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Mike Leach is a CFB Hall of Famer, even without memorable quotes
Mike Leach. Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Mike Leach is a CFB Hall of Famer, even without memorable quotes

By Andrew Kulha  |  Last updated Jun 1, 2026 9:44 PM ET
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The late, great Mike Leach is up for the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time.

Leach is one of the 80 players and nine coaches up for the 2027 Hall. He died in December of 2022 at just 61 years old due to complications from a heart attack.

He became known to the general sports world in the social media era for his one-liners and zany interviews. He was a larger-than-life personality who was seemingly built in a lab for a time in which a coach could go viral for all the right reasons.

Once when discussing the officials in a game, he brought the conversation around to breakfast.

"It's a little like breakfast; you eat ham and eggs," Leach said. "As coaches and players, we're like the ham. You see, the chicken's involved but the pig's committed. We're like the pig, they're like the chicken. They're involved, but everything we have rides on this."

This was a man who was obsessed with pirates. He was also a bit of a meteorologist.

"I know that in Ames, Iowa, they fancy themselves being experts on the wind, but in Lubbock, Texas, we'll put our wind up against your wind in Iowa. We practice against it all the time," he once said.

Leach is a college football Hall of Famer off the strength of his quotes alone, but because of his personality, it's easy to forget just how good of a coach he really was.

Mike Leach was a great college football coach, even without the quotes 

He was one of the masterminds of the Air Raid offense, which he developed as the offensive coordinator at Iowa Wesleyan University under head coach Hal Mumme.

That offense led to Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch going No. 1 overall in the 1999 NFL Draft with Leach as his offensive coordinator. It then took the college football world by storm when Leach became the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Leach led Texas Tech to 10-straight bowl games, and he was the 2008 Big 12 Coach of the Year. He was a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year thanks to his stint at Washington State from 2012 to 2019. He then went 19-17 at Mississippi State before his untimely passing, proving that he could take his offense and his coaching style into the SEC. 

Leach's inclusion for Hall of Fame eligibility is notable because until a recent rule change, he wouldn't have been eligible. The previous winning percentage requirement to appear on the ballot was .600. 

Leach's was .596, but the rule was amended to allow winning percentages of .595 or better in part to allow him in.

Whether his winning percentage was .596 or .999, if you like modern college and NFL football, which is high-flying and passing-oriented, you've got Leach to thank for it.

He's absolutely worthy of the Hall of Fame.

Andrew Kulha

Andrew Kulha is probably the only sports writer you know who also doubles as a mortician. Spooky! @KulhaSports

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