Comments

Leach's offense is a nightmare for any defensive coordinator TTech faces. Unfortunately (for him and his team), his defense is a dream for most offensive coordinators.

His Red Raiders were defeated by my beloved, yet inept, Oklahoma State Cowboys this season. OSU finished 4-7 on the year, with Tech being the only conference win. How did they do it? Not by matching Tech's fast-paced offense, but by sustaining long offensive drives that kept their offense off the field most of the game. Also, defensive coordinator Vance Bedford blitzed (with a rapid exploitation of opportunity) Tech's QB successfully while holding their running game to -20 yards (?) rushing. So OSU beat Tech by being what Tech isn't... balanced.

Critics can call Leach's offense gimmicky all they want, but it remains extremely difficult to stop. But until they have a defense that can get their offense back on the field... they have 1/2 a team. They have placed a higher priority recently on defensive recruiting, so the most impressive performances by TTech may remain to be seen.

Maybe a business lesson from Leach would be in making one aspect of your business remarkable. This likely brings short-term success that may be parlayed into long-term success as you improve the other aspects of your business. Having not read it, I'm not sure if the Times Magazine article addresses this.

Posted by DUST!N at December 7, 2005 11:00 AM

Dustin's post sounds like an illustration of TP's slide (no slight of OSU, ranked 88): "The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman ... ; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist ... he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do." (Mark Twain). Or perhaps Leach is that "ignorant protagonist"!!

Posted by Mike Linacre at December 7, 2005 2:42 PM

Right... Good article, and I learnt a bit about American Football - which I had always denigrated as Rugby in Body Armour with more advertisements than play... there's a bit more to it, I guess :-))

Now I got to see a real game.. Maybe I'll try and get a ticket to an Amsterdam Admirals game.

Now Tom, why don't you point us to an article about something sublime like a One day international cricket match with Australia playing South Africa?

P.S. I'm an Indian living in the Netherlands about 10 km from the point where the borders of Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet each other..

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at December 7, 2005 3:02 PM

I feel Blue Ocean Strategy is one of my books of the year.
This article proves a couple things. The authors of Blue Ocean are spot on and--Boy--can Michael Lewis tell a story. WOW!
Thanks for the heads up, Tom.

Posted by Jack Covert at December 7, 2005 3:26 PM

With a story like this to tell, it's a slam dunk for any decent writer - although Lewis is good.
If all you can talk about after this story is something whimsical, something anti-football or any other anti-intellectual mumbo jumbo something or other, then pull off to the side of the road and let somebody else go around your slow ass. The nuts come out of the woodwork to pull for a guy like Chavez, but miss the real life drama of a real life "insurgent" who just does what he feels is the best thing to do simply because the guys who shout about "best practices" are doing so against the rain. Let's can the bullshit and get on with doing life better than we did yesterday. I wish we had more like Leach around. If for no other reason than it's good for the circulation.

Have Fun Today!
Jeffrey Summers

Posted by Jeffrey A Summers at December 8, 2005 3:14 AM

Wonderful article, with business analogies in abundance.

I'd certainly love to think Leach's offense can end the demands coaches make on young American athletes to get bigger and bigger (somewhat akin to corporate merger mania, eh?)

If a 300lb player is good, a 330lb guy must be better, right? Who cares if he's dabbling with steroids or storing up future health problems packing on the extra pounds by supersizing his fast food orders?

Of particular relevance to we devotees of TP is Leach's return of decision-making to the quarterback on the field (production line, call centre), from the coach on the sidelne (corporate HQ, executive suite). Leach's explanation is as good an articulation as we'll read of Tom's themes of empowerment and decentralisation. To quote from the article:

"He can see more than I'll ever see," Leach says. "If I call a stupid play, his job is to get me out of it. If he doesn't get me out of it, I might holler at him. But if you let him react to what he sees, there's a ton of touchdowns to be had."

One to post in every corner office.

Posted by Phil Lynch at December 8, 2005 5:57 AM

The Red Raider offense is nothing new. Its basically a logical extension from the Veer offense that began with the University of Houston Cougars during the late '70's early '80's and evolved though the spread offenses of the 90's. What Leach has done is tweak that philosophy and then--this is the key point of all this to me--execute the hell out of it. And as we all know, execution is something mentioned in the Gospel according to Peters and the books of Bossidy (et al) too many times to mention.

Think of it: Leach has a group of 18-22 yr old college kids arriving to practices and on game day totally focused and in-the-moment. They play for 30-minutes, make adjustments in the locker room then come back out and run past their opponents. Players block the correct assignments and run to the right places on the field. The quarterback hits the open recievers. Leach has surrounded himself with a team that's totally bought into his system and, because they have, his players deliver more from their potential than the other guys. Crimeny, if that's not the job of a great leader nothing is.

Lets also give credit to that OSU defense. In military terms, what they did was "deny freedom of movement (or range of motion)" to their enemy. Which is something right out of Boyd. Which they executed the hell out of also.

The difference between great brands, football squads or rugby sides is focus and consistency. Its the hardest thing about life. Its so special when we see it. That's why we applaud so loud when we do.

Posted by Grant Rosenquist at December 8, 2005 5:08 PM

Kudos to OSU...However in football terminology Tech fell victim in a "trap" game. Big win at home vs. in-state rival A&M on one side and a season ending home game vs. the storied Sooners on the other. OSU was laying in the weeds with an extra week to prepare and executed a sound strategy to perfection.

Again, business analogies abound on both sides of the equation.

Great article!

Oh and Leach is a pirate.

Posted by Richard Lathrop at December 9, 2005 5:53 PM

I'm not quite sure how Leach's offense even remotely resembles Bill Yeoman's veer. In any event, what distinguishes Leach's spread from other shotgun oriented offenses is its sheer audacity and aggression, always buttressed by unassailable logic. For all of his quirks, Leach is, at bottom, a rational actor. He takes calculated risks, which are often contrary to conventional football wisdom. Because he does this with second line recruits means it doesn't always work, but if I were a TT alumnus (which I most certainly am not) I would be more than happy to let this guy take his shots. Every alumnus from an "old money" SEC, Big 12 or Big 10 school should be very, very afraid that a competing AD will wake up and hire Leach. Anyone want to compete with LSU, Michigan, or Nebraska with Leach as head coach?

Posted by John Lemon at December 10, 2005 1:23 AM

One important facet of Mike Leach that is lost in all of this is his patience. Just like a start-up that craves success, but lacks capital, Leach is understanding his initial limitations. Sometimes it's hard to see that among the deep passes, short passes, dump passes, flare passes, fade passes and screen passes, there exists a true and genuine calculated strategy. The Red Raiders are a team that have been growing and progressing slowly but steadily. This isn't a "company" that made a huge splash with an IPO and put their CEO on the cover of Forbes. Texas Tech has improved each year by record and in the recruiting world. Leach is building a program that should last. This is no flash in the pan or one hit wonder. The coach and his staff are on pace for a top 10 recruiting class this year. So for all of those TTU alumni (which I most certainly AM) and opponents who harp about getting to the next level, be careful what you wish for...looks like you're getting it. Merry Christmas and beat Alabama.

Posted by Jeff Wilson at December 10, 2005 1:14 PM

Excellent post and excellent article. Very interesting timing as I just last week started a blog comparing sports and games to business.

Posted by Robert Williger at December 13, 2005 7:16 PM buy viagra forum

The Texas Tech spread is uniquely similar to both the Arena style offenses and the Run and Shoot (Mouse Davis, et al). The Patriots run their version of it very well at key moments in key games. For example, Tuck Rule, Foxboro, 2002. Mostly though, the offense looks uniquely similar to running four hot routes in Madden on the Playstation. Real time play-calling. And you are seeing that with Indianapolis this year as you have with the Patriots three of the last four. The very things that make Mike Leach innovative also allow for the introduction of hubris -- running up scores, bad sportsmanship, cheap shot penalties. At least Belichek knows when to sit on the ball. Wanna beat Tech? Get to the quarterback. Knock the center on his butt and you have 6 feet of free space between guards to attack the QB. Bump and run the receivers. Get physical. He mentions his teams own weakness when he asks his players to make sure they "...go hit someone." They are small and fast, but susceptible to physical football. And obviously, keep the Red Raider offense off the field with a power/posession offense of your own. Texas managed. A well-played Cover 2 would work. A 4-2-5 should work. Execution is the chariot of genius, as the man said. I wonder if Michael Lewis was inspired to write that article because he lives in Berkeley, he watched the Red Raiders maul Cal last year in the Holiday Bowl, and voila, instant story? It was a good one. However, in an interesting symetry, Red Raider players tend to suffer the same NFL fate as Jeff Tedford quarterbacks -- failure. Isn't that a blunt force trauma to the head...

Posted by barbaricus at December 17, 2005 12:08 AM

Belatedly . . . I loved the article on Leach, which isn't surprising given that I'm a raving fan of Moneyball, a book that makes for outstanding business reading. (Moneyball can be read as a narratively brilliant way of conveying Billy Beane's approach to Ben Graham's key insight: price for value is everything.)

Having grown up in West Texas, I pine aesthetically for the days of the power running game, especially when integrated into the wishbone offense. But if I were a Tech alum (as many of my friends are), I'd accept Leach's approach any day of the week. As for the T.T. defense: Leach's obsessive insights are all on the offensive side of the ball, so he would do well to bring in a Leach-like oddball whose obsession is defense. When Tech installs a Stoops-quality defense to go along with that offense . . . the sky's the limit. (And my alma mater, Texas, will have some rearranging to do.)

The key thing that Leach does - that all destabilizing competitors do - is to adopt fruitful practices that present opponents with a bunch of "Oh, crap" moments. If you didn't know much about a given sport and were thrust into coaching a team, you could do much worse than to seek out the maximum number of moves that would make the other team say "Oh, crap." Let Barry Bonds bat second instead of fourth. (Potentially gives him an extra at-bat per game, and you guarantee that he bats in the first inning.) Go for it on fourth-and-long, like Leach does. (Means that opponents have to stop you for four straight plays instead of three, i.e. inherently makes a defense's job 1/3 harder from the get-go.) Empower every person in your company to come up with the game-breaking idea. (Just imagine the tidal wave of creativity . . .)

Tom - the connection to the O.O.D.A. loop is excellent. Great food for thought.

All the best for 2006!

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Posted by Locky at January 1, 2006 7:42 PM