Want to get inside the mind of Mike Leach? Ask his quarterbacks

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While some coaches micromanage every element of their scheme, staff and players, Washington State coach Mike Leach has found success with more of a laissez faire approach.

Quarterbacks in his Air Raid offense are expected to know the ins and outs of every position on the field, but Leach affords them far more control in calling plays and making reads than most college (or professional) coaches would dare.

It doesn’t happen often, but Leach says there are games when his quarterback heads onto the field about 60 percent of the time with nothing more than an offensive formation. In those cases, it is the quarterback’s responsibility alone to give the offense his own play call, unless he decides to audible on the formation altogether.

It’s a level of trust between Leach and his quarterbacks that he calls “one of the strengths of our offense.” According to several former quarterbacks who played for Leach, it also serves to form what they describe as the most unique relationship between a coach and a player in all of college football.

“You don’t find that in a lot of offensive coordinators or head coaches,” former Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons said. “Some of them might be a little egotistical that you’re going to run what they call. … That freedom that Mike gave you — and it came from him trusting that you could make the right call — that was a big part of my success.”

For some quarterbacks, it takes a while for that trust level to manifest itself. For others, like former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell, it came a bit more quickly. He realized the amount of ownership he had over the offense five games into his sophomore season.

With Texas Tech down three with less than a minute to go and the Red …

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