Jun. 1—PULLMAN — Mike Leach, one of the greatest coaches in Washington State football history, is eligible to get his due.
For the first time, Leach is on the ballot for the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame, which on Monday released its annual list of 80 players and nine coaches eligible to be selected for the class of 2027. The final class is set to be unveiled in January.
Leach’s eligibility is big news because to land on the ballot, the NFF adjusted its requirements. When Leach suddenly died in December 2022, after his third season coaching at Mississippi State, his career winning percentage was .596 — just below the threshold of .600 required by the NFF to appear on the HOF ballot.
So last year, the NFF moved its requirements down to .595, which allowed Leach to appear on the ballot.
At WSU, where Leach coached from 2012-18, he lifted the Cougars to national heights. Led by the famous Air Raid offense, Leach and WSU made six bowl appearances, highlighted by a 2018 season in which the Cougars won 11 games and captured a victory in the Alamo Bowl and a No. 10 final ranking.
Leach, the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in both 2015 and 2018, used the Air Raid system to pace the FBS in passing yards per game in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019. He helped develop two of the most prolific quarterbacks in WSU history, Connor Halliday and Gardner Minshew, both of whom broke all manner of records in their time as Cougs.
Also on the ballot is former WSU quarterback and current TV commentator Ryan Leaf, who earned first team All-American honors in 1997 and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting that year, still the highest finish in WSU history. He led the Cougars to their first Rose Bowl in 67 years, and he was named the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year.
The ballot also includes the brother of current WSU head coach Kirby Moore, Kellen Moore, the former Boise State QB and current head coach of the New Orleans Saints.