In recent years, the Mike Leach coaching tree has begun to see its influence spread across the landscape of college football. Though many around the nation used to look down upon Leach and his system as a gimmick that would never be successful at the highest levels of the game, the roots of numerous college football (and even some NFL) coaches can be traced back to the first decade of the century when Lubbock Texas was ground-zero for offensive innovation.
Head coaches such as Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia, Seth Littrell and North Texas and the disgraced Art Briles all spent time at Texas Tech when Leach had the entire nation believing that pirate ships actually floated through the cotton fields of the Llano Estacado.