"I really coached him his ninth- and 10th-grade year. By ninth grade, that coach was the offensive coordinator at Brandon High School, and Minshew's education began in earnest.Īlmost every day at school, Minshew spent an hour with Wyatt Rogers in the school's coaches office and watched video of Leach's record-setting Texas Tech offenses. In seventh grade, he and his father sought the counsel of a local private school coach who was running an offense with Air Raid concepts. Minshew was the quarterback of a wide-open offense in the youth flag football league of his hometown of Brandon, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson. Since before he could grow a mustache, Minshew had been training to play in Leach's vaunted Air Raid offense. "People are going to think I'm full of it," Minshew said, "but I always knew in the right situation I could be this kind of successful." It'll be Minshew's final statement - nay, rebuttal - to everyone - almost literally everyone in major college football - who never envisioned him in this situation until Nick Saban showed up with a scholarship offer. Minshew's improbable closing act will reach its end Friday against Iowa State at the Alamo Bowl (9 p.m. "He has this kind of gunslinger attitude and charisma, an attitude of 'You guys come along with me, or I'll go alone,'" said Tom Hutyler, a Seattle-based sports broadcaster and longtime Cougars fan who released a song about Minshew called "Mississippi Moustache." ![]() than Ron Burgundy - and irrepressible swagger and self-confidence catapulted him to cult-hero status on campus. His signature mustache - more Magnum P.I. Leach's recruiting pitch was more than telemarketing: Minshew indeed finished the regular season as the nation's leader in passing yards, lifting the Cougars to their first 10-win season in 15 years and within a game of the Pac-12 championship game in what was expected to be a rebuilding year.īut Minshew's impact on The Palouse extended far beyond his accurate right arm. "To have one of your coaching heroes call and ask you that? It was unreal." I've always been a fan," Minshew said of Leach's New York Times-best-selling memoir "Swing Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life." "I read his book when I was in middle school. Gardner Minshew took Pullman by storm in his one season at Washington State. "We're going to lead the nation in passing one way or another."įor Minshew, it was an offer he couldn't refuse. "Do you want to be a backup at Alabama or lead the nation in passing?" Leach asked. In Tuscaloosa, the recruiters reminded Minshew, he might never get a chance to play.Ī few days later, Washington State coach Mike Leach called Minshew with the most appealing proposal of all. Within days, more of the calls came from college coaches hoping to poach an experienced quarterback coveted by Nick Saban and Alabama. "Most people were kind of like, 'What the hell?'" He briefly lost his starting job at East Carolina the previous season.īut Minshew, as a graduate transfer, was going to accept an offer to join the national champions? It didn't seem to make much sense, and soon Minshew was inundated with messages from people who couldn't believe the news. He started his college career as a walk-on. Gardner Minshew? To Alabama?Ī two-year starter at quarterback at East Carolina, Minshew had never been a sought-after football recruit. ![]() The headlines and sports tickers must have seemed confusing that afternoon in February.
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