USC coach Lincoln Riley backs up a rival fan's take on Mike Leach

The 2025 College Football Hall of Fame ballot was recently released to the public. It includes 77 FBS players and nine coaches. Unfortunately, former Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach’s name was not included, which upset many current coaches, including Lincoln Riley.

Riley’s social media post is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, he responded to a Kyle Umlang tweet/post. Few fans were more critical of Riley during his time with Oklahoma than Umlang. Second, Umlang took a break from his usual Texas Longhorns fan trolling and posted something all college football fans can get behind.

The College Football HOF’s requirement that coaches win 60% of their games is ludicrous.

Mike Leach compiled a 158-107 coaching record in 21 years that featured stops at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State. He led his teams to 17 bowl games, coached five Consensus All-Americans, and was named the AFCA Coach of the Year in 2018. What’s more impressive is the Mike Leach coaching tree.

Leach’s collegiate tenure produced numerous football coaches, including West Virginia’s Neal Brown, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, TCU’s Sonny Dykes, and Baylor’s Dave Aranda. Lincoln Riley’s leaf in the Leach tree stems from his time as a walk-on quarterback at Texas Tech. Riley eventually transitioned to an assistant coach with the Red Raiders before leaving with Ruffin McNeill for East Carolina.

College football fans will forever cherish Leach for his infectious personality and memorable quotes. Everything from “Mike’s Pirate Academy” to discussing wedding planning and Halloween candy will live in infamy. However, Leach’s name will not live in the HOF because his career win percentage falls .004% short of the requirement.

Those in charge of HOF eligibility must change their ridiculous win percentage requirement.

All three college football programs that Leach led were losing teams upon his arrival. But man famous for his Air Raid offense put in the work required to turn his programs around for the better. Leach deserves to be in the HOF because he was a phenomenal college football program builder and manager.