RIP to coach Mike Leach, perhaps the most influential figure in Big 12 football history

Big 12 football at the beginning was a running game-and-defense conference.

Think about what was happening. In the final year of the Big Eight (1995). Nebraska won its second straight national championship with one of the greatest teams in college football history and averaged 399.8 rushing yards per game.

In the Big 12’s first season, Iowa State’s Troy Davis led the nation in rushing at nearly 200 yards per game just as a young star, Ricky Williams, was budding at Texas.

In 1999, an agent of change entered the conference: Mike Leach.

He arrived as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, helping to shape Josh Heupel into a national championship QB and Heisman finalist. Then, as Texas Tech’s head coach for a decade, Leach transformed altogether how the Big 12 — and college football at large — approached offense.

Leach, who was in his third season at Mississippi State’s head coach, died on Monday evening from complications related to a heart condition. He was 61.

Through his years at Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State, Leach was known for his sharp wit and off-the-wall comments — especially during news conferences. You never knew what would inspire him in that setting. Once, he noticed several reporters were writing left-handed and proceeded to recount the difficulties that he himself had encountered as a lefty youngster growing up in a right-handed world.

Leach also embraced pirate imagery. His New York Times best-selling book, written with Bruce Feldman, was entitled “Swing your Sword.”

On the field, Leach will be remembered for his visionary approach to offense. What became known as the Air Raid started in collaboration with Hal Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State and Kentucky in the early 1990s. One of the first breakthrough players in the Air Raid was Wildcats quarterback Tim Couch, who set school passing records on his way to becoming the NFL’s overall No. 1 pick in 1999 with the Cleveland Browns.

But the Big 12 is where Leach made his mark. He became Texas Tech’s head coach in 2000 and gave the starting quarterback job to Kliff Kingsbury. A year later, Kingsbury, who is now the head coach of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, started a run of nine straight years of Tech quarterbacks leading the Big 12 in passing yards.

Texas Tech’s offense was revolutionary, and after a few years others in the Big 12 were spreading the field and operating without a huddle. The scores of Big 12 games soared. In 2007, Nebraska hung 73 points on Kansas State and surrendered 76 to Kansas. Two OU quarterbacks, Jason White and Sam Bradford, won Heismans during that decade, and Texas’ Vince Young should’ve won one, too.

In 2008, Oklahoma led the nation in scoring at 51.3 points a game and put up at least 60 points in five straight contests.

Leach didn’t invent the spread or Air Raid. He wasn’t the first to use five wide receivers, an empty backfield and every available space on the field. And Leach didn’t ignore the running back. Short passes to the back were like running plays. One running back who played for Leach, Taurean Henderson, finished his career ranked third on the team’s career receiving-yards list.

The Leach quarterbacks at Tech didn’t become pros. Kingsbury was the only one to take an NFL snap. But as Tech’s head coach, Kingsbury would help shape the career of Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes.

Leach built on the passing-game philosophies of others who came before him, added his own touches and lit up scoreboards. He influenced the Big 12, and his coaching tree extends to the NFL (with Kingsbury) as well as the college game: Heupel at Tennessee, Lincoln Riley at USC and Sonny Dykes at TCU. The Vols led the nation in total offense this season; the Trojans ranked fifth, and the Horned Frogs led the Big 12.

The offense will live on. The news conferences will never be the same.