Mizzou's Eliah Drinkwitz Vows for Mike Leach's College Football Hall of Fame Induction

Mike Leach was amongst the greatest coaches of all time, and his passing took the college football world by storm. Eliah Drinkwitz built a relationship with Leach throughout his years of coaching. In an unexpected opening statement, Coach Drinkwitz vowed for Leach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Leach tragically passed away in December of 2022, after battling complications from a heart condition. Nicknamed "The Pirate," he was a two-time national coach of the year, three-time conference coach of the year. Most famously, as Eliah Drinkwitz eluded to, he was the mastermind behind the air raid offense, which is now commonly used in the sport.

Leach passed away with a winning percentage of .596, which was just one win shy of the .600 winning percentage needed to qualify for the College Football Hall of Fame. Unarguably, he deserves to be recognized for his achievements, but to this point the Hall of Fame has seemed unwilling to budge on their stance.

""Coach Leach, in my mind, and I believe in most of the people in this room, is a no-doubt Hall-of-Famer. He impacted our game more in the last 50 years than a lot of other people, not only with his legacy, but also with his football acumen. His air raid offense is the dominate offense when you look at high school football, its elements in college football and all the way translating into the NFL game. We all know Y cross. We all know that six is four verticals. We all understand that rocket laser were tailback screens, rocket to the right, laser to the left. He won 158 career games, was the 2008 Big 12 Coach of the Year, two-time PAC-12 Coach of the Year, and in 2018 was the AFCA Football Coach of the Year. Won 11 games at Texas Tech and 11 games at Washington State. And I understand that his career winning percentage is .596, one win short of the 60 percent threshold, and I understand that standards are there for people to make decisions, but I also understand that Coach Leach would be a great value to the Hall of Fame, because of the legacy that he has, because of the impact that he made, because of the innovator that he was, because of the legacy of coaches that he left. And in my opinion, not only a winner, but a Hall-of-Famer.""

- Eliah Drinkwitz

This statement was no doubt very powerful and has left a lot of people siding with Drinkwitz. Mike Leach is more than a deserving candidate for the Hall of Fame, and it would be a shame to see him left out because he was one win shy of the threshold. Especially given the way his career came to an end, an exception only feels right.