Iowa Wesleyan mourns the loss of Mike Leach

MT. PLEASANT — The entire college football world was stunned this week, as Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach, a former Offensive Coordinator at Iowa Wesleyan, passed away Monday night following complications from a heart condition.

Leach, along with being a highly successful coach from the NAIA to the NCAA Division I level, was known for his outgoing, funny personality and for his infamous rants during media press conferences and interviews.

Leach was also known for being one of the most instrumental parts of introducing the Air Raid Offense, which was born at Iowa Wesleyan and is now wildly popular today.

Iowa Wesleyan has released the following in remembrance of its former coach.

When thinking about Iowa Wesleyan Tiger Football, one would be remiss not to mention Coach Mike Leach. Leach was born in Susanville, California, on March 9, 1961. After an ankle injury ended his football career as an athlete in high school, Leach wasted no time getting back into the game. As a rugby player at Brigham Young University, he often sat in on the film sessions for the football team. A few short years after graduating, Leach began his coaching career at Cal Poly as an assistant coach.

Hal Mumme took over the Tiger program in 1989 with Mike Leach at his side as his offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. Together, they took a program that went 0-10 the previous year and turned it into a 7-4 team in their first year. Just two seasons later, in 1991, the pair established a 10-2 record and made it to the NAIA Playoffs.

How did they do this? Together with Dana Holgerson, current Head Football Coach at the University of Houston, and the rest of the coaching staff, they created an offense that fundamentally changed the football landscape forever. The Air Raid offense, seen across every level of football today, was created in Mt. Pleasant on the Iowa Wesleyan campus. This game-changing offense allowed the Tigers to defeat their opponents in incredible fashion and also cemented their place in Iowa Wesleyan Football history.

Dustin Dewald, the team's quarterback in 1991, still holds almost all of the passing records in IW history books. Against Wayne State on Oct. 26, 1991, Dewald completed 507 passing yards with seven touchdown passes, which is also the record for total offensive yards in a game. In this same game, Bruce Carter, a wide receiver for the Tigers, set the record for receiving yards with 216. He also set the record for most receptions in a game with 16 and tied it on two other occasions throughout his career at IW. Against Harding on Sept. 21 that same year, he completed 61 passes out of 86 pass attempts and ran 99 offensive plays. Also in 1991, Carter statted two more records against Concordia (Wisconsin), catching five touchdown passes and scoring 30 points. All of these records were earned by running the Air Raid offense.

Coach Leach left Iowa Wesleyan after the 1991 season and followed Mumme to Valdosta State and then Kentucky. In 1999, Leach headed to Oklahoma and then spent a few years at Texas Tech. From 2012-2019, Leach led the football team at Washington State. In January 2020, Mike Leach announced he would be traveling to Mississippi to be the next head coach of Mississippi State. Mike Leach continued making history every step of his coaching career.

On Monday, Dec. 12, Mississippi State University stated in a news release that Leach suffered a "personal health issue." It was released early Tuesday morning, December 13th, that the legendary football coach, Mike Leach, passed away at UMMC in Jackson. A true icon and history-maker in football was lost, but his impact on the game will continue throughout the remainder of time. As if Mother Nature is in mourning also, it is fitting that rain is coming down in Mount Pleasant today. All of Iowa Wesleyan and the Tiger family's thoughts and prayers are with his family and the Bulldog football team during this difficult time.