Will Mike Leach's Departure Signal the End of Texas Tech's Air Raid Offense?

I hear a lot of people crying out there about losing the Air Raid, which actually happened a couple of weeks ago when we decided to fire Mike Leach. 

It’s time to move on. 

There is more than one formula for winning championships and throwing the ball every down has never proven to be one of them. If we’re ever going to win anything of significance, we’re going to have to recruit badass players and play badass football. 

That’s what we hired with Tommy Tuberville and this will answer a question I’ve always wondered. Can it be done at Tech? We may not be able to win a title playing Tuberville football, but I know he has a formula, which is a step in the right direction for this program. 

You have to understand my philosophy on what makes a good offensive football team as to why I’m not fearful of our future. It’s real simple for me. If you’ve got better players running your system than the guys guarding them, your system will work. When we had Michael Crabtree with Baron Batch, Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense was pretty badass.  Without Crabtree, not so badass and our system effectively game-planned out Batch. 

When Spike Dykes recruited good players, like James Gray and Byron Hanspard, his offensive system worked. It was explosive, it was fun, and it won a lot of football games. 

The problem with Spike is that due to his narrow scope of recruiting from budget restrictions, he could never accumulate a strong enough supporting cast to fill in the remaining space on his roster. He would then provide Gray/Hanspard a bunch of 245-pound, West Texas boys bulked up to 275 pounds with a lot of heart and go play smashmouth football with Texas.  It was also a method that was conducive to being shut down by North Texas with elementary schematics. 

Mike Leach was a successful offensive coach here because he found better players than Spike to run his system. How many OL did Tech put in the NFL before he showed up?  Seriously, I can’t think of one since E.J. Holub.

There are currently four from the last decade. There are three WRs. And, one Spike RB, who kicked the shit out of the Aggies on multiple occasions just like Leach. When you get badass players like Wes Welker and Michael Crabtree, and figure out creative ways to get the ball in their hands, then you’ve got a chance to win 10 or 11 games. 

When you have a bunch of hard-nosed, dirty work skill position players, like Alex Torres, Ed Britton, and Detron Lewis, you can go 8-4 throwing it to them every play.

Art Briles would have killed the Air Raid. Ruffin McNeill would have killed the Air Raid. The statistical balance to which Mike Leach was willing to commit to the passing game has never been duplicated in college football history. That was a one-man circus, which was equally lethal at pantsing a Top 15 team by 30 points provided good talent or getting hammered by a one-win Colorado team when loaded with marginal talent. 

The spread is the spread. Different players, different coaches, different plays, different play-callers. If you can recruit the talent to run it, then it has proven over and over again to work. Whether it be Mike Leach at Texas Tech or Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech. 

So, what does the coach have to work with for a new offense? We’ll use the list format according to talent:

1.  QB Steven Sheffield

We were undefeated by a large margin against quality opponents with this guy. His athleticism and mobility provided a much needed spark to the Air Raid in which our best play results were generated through improvisation. We’re luckier than a two-peckered billy goat to have stumbled into this guy and his skills as an athlete will benefit from a splash of play action rollouts and QB draws.  

2. RB Baron Batch

We were a hard offense to defend when we handed the ball off to this guy. Batch plays bigger than he is and his punishing style wears on a defense. He’s got just enough speed to turn five-yard gains into busted 20-yard arm tackles. And then he delivers a blow. 

Batch is one of the top RBs in the Big 12, and in building a new offense, I would start with a plan that included a minimum of 250 carries on the season. Great vision combined with quick North/South tendencies. A willing and effective blocker.

3.  LG Lonnie Edwards

From Manny Ramirez to Louis Vasquez to Lonnie Edwards. Leach was attracting better talent to his OL. The funny thing about Vasquez is that we asked him to play out of a two-point stance his entire career and pick up blitzing LBs versus utilizing his services like the Chargers to blow open holes for LaDanian Tomlinson in the run game. 

Edwards is farther along in his career as a sophomore than either Ramirez or Vasquez.  Tremendous natural strength and a gifted athlete for his size. He’s got as much potential as a run blocker as any guard I’ve seen come through our program. That’s why I hold him to a higher standard than the other OL on our team.

4.  LT Terry McDaniel

This is somewhat of a reach pick considering he was injured, but I’m basing his ranking off the work he did in the four games he started as a freshman. I was scared stiff, and by two quarters of his first game, I removed him from my potential liability watch list.

McDaniel brought an element to our offense that we lost with Rylan Reed’s injury. In the Nebraska game, I can recall us running the ill-advised stretch play, which led me through a sequence of events that included yelling at the TV screen to standing stunned in silence as we picked up eight yards. 

And, there was No. 68 the whole time shadowing Barry Turner five yards down the field.  I’m not suggesting he’s a talent we can live off with zone blocking, but he’s definitely a guy that can move his feet and play low enough to generate some power as a drive blocker. He’s bigger, stronger and smarter than Marlon Winn.

5. RB Eric Stephens

He has that fastest guy on the field effect when the ball is in his hands. I’ve been impressed with his effectiveness between the tackles and his ability to make a guy miss in the open field. He’s a fumble risk, but he’s also got home run potential.

6.  RB Harrison Jeffers

The biggest and fastest of the three backs, but his best quality has been on the perimeter. Jeffers hasn’t really shown the vision for inside running that Batch and Stephens have, but he also hasn’t had the attempts. I definitely wouldn’t criticize a coach for experimenting with an off tackle game to see, if we can take better advantage of his talent. 

7.  WR Detron Lewis

Lewis is still our most talented WR. He’s not as consistent as Alex Torres and hasn’t thrived in the No. 1 role drawing the top DBs in the league. He shines at getting separation on plays the QB can extend with his feet and has the speed to get over the top of safeties in play action. I’ll be curious as to if we keep him at slot receiver.

8. C Justin Keown

It’s hard to find quality center play and that’s what Keown brings to the table. A decent athlete for the position and has shown signs of being serviceable in the screen game and working combo blocks. Leach used Byrnes in one-on-one matchups in the run game as the season progressed and it paid dividends. 

If Keown can duplicate those results, I won’t complain if we commit to it. An upgrade in mobility to Byrnes, but may not be the mauler to blow up a hardcore running game. I have a saying which states "if your center position is not a weakness, it’s a strength."  Keown isn’t a weakness.

9.  WR Alex Torres

A gritty possession receiver and accomplished blocker, who isn’t running by anyone without the element of deception. I’m not sure I would want to build an offense around him, but I know I can count on him. 

This guy can earn some respect with his blocking ability. Torres isn’t big enough to develop into a true TE threat, however, I’m confident that he’ll do whatever his coaches ask of him better than the guy that will be competing for his starting position.  He might be better off in the slot position where we could take advantage of his blocking skills in the run game and maybe create some coverage mismatches with LBs. 

10. G/T Chris Olson

He can play any position on the line, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t end up at guard.  Somewhat of an anomaly for Leach OL in that he makes a better athlete than he does a brick wall. Bull rushers could get a push on him, but he was lethal with his footwork in the run game. He’s proved you can run behind him for stretches, yet I wouldn’t describe him as an every down dominator.

11. We start to get to Lyle Leong/Austin Zouzalik/Tramain Swindall and we all know they can’t beat Oklahoma State or Houston.

Crystal Ball

I’m pretty confident that my assessment of our talent is somewhat accurate based on the results of the 2009 season. In coach speak, a spread offense is generally defined as the QB taking the snap out of the shotgun position. 

When Tommy Tuberville says he’s keeping the same offense, he means our QB will be taking snaps out of the shotgun. I feel going forward our play-calling will no longer be dictated by the defense and what coverage they choose to run, but instead, focus on dictating what coverage the defense is forced to run. 

There’s a big difference. Either method has proven effective if you can recruit good enough players and coach them to run it. And, I’m sure we’ll still be taking snaps out of the shotgun. You can even use a TE against Cover 2, if you can recruit one.

The odds of our passing yards and points per game going down aren’t a possibility, they’re a given. However, the odds are we won’t need near as many of them to win.  This wasn’t a Cover 2 league a decade ago when Mike Leach showed up and started throwing the ball.

Now, that it is, theoretically, someone should be able to run the ball on it. We know the SEC is already doing it and, hopefully, the new offense can follow suit carving out its own little niche just like the Air Raid did.

This was written by dedfischer at The Tortilla Retort .