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Mike Leach and holding, and other fun facts.

I was reading through this Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, Blind Side, among others) about Mike Leach and his transformation of the offensive side of college football.  Lewis tends to dramaticize things a bit, but still, this article is a pretty insightful look at the Tech offense, and Leach in general (he wants to start a student pirate army, for example).  

Then, I got to page six, where Leach talks about Tech's play during the 2006 Texas Tech-Texas A&M game.   Excerpt:

On another [play], a [TTU] touchdown was nullified by a holding call on the receiver Robert Johnson far away from the action. If you are the captain of a pirate ship, you cannot complain too much about lawless behavior - and Texas Tech is one of the most heavily penalized teams in college football - but still it's painful to watch a crew member drop treasure overboard. (Later, watching a videotape of the incident, Leach actually says, "Johnson's got to do a better job holding.")

 

I suppose its possible he means that he's got to do a better job by not holding, but I think this can be taken as read.  Lewis' article's premise is that the genius of Leach is on the cusp of being discovered (as of 2006 anyways) and that his offense exploits inefficiencies in college football defenses.  While I can't argue against that, maybe it would help out opposing defenses if, you know, penalties were called the way they're supposed to be. 

That said, this a great read and worth a look.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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