The Pirate Lives In Key West

Gee, that sounds a lot like the offense Archie "The Gunslinger" Cooley was running at Mississippi Valley State with Willie Totten and Jerry Rice back in the mid-1980s.

 

Probably got some of his ideas there too. Leach has never layed claim to inventing his offense.

Never got to see them play. too bad they were not around now. They would be on TV every week.

 

An odd little factoid I might throw out here, I recall seeing a stat Leach's final year that he was one of a group of only around five D1 coaches who'd never played college football. What struck me about the list was that, not only was the group disproportionately successful (minus Charlie Weis), but three of em--Chip Kelly, Paul Johnson, and Leach--were guys credited with bringing an innovative and different offense to the game. Leach's superspread, Johnson for bringing the running option game back, and Kelly's extreme no huddle fast break offense.

I guess the lesson is, if you want a coach willing to try something different, hire the geek who never played.

 

Makes sense. Football players are creatures of habit and used to listening to the coach. The coaches who did not play probably are less
shackled by conventional wisdom and tradition.

 

What the deuce? THAT don't make a lick of sense.

 

Sorry - unsuccessful attempt to post from smart phone.

 

I think its more the opposite. A coach sees someone with a little bit of success doing something and everyone else tries to copy it. You could credit DickRod with popularizing the Spread Option, although its been around for years.

Johnson is credited with bringing back the double-wing option, although that has been around for forever (even if a very few schools at the major D-I level run it).

High school coaches are the same way. I would say about 80% of teams now run out of the spread. Not the case 20 years ago.