Youth Soccer the Texas Tech Mike Leach Way

Quite a few of you in all probability watched that unbelievable Texas Tech-Texas video game Saturday night like I did. The sheer leisure price of the match by yourself was worth the time investment, with Michael Crabtree scoring the successful landing on a thrilling play with just 1 2nd still left on the clock. Mike Leach is a tale unto itself, certainly a male that follows the conquer of a distinct drummer. On the Texas facet of the ball, athletes abound and Mack Brown is a legitimate gentleman, a modern day statesman of the recreation.

The Youth Football Lesson in This

As youth soccer coaches what can we discover from Coach Leach? Very first let’s glance for a minute at Mentor Leach’s background. With the exception of one particular yr of sitting on the bench of his Significant College soccer crew as a Junior, he by no means performed structured football. He acquired his Bachelors at BYU and then his Legislation Diploma from Pepperdine. At age 25, married, with his 2nd kid on the way he decides he wants to be a Faculty Soccer coach. Yeah ideal, Following stops at College of the Desert, Cal Poly, Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta State, Finland and Kentucky he is now the head mentor of Texas Tech, Not lousy for a self explained “Christian with major obedience difficulties”. He would seem to appear at matters from a somewhat different viewpoint, it’s possible even a kind of an “outsiders” viewpoint.

He has amassed a 74-37 document at a college that almost never, no let us rephrase that, never ever receives the leading tier or even second tier talent in the point out of Texas. Individuals players are reserved for Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Individuals children go to the large income, massive stadium, major custom educational institutions, not to Texas Tech and it’s small 57.000 seat stadium with a masked pirate Zorro mascot. Just getting to Lubbock is a major undertaking, like one thing out of just one of those “Useless Zone” commercials, the spot none of the Massive 12 Media crews relish likely.

Leach does it with quarterbacks no one else desires, 6 foot young ones with delivers to just Tech and it’s possible a mid important university. He has begun a quantity of quarterbacks for just 1 year, lots of staying fifth calendar year seniors like BJ Symons, who handed for 52 touchdowns in his only 12 months as a starter. The adhering to period Symons was replaced by one more fifth calendar year senior, Sonny Cumbie, who passed for 4.742 yards, the sixth ideal in NCAA history. This period Cody Hodges a fifth yr senior with four decades of bench sitting expertise is main Tech’s quest for it’s very first at any time Huge 12 Title and even a shot at the Countrywide Championship.

Now what does this all indicate to us youth football coaches?

The Leach System

Mike Leach saw when he came to Texas Tech, that there was no way he would ever be able to match up with Texas, Oklahoma, A&M and the significant boys by performing more of what they ended up doing. He was constantly likely to have to settle for the next and 3rd tier players. He concentrated on bringing in rapidly, sensible youngsters that were being maybe a bit undersized or odd shaped, kids that it’s possible didn’t seem like soccer gamers. Unquestionably previous bag of bones quarterback Kliff Kingsbury in shape that mould. He looked like he would require weights in his footwear to hold him down when the stiff winds of West Texas blew about Lubbock. Shown at 175 pounds, this fat range was about as accurate as the fat shown on a 45 calendar year previous woman’s motorists license. Tech running back again Taurean Henderson seemed much more like a skinny Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz with seriously lousy hair than a Huge 12 Jogging Again.

How do you get with talent like this? I’m confident that is what Leach requested himself 10 a long time back when he commenced at Tech,

This is What He Did:

He widened the offensive line splits, so his diminutive quarterbacks would have lanes they could see and toss by way of as very well as to make the edges so considerably exterior that his quarterbacks would have a lot more time towards the extraordinary athleticism a lot of Significant 12 Defensive Finishes have. In excess of the training course of a sport those very long move rushes tire out these monstrous defensive ends so by the fourth quarter his quarterbacks have all working day to throw. The offensive line splits change radically from 3 to 9 ft. This also gave his smaller offensive linemen good angles for those people large defensive linemen aligned in the gaps.

He fully commited to passing the ball first, with most seasons averaging around 55 throws per match.

He fully commited to throwing the ball with just a several ideas, All Curl, 4 Verticals, Y-Stick, Shallow, Bubble Screens and Mesh, The laminated perform card for his quarterback experienced just 26 offensive performs on it for the Texas Recreation. Mentor Leach does NOT have a huge perform card crammed with hundreds of performs and down and length product, he has a very simple piece of non laminated paper usually folded up into fourths, like some form of crumpled up crib sheet, with about 30 plays on it. If a perform will work he writes an O next to it and operates it once again, if it fails he writes an X up coming to it and doesn’t . In the Texas recreation, All Curl have to have experienced an O up coming to it because he threw it the very least 5 times.

He fully commited to managing those handful of principles out of a lot of formations and seems. So while Leach could be referred to as the “Mad Scientist”, his playbook is fairly very simple. Those people Tv pundits have no clue.

Why does it operate?

How and why does it do the job? The precision of his receiver’s routes are second to none. View them from time to time, you will not see nearly anything like it anywhere. The timing, the execution in uncanny. There is nothing at all groundbreaking about these soccer plays, it is the execution that is flawless and innovative. The pass protection is similarly as flawless, the Tech quarterback has been sacked just two times so considerably this year.

The Youth Football Equivalent

As a youth soccer coach we have to appear at what we have to perform with and how that compares to our competitors. Can we pay for to operate what everyone else is in the league is running and expect the children to have good results? Should really we run the actual very same football performs and formations as our even bigger and quicker competitiveness and be expecting to compete? Or do we have to be resourceful and run one thing different? Tech made the decision to run something distinctive.

Do we have to have 40-50-60 performs in our playbook? Tech did it on Saturday with 26 soccer plays and Tech gets to practice 6 times a 7 days almost calendar year spherical. They are masters of a several concepts operate out of many formations.

Do We Toss in Our Chips With Leach?

When coaching youth football does this suggest you must dedicate to throwing the ball 60 occasions a sport and widening your splits to 6-9 toes with your soccer team? No, not at all. In youth soccer, we will not get to exercise 6 days a week almost year round or reduce anybody (most teams), Texas Tech will not have to worry about finding each player into the recreation no matter of sport situations or have squad dimensions of 25 alternatively of 150. Your youngsters usually are not likely to be equipped to widen splits out to 9 toes, when you are starting off an nonathletic long term pc nerd at 1 offensive line location and the potential tuba player of the marching band at a further. Individuals variety of young ones can’t fill a 2 foot gap let by yourself a 6-9 foot hole. Most youth soccer groups aren’t going to have 2-3 good very well skilled backup quarterbacks waiting around in the wings for when the starter gets harm or is ill. Even your greatest quarterback attending each and every QB camp recognized to male isn’t heading to throw to a streaking wideout and strike him with pinpoint precision on the outdoors tip of his sideline shoulder on a 25 garden sideline streak route like Tech constantly does ( unachievable to defend). But what we youth football coaches can learn from Leach is to contend, you never have the greatest and most athletic staff in your league, but you have to be diverse. You never have to have 60 football performs in your playbook, but what you do need to have are complementary plays that you execute to complete perfection. That is why my teams run the One Wing offense and why we have a constrained variety of 100{4794e2a5af98421425d757e3e406e9ebc22e0d7579733cf825e9c79e4a650b20} complementary enjoy series we fantastic just about every season.

Tech nevertheless has a tricky row to hoe with Oklahoma Point out up up coming, but they are normally enjoyable to observe. Heck if Tech hadn’t transformed on a 4th and 6 from their very own 35 towards Nebraska 2 weeks ago in a slim earn, we may possibly not even be possessing this conversation. But Mike Leach thinks 4th and 6 is a makeable down even from his have 35. When his “no engage in” failed, Crabtree sent with a “damaged engage in” 65 garden TD capture, which was the variance maker in the match. Mike Leach is an enigma.