His offensive system has been adopted by a large number of college teams through his obnoxiously huge coaching tree. The original Leach entry into the NFL was Tim Couch and that failed pretty miserably in Cleveland. Over the years many air raid QB's were not highly thought of and failed to adapt to the standard pro style offenses but as NFL offenses have become more spread heavy the air raid QB is now really starting to gain adoption.
The evidence:
Not all of these guys played in a true air-raid system, but they were all coached by a Leach product.
The evidence:
- Nick Foles won the superbowl last year - his college offensive coordinator at Arizona was Seth Littrell who coached under Leach at Texas Tech and played for him at Oklahoma.
- Jared Goff is the second highest rated(QBR) passer in the league right now - his college coach was Sonny Dykes who coached under Leach at Texas Tech and was his offensive coordinator. Sonny was with Hal Mumme at Kentucky as well.
- Patrick Mahomes is the highest rated(QBR) passer in the league right now - his college coach was Kliff Kingsbury who set records for Leach at Texas Tech.
- Baker Mayfield was the number 1 pick for the Cleveland Browns last year and has already began starting (and winning) games for them. He is currently the 7th highest(QBR) rated passer in the league right now. They should have won in Oakland last week. Baker played for Kingsbury and Lincoln Riley who were both Mike Leach products.
- Sam Bradford was the number 1 pick in 2010. He played for Josh Huepel and his college OC was Mike Leach at Oklahoma.
- Case Keenum is the current starting QB for Denver and recieved a very large free agent contract last year. His offensive coordinator in college at Houston was Kliff Kingsbury who set records for Leach at Texas Tech.
- Drew Lock is projected as a first round draft pick later this year and his offensive coordinator for the majority of his college career was Josh Huepel.
Not all of these guys played in a true air-raid system, but they were all coached by a Leach product.
