

One of the most influential offensive coaches in football over the last few decades, Coach Mike Leach, passed away last night.
Coach Leach had been for the last 3 seasons the head coach at Mississippi State.

He had coached a few places early in his career, but it was when he teamed up with Hal Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan in 1989 and they developed the "Air Raid Offense" that his impact really started to be felt. They took this offense with them to Valdosta State in 1992, then Kentucky in 1997, and would eventually transform offensive strategies across football at all levels from HS up to the NFL. His coaching tree includes...
Assistant coaches under Leach who became college head coaches:

• Art Briles: Houston (2003–2007), Baylor (2008–2015)
• Jeff Choate: Montana State (2016–2020)
• Sonny Dykes: Louisiana Tech (2010–2012), California (2013–2016), SMU (2018–2021), TCU (2022–present)
• Greg McMackin: Hawaii (2008–2011)
• Ruffin McNeill: East Carolina (2010–2015)
• Dana Holgorsen: West Virginia (2011–2018), Houston (2019–present)
• Seth Littrell: North Texas (2016–2022)
• Lincoln Riley: Oklahoma (2017–2021), USC (2022–present)
• Ken Wilson: Nevada (2022–present)

Graduate assistants under Leach who became college head coaches:

• Dave Aranda: Baylor (2020–present)

Players under Leach who became college or NFL head coaches:

• Kliff Kingsbury: Texas Tech (2013–2018), Arizona Cardinals (2019–present)
• Neal Brown: Troy (2015–2018), West Virginia (2019–present)
• Seth Littrell: North Texas (2016–2022)
• Josh Heupel: UCF (2018–2020), Tennessee (2021–present)
• Eric Morris: Incarnate Word (2018–2021)
• Sonny Cumbie: Louisiana Tech (2022–present)

Coach Leach suffered a massive heart attack two days ago, from which he never recovered.