By now, chances are good you've seen us bring up the class that Mike Leach is co-teaching at Washington State on Insurgent War fare and how it fits with the Air Raid. Leach led that class for the first time recently, as our Video of the Day highlights.
Well yesterday, a college football first took place. Leach, along with his teaching partner Michael Baumgartner, held a joint press conference to provide some details on the class, its offerings, and their unique thought behind the class and how it came to fruition following an overseas trip together.
First off, Baumgartner shares quite a bit of his impressive resume that includes some impressive academic qualifications coupled with some truly unique military and government experience, including a stint in Iraq working with insurgent warfare techniques and methods.
"The theme for this first class, if you've been following along on Twitter, is two questions that were posed, which is; Why didn't Lawrence of Arabia take Medina when he was leading the Arab insurgency against the Ottoman Turks, and why did WSU run a shovel pass in the 4th quarter for a touchdown when they beat USC in 2017?" Baumgartner shared.
"What we think the parallels are, is back to the theme of this first class, is how do successful underdog insurgents take and turn the strengths of their opponents and turn them into weaknesses?"
Baumgartner goes on to share how, even before the class, he'd sometimes go down to Leach's office to watch film with him and marveled at the similarities between a coach putting together his game plan, and what he would do at the embassy during his time working in Iraq.
At around the 17:50 mark, Baumgartner shares that in the classes third session a talk is being prepared on fourth quarter comebacks, and how to plan and execute one. The person giving that talk isn't Leach, but rather a "well known former WSU player" taking the class - likely NFL Draft prospect Gardner Minshew II, who can be spotted in that VOD in the class.
Another interesting part of the class, Leach shares, is that there will be a final group project where those taking the seminar will have to create plays. Don't be surprised if we end up hearing about that again come the fall when Leach dials one up...and it works spectacularly.
See the full presser below, and stay tuned for updates from the class. The last class session of the semester is set to be aired live, and a lot of folks (including myself) are really looking forward to that.
https://youtu.be/uZgoD0a0Cs4