Mike Leach coaching tree: Ranking every head coach to serve under The Pirate

Art Briles was an immensely successful head coach before a scandalous ending

Art Briles is an incredibly polarizing figure in the coaching profession. He was a noted high school coach in Texas before linking up with Leach in Lubbock on his 2000-02 Red Raiders staffs as the running backs coach. He then had about a decade-long coaching career in state at the college level at Houston (2003-07) before making Baylor nationally relevant. Then, well … a scandal occurred…

Briles was ousted at Baylor after the 2015 season in the university’s highly-publicized sexual assault scandal. No program would touch him with a 10-foot pole. Briles has gone back to coaching high school ball the last few years, but his tainted legacy in college football is a black mark on the sport. He did win three conference championships and nearly 100 games in college.

Although his reputation will never recover, Briles at his peak was still an outstanding head coach.

Sonny Dykes is the closest any Mike Leach disciple has come to winning it all

All hail The Hypnotoad! Sonny Dykes is coming off one of the greatest first seasons any coach in the history of the sport has had at a new place. Despite losing the Big 12 to Kansas State, TCU won the Fiesta Bowl, only to become Dawg Food vs. Georgia in the national title bout. This former Texas Tech wide receivers coach served at his alma mater where his late father Spike is an icon.

Like Leach, Sonny Dykes never played college football. He played first base for the Red Raiders. However, that didn’t matter because he was born to be a coach. Since becoming a college head coach at Louisiana Tech in 2010, Dykes is 84-65 overall and 51-46 overall in his four combined stops. So much of his success is built off the 2022 TCU team, but he has had success elsewhere.

With Oklahoma and Texas leaving the conference, Dykes could have TCU remaining a Big 12 beast.

Lincoln Riley went from failed Texas Tech walk-on to major college coaching star

It is not particularly close. The strongest branch stemming from the Mike Leach coaching tree is irrefutably Lincoln Riley. For him to go from a failed walk-on quarterback in 2002 to one of the shining stars of the college coaching profession in two decades is nothing short of incredible. Riley worked for Leach as a student assistant, a graduate assistant and a receivers coach through 2009.

Once Leach was ousted in Lubbock, he joined fellow disciple Ruffin McNeil’s staff at East Carolina. Once things started to get weird in Greenville, Riley landed with none other than former Leach mentor Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. He would replace Stoops full-time in 2017, winning four Big 12 titles and making the College Football Playoff thrice. In year one at USC, the Trojans went 11-3.

In six seasons as a college head coach, Riley has gone 66-13 overall and 45-9 in conference play.