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You’d be hard-pressed to find many people who don’t think Mike Leach deserves to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, but he’s currently ineligible for that particular honor thanks to the rules it’s put in place. Thankfully, it appears reason may ultimately prevail.
It’s been a year and a half since the college football world lost the man, myth, and legend who was Mike Leach after he passed away from a heart attack at the age of 61.
The skipper known as “The Pirate” turned the sport on its head when he introduced the “Air Raid” offensive scheme at Texas Tech after being hired to helm the Red Raiders in 2000, which marked the start of a head coaching career that spanned more than two decades and also brought him to Washington State and Mississippi State.
He was also one of the most entertaining figures college football had to offer; you never knew what Leach was going to say when he got the chance to speak into a microphone, but there was a very good chance he was going to end up going on one of the many hilarious tangents he treated us to over the course of his life.
Leach posted a 158–107 record as a head coach, which meant he had a .596 winning percentage during his career. If literally one of those games had gone the other way, he would’ve finished at an even 60%—which just so happens to be the minimum requirement to earn a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Coaches who were younger than 70 when they coached their final game also have to wait three years until they’re eligible for enshrinement, so we’re still a couple of years away from any official debate concerning Leach’s status.
Only time will tell how things will ultimately pan out, but according to The Athletic, it does sound like The National Football Foundation (which runs the College Football Hall of Fame) may make an exception for Leach based on what COO Matthew Sign had to say about the impending discourse:
“Mike Leach is a unique case. The three schools he coached at were not easy. His influence over the sport in high school and college, you have to take that into account.
These will be things that get discussed, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Here’s to hoping they make the right choice.