In college football, where cliche coach speak floods ear drums, Mike Leach made us listen.
Forget football. Mike Leach was interesting. Mike Leach was funny. Mike Leach was educated.
College football, and the world for that matter, will never forget Mike Leach.
He was more likely to talk about weddings and mascot fights than how a running back must pick up the linebacker in pass protection.
His verbal treatise in 2016 on Chicago Cubs fans is example of the man’s genius, wit, and desert-dry humor.
“Every yuppie with a BMW or some special attachment to its computer or some designer set of jeans or something like that is a Cubs fan, and refers to it as ‘my Cubbies,’” Leach said.
Behind the sense of humor was a football coach.
After TCU defeated his Texas Red Raiders, 12-3, in Fort Worth in 2006, Leach said, “I’ll be nice about that and politically correct like you’re supposed to, but that was the sorriest offensive effort I’ve ever seen. Today, I coached the worst offense in America.”
On Tuesday morning, Mississippi State announced that Leach died. He was 61.
There is no better description for these situations other than, “This sucks.”
According The Clarion Ledger, Leach suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Starkville, Miss on Sunday. He was transferred to hospital in Jackson, Miss. where he died on Monday.
“Other than my dad, he had the biggest influence on me, certainly from a coaching perspective,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said in a phone interview. Between Kentucky and Texas Tech, Dykes worked with Leach for eight seasons.
“Look at the landscape of college football; I don’t know if anybody in my lifetime had a bigger impact on college football than Mike Leach. I can’t imagine anyone impacting the game like he did.”
It’s hard to watch a football game on any level and not see Mike Leach.
His legacy on football is almost too big to quantify, and what he did for Texas Tech is unrivaled.
The Pirate Lands in Lubbock
In November of 1999, Spike Dykes, Sonny’s father, retired as the football coach at Texas Tech.
Spike was West Texas, and he was synonymous with the Red Raiders. He was funny, and he embodied the old Southwest Conference.
Tech hired Leach, who spent the previous season at the University of Oklahoma as Bob Stoops’ offensive coordinator. Tech was Leach’s first head coaching job.
Leach was funny, too. He didn’t embody anything old.
No one knew what to make of the quirky coach who adopted the nickname “The Pirate.” The football coach earned a bachelor’s degree from BYU, a law degree from Pepperdine, and a master’s degree from the U.S. Sports Academy.
In college football’s rapidly evolving world, he gave Texas Tech an identity, and made them nationally relevant every year.
Cody Campbell, who is now one of Texas Tech’s most influential alums and a member of its board of regents, was a part of Leach’s first recruiting class when he took the job in 2000.
“Sometimes it was not fun playing for him,” Campbell said in a phone interview. “He was relentless, and you really don’t appreciate it at the time. A lot of times we were united against Coach Leach. I think he did that purposefully; he wanted us in the foxhole together.
“There are so many things I picked up from him. His approach to leadership, and the way he thought about things. I think about themes he used; he’d say, ‘Don’t confuse activity for results.’ ‘Get better every day.’ ‘Play the next play whether you had success or not.’”
Leach’s offense spread everyone all over the field, and then all over the map. Little guys lined up in the slot. Offensive linemen lined up wide. The quarterback in the shotgun on every snap.
Throwing 60 to 70 passes a game was the norm under Leach.
The Red Raiders had a winning record in all 10 of Leach’s seasons, and reached a bowl game every year. Five times the Red Raiders were ranked in the final Top 25 AP poll.
In 2008, Texas Tech alum and CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley returned to his alma mater to do a profile on the Red Raiders, and Leach, for “60 Minutes.”
That year, the Red Raiders reached as high as No. 2 in the AP Poll.
On Nov. 1, 2008 the No. 7 Red Raiders played No. 1 Texas in Lubbock, one of the most memorable night’s in school history.
Tech quarterback Graham Harrell hit receiver Michael Crabtree for a 28-yard touchdown with one second remaining to give Tech a 39-33 win.
“It was a special time and a special place,” Campbell said. “He elevated us and showed us all what we were capable of doing, and being nationally relevant.
“It was the most special and magical time we’ve had in the history of our program. The way he brought everyone together, and waving the pirate flag. The whole campus adopted his style and his mentality.”
The Pirate Departs Lubbock
A little more than one year after Texas Tech enjoyed its greatest high under Leach, the pirate’s ship wrecked.
Late in the 2009 season, Leach drew criticism after Texas Tech receiver Adam James posted a video of himself inside a storage shed during a Red Raiders’ practice.
James is the son of former SMU running back Craig James, who at the time was an analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage. Leach had invited James to be on the team, primarily in the hopes of generating favorable coverage on ESPN.
The overblown, embarrassing incident led Texas Tech to suspend Leach, and it ultimately fired him on Dec. 30, one day before the Red Raiders were to play in the Alamo Bowl.
The truth is a lot of higher ups in the Tech power structure were tired of Leach’s behavior, and were ready to move on.
Even though Leach maintained friendly relationships with his former staffers and players, and many people in the Tech community, he never got over this.
Leach remained in a legal dispute over what he felt was money owed him, and would often rip Texas Tech for what he felt were violations of his contract.
“All of that is still in litigation and it’s still a mess,” Campbell said. “In terms of the current administration, there are no hard feelings. Most of the people involved in that are no longer there. It was something that Leach harbored hard feelings over.”
After word spread Monday that Leach was fighting for his life, the Jumbotron at AT&T Stadium in Lubbock featured a picture of Leach from his Tech days with the caption, “Swing Your Sword.”
The fallout to the finale
After Leach was fired, Texas Tech’s football program lost its identity, and has not fully recovered. Current coach Joey McGuire is the Red Raiders’ fourth full-time head coach since Leach left.
Leach did not coach in 2010 or 2011 before accepting the Washington State job. He made a similar impact in Pullman, Wash. as he did in Lubbock, Tex.
Washington State historically is one of the harder jobs in power five coaching. He coached there for eight seasons, and led the Cougars to an 11-2 record and a win in the Alamo Bowl in 2018.
He left WSU after the 2019 season to become the head coach at Mississippi State.
Leach changed addresses, but the results were always the same. The teams he coached were competitive, and while they never did challenge for a national title they were always decent.
“I never met anyone tougher or more stubborn than Mike Leach,” Dykes said. “There was no one more head strong. That’s what made him so unique and so special.”
The Bulldogs won four games in Leach’s first season, and are 8-4 in 2022 and scheduled to play in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Jan. 2.
The Leach coaching tree features men who coached three of the top five Heisman Trophy candidates this season: Dykes, USC’s Lincoln Riley, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel.
Other coaches who worked under Leach include Kliff Kingsbury, Art Briles, Seth Littrell, Neal Brown, among a load of assistants.
“He changed football at every level,” Campbell said. “When I was in high school, we threw the ball five or six times a game.
“Fast forward to today, and every high school is running the spread. It’s gone up to the NFL. The game looks totally different. That was brilliance, his commitment and his vision.”
Mike Leach never did win a national title, but he was a winner who changed the way a sport is played, all the while making everyone laugh.
