Local coach recounts his brush with fame and football legend Mike Leach
Story by Steve Nussbaum | Photos contributed by Matt Williams

Matt Williams, a local coach at Mineral Wells High School, has an incredible story to tell about his “15 minutes of fame†– and it’s tied to legendary football coach Mike Leach, who passed away in December from complications related to a heart condition.

Leach, the quirky football coach at Texas Tech University from 2000 to 2009, was the offensive genius behind the famous “Air Raid†offense, which once was considered a gimmick but now is used in high schools, colleges and even the NFL. Leach was the winningest coach at Texas Tech, and his offenses led the nation almost every year he coached there.

Williams, who transferred to Texas Tech from Tarleton State University in 2008 to be closer to family and attend the same school his brother was attending, literally came out of the stands to become a football star for Leach’s Red Raiders.

During the third Red aiders football game of that season, Williams entered his name into a kicking contest to win free rent for a year from the local Lynnwood Townhomes. All he had to do was make a 30-yard field goal in front of 50,000 people.

The contestants in these promotions don’t always succeed, but what the contest organizers didn’t know is that Williams had been a kicker at Weatherford High School, and for a brief time he was the kicker for Tarleton’s football squad. His name was selected in the random drawing for the contest, and on his way down to the field Williams saw some old high school friends sitting behind the goal post.

“Be ready,†he told them. “I’m going to kick it right to you.â€

Leach and his team were on the sidelines at the end of the third quarter when Williams sent his kick right down the middle of the uprights, with the crowd going wild.

As Williams was walking up the tunnel to return to his seat during the fourth quarter, he was calling his mom, who was in the stands that night, when a student-trainer walked up to him and said, “Leach would like to talk to you.â€

Williams was allowed to hang around the sidelines for the remainder of the game, and with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Leach approached him and asked, “Have you done that before?â€

Williams told Leach about his high school experience and his brief stint as a kicker at Tarleton, and his answer didn’t seem to surprise the legendary football coach.

“You looked comfortable,†he told Williams. “Come by my office Monday and let’s talk.â€

News crews surrounded Williams later to ask what Leach said.

In hindsight, Williams said, that was one of the most Mike Leach things ever.

That following Monday, Williams met with the special teams coach. The Red Raiders kickers had been struggling that year, and Leach needed some insurance. On his way by Leach’s office, the head coach told Williams to get changed because the team members were lifting weights that day. Williams was escorted to the weight room, where he worked with the strength and conditioning coach.

Williams said he had lifted weights before, but nothing like that, and by the end of the session he was dead tired. As he sat in the locker room, not believing what was happening, he said several players came up to ask, “Are you OK?â€

Williams spent the next four weeks training while waiting to get approval from the NCAA to play – and it just so happened that NCAA rules prohibited him from taking the free rent from the contest.

Texas Tech had a talented kicker with a strong leg in that 2008 season, but that kicker was struggling to convert his extra-point attempts. In his first game as a Red Raider, Williams made nine extra-point attempts in a win over Kansas and was named the AT&T ESPN All-America Player of the Week.

Texas Tech had a magical year in 2008, including a 39-33 win over Big 12 conference rival Texas, which was ranked No. 1 when the two teams played in Lubbock that year. The Red Raiders were ranked No. 6 at the time, and Williams made all his extra points that night – and two of three field goals, too. (The third one was blocked.) To this day, many Red Raiders fans consider that game as the greatest in Texas Tech history.

Williams became something of a folk legend on campus, and teammate Bryan Duncan gave Williams the nickname “Lynnwood†to commemorate the contest kick that caught Leach’s eye.

Williams finished his Texas Tech career as the team’s starting kicker for the 2009 and 2010 season – not bad for a guy that walked out from the stands and became a local hero.

Williams has many Leach stories to share, and one of the more notable ones is tied to a Red Raiders loss in which, during a press conference, Leach said his players were spending “too much time with their fat little girlfriends telling them how great they are.â€

Williams said Leach was trying to make the point that the team wasn’t focused – then added that his girlfriend (and now wife), Tiffany, didn’t mind.

“I’m not fat,†she told him. “Who cares?â€

Leach’s quote wasn’t the most politically correct statement, but Williams said that his coach didn’t care, as it was a small sample of the kind of guy Leach was. To Williams, Leach didn’t care what other people thought; if he did, he would have never invited a youngster who had just won a kicking contest to try out for his team.

These days, Williams is focused on his family, and those crazy football years seem long ago. He and his wife have two children – Peyton, age 7, and 4-year-old Kyndal –and Williams has spent the last nine years Ras a coach at Mineral Wells High School.

Recently, though, the couple’s oldest child came home from school saying that he saw his dad in a video on social media. Williams said he looked at the comments on the video and noticed that his son had commented, “That’s my dad.â€

Williams credits much of his coaching style to lessons he learned playing for Leach, who he said was very straightforward and to the point, and whose mantra was “play the next play.â€

Mike Leach left a legacy of offensive innovation and a coaching tree that is admired across the football world, and Matt “Lynnwood†Williams will always appreciate the chance Leach gave him to be a part of that legacy.