Even though Mike Leach died tragically in 2022 at just 61, his ideas continue to shape how football is played today. Just watch any pass-heavy offense, and you can trace it back to what Leach introduced at Texas Tech. Despite that, he wasn’t eligible to be in the NFF College Football Hall of Fame because he missed the 60% win criteria by 0.4%.

The NFF has now lowered its 60% win requirement to 59.5% to make legends like Mike Leach and Les Miles eligible for Hall of Fame induction. For former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, his inclusion was a no-brainer from the start.

“Coach Mike Leach, College Football Hall of Famer, no-brainer?” Fox Sports’ Rob Stone asked Urban Meyer on their The Triple Option podcast. “Oh, no-brainer,” Meyer said. “And [he is] one of my dear friends that we became very close on the Nike trips. We did that for, I want to say, a decade. We would hang out together.”

“I remember the year he got fired at Texas Tech. I was at Florida, and we would talk football. He was so different than my beliefs. I was as rigid as you get, and he was a n-t job. But we became very close.”

Leach graduated from Pepperdine University, passed the bar exam, and then dove into coaching full-time, which is quite an unusual path. He didn’t play football in college, unlike most top coaches. But that also helped him think differently from the status quo.

When Leach took over Texas Tech in 2000, he changed the program’s identity. You can get a glimpse of that in his 10 straight winning seasons or in the 11-1 finish in 2008. But more than winning, Leach was changing how to attack a defense.

Leach dismantled the pro-style, run-heavy I-formation, replacing it with a simple mantra: throw it till you make it. That meant that his QBs were throwing over 40 times in some games. He also changed his playbook by limiting his offense to just 20-25 core plays, which produced 5,000+ yard passers like Graham Harrell and BJ Symons.

Today, college teams and the pros run versions of Leach’s Air Raid offense. Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Kliff Kingsbury, Dana Holgorsen, Sonny Cumbie, and several others either worked directly under Leach or learned from coaches in his tree. Yet people also remember Leach for something else.

Urban Meyer opens up about his relationship with Mike Leach

Leach and Meyer had a close bond through mutual acquaintances. Although their paths didn’t cross much competitively, the former Florida head coach still found time to host his friend occasionally.

“I’ve been to his house many times. The Captain Tony’s (Saloon), where he has the stool. Just became such good friends over the years that at least three or four times a year, I was down there to see him. We went out, we had mutual fishing friends,” the former OSU head coach told On3 after Leach died in 2022.

But it wasn’t just Meyer; everyone who encountered Leach left amused by his antics. Any reporter from Leach’s era would know that very well. They would ask him a question about his team’s performance, and he would go on a rant about some elusive pirates. No one really knew where the conversations would go. From military history to courtroom strategy, Leach discussed everything in pressers. We will never see someone like him again.