Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow

SPORTING GOODS

If you read Moneyball, then you have to read author Michael Lewis' "Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep" from this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach. He basically turned a piss-poor program into a Division-1 offensive powerhouse by throwing away the old playbook and rethinking how a football offense can be run. He is also a crazy eccentric who likes to give his players hour-long dissertations about pirates. (Very amusing.)

I watch football but know almost nothing about how it is played. That is to say I can recite old maxims like "you have to establish a running game in order to have an effective passing attack" but I have no clue about Xs and Os. Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow means nothing to me. But to Mike Leach, it is a whole new way to play football.

Like Billy Beane in Moneyball, Mike Leach has brought new thinking to a sport and a coaching establishment that doesn't really want it. And like Beane before him, Leach is seen as an outsider, as someone not to be trusted. But he is also someone who may revolutionize how the game is played. I don't give a lick about college football, but I will now play close attention to Leach. Not knowing about the intricacies of formations and play calling may make the article more interesting because you don't have any preconceptions to overcome. Kudos to Lewis for once again shining a light on a true innovator. (He is fast becoming my favorite sports writer anywhere.) This is truly fascinating stuff. Ace Rip 6 Y Shallow indeed.