Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach died this week, generating a well-deserved outpouring of not just sympathy, but appreciation for his impact on the game of football.
From his former players and assistants becoming prominent coaches (Lincoln Riley, Josh Heupel, Kliff Kingsbury) to the way his Air-Raid offense changed football from high school to the NFL (five-wide formations, fourth-down aggressiveness), nothing is quite the same.
Yet what Leach’s mold-breaking concepts did extend beyond even that.
Consider that his style — or more accurately his thinking — isn’t just responsible for how, say, Patrick Mahomes plays football, but arguably that Patrick Mahomes even plays football at all.