Texas Tech to honor Mike Leach with induction into Hall of Honor

Texas Tech is set to honor the winningest coach in its football program's history in September.

The school announced Wednesday that the late Mike Leach will be inducted into Texas Tech's Hall of Honor on Sept. 29 as part of the 2023 class. In addition, former Red Raiders coach Kliff Kingsbury, who also played quarterback at the school under Leach, will be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame on that same day.

This marks one of the first major posthumous honors Leach has received since his unexpected death in December 2022 due to complications from a heart condition at 61. He was the head coach at Mississippi State at the time.

Leach joined Texas Tech as its head coach in 2000, which was also his first head coaching job at the college level. In his first season at Lubbock, he made Kingsbury the team's starting quarterback and implemented the Air Raid offense. Kingsbury reaped the rewards of Leach's offensive system, statistically finishing as one of the best quarterbacks in the nation in each of his three seasons as a starter, and breaking the NCAA's all-time record for completions. The system and Kingsbury also helped spark the program's turnaround, winning nine games in Kingsbury's final season with the team in 2002.

Other quarterbacks performed well under the air raid offense at Texas Tech. B.J. Symons set the NCAA record for most passing yards in a season (5,833) when he took over for Kingsbury in 2003. 

Texas Tech reached new heights when Graham Harrell played in Leach's system beginning in 2006. The Red Raiders finished with eight wins and nine wins in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, respectively. In 2008, Leach helped guide the Red Raiders to an 11-win season as they remained in the national championship hunt for the majority of the campaign due to Harrell's success in the Air Raid offense, which also led to the emergence of Michael Crabtree. The duo connected for the game-winning touchdown with one second left against undefeated Texas that season, which is seen by many as perhaps the greatest win of Leach's career and school history.

Even after Harrell and Crabtree departed after the 2008 season, Leach helped Texas Tech remain competitive in 2009. The Red Raiders went 8-4 during the regular season, in which Leach set the record for most wins in program history.

However, Leach's 10-year tenure with the school ended prior to its bowl game that year when Texas Tech fired him due to his refusal to apologize for how he allegedly handled a player's concussion. Leach filed a wrongful termination lawsuit a little more than a week later. A Texas court of appeals cleared the school.

Leach finished with an 84-43 record during his time with Texas Tech.

Three years after his unceremonious departure from Texas Tech, Leach returned to the coaching ranks as head coach of Washington State. His Air Raid offense also helped bring the program to new heights as it won 11 games in 2018. He became the coach of Mississippi State in 2020. 

Leach helped popularize the Air Raid offense — the concepts of which he learned from Hal Mumme at Kentucky. He implemented those concepts to help bring programs that historically didn't have much success into relevance, leading many college football fans and analysts to claim that he should be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. However, after going 19-17 during his three seasons as coach of Mississippi State, Leach finished his 23-year head coaching career with a 59.6% winning percentage, finishing four-tenths short of the 60% threshold needed for induction.

In addition to Leach and Kingsbury, former Texas Tech linebacker Matt Wingo will be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame as part of the eight-person class. All inductees will also be honored at Texas Tech's football game against Houston on Sept. 30. 

Leach, Kingsbury and the rest of the 2023 class join Patrick Mahomes, Harrell and Crabtree among recent notable inductees into Texas Tech's Hall of Fame.