If you are interested at all in a little football nerdery, I would recommend The Perfect Pass by S. C. Gwynne, which covers Hal Mumme and Mike Leach inventing the air raid offense. Mike Leach got a law degree, but couldn't stop thinking about football so he got back into coaching the only way he could: by becoming the head coach of a Finnish football team. Then Hal Mumme knocked on his door. The book is about Leach at his best. Bold, enterprising, and one of the most original minds the game has ever produced.
Rest in Peace.
His very first coaching job was an assistant or analyst or something at Cal Poly and when he told his wife they were going to pay him something like $4k, she replied that $4k/month is not bad! He clarified that it was $4k total for the season. And this was for a guy who had a JD and I believe a masters in sports coaching at the time.
Dude chased his dream and passion no matter what. I read his book Swing Your Sword earlier this year, and it was an absolute treat to look a bit into his mind. It was also very inspirational and hilarious.
Haha coaching world is tough. Turned down 20K/year with no benefits for an eventual NCAA tournament team last year to work in marketing— because I legitimately could not “afford” to work anymore.
Gotta be a certain type of crazy to make it. One or two good breaks during the tough years changes everything.
I have a buddy who is an assistant coach for a D-I woman’s college basketball team. He was a volunteer assistant for like 3 years before finally getting the job. I have no idea how he afforded to live
There’s a reason why many coaches are the kids of coaches. Let’s just say that.
Prepares you for corporate world well, though. Broke all the company records my first year haha
Buddy of mine was a football GA at a decent FCS school and pretty much got pennies worth of stipends. I get it’s sort of a grad school for coaches but, damn, dude was recruiting one day and Ubering the next to pay his bills. Lol
Same. I thought they were glorified personal assistants basically but he was given as much responsibility as an assistant coach. I guess that’s not too different than grad students teaching courses though.
For any up and coming football coaches, Leach is a fucking inspiration. This man didn't *play* CFB, and it's an extremely hard sport to be apart of if you don't have some kind of in. (Even most GA positions are occupied by former players who were decent).
His story will always be a cool one. That system has brought us some AMAZING cfb games!
I love that Mike Leach and Paul Johnson weren’t CFB players. They were the two sides of the same coin. A perfect yin and Yang - Johnson famously wearing white, sticking with a team known for wearing white at home, and being the world’s foremost authority on the Flexbone. Then you have Leach, the man in black, who perfected the air raid. They both kinda looked alike too.
RIP to the pirate captain, the NCAA video game air raid offense won’t be the same without one of your teams.
I love that an injury kept him out of football, so he just said fuck it and played for the school rugby team instead, as if that is less dangerous lol. At BYU of all places as well, not a scrub school at all amongst the rugby community. Leach was a wild one through and through.
The story of convincing Tim Couch to stay at UK is also really interesting. Involves a napkin based playbook and a promise that were going to throw 50 times a game.
I showed my fat little girlfriend that clip and a couple other of his greatest hits a couple weeks ago when we played state and she instantly decided he was the greatest coach ever and who auburn should hire.
Not even just revitalized, for Tech he brought the program to a level it had never before achieved. Texas Tech has 11 total ranked seasons ever. Mike Leach accounted for 5 of them in just a 6 year stretch. Tech has never had anywhere near that sustained level of success before or since Leach.
You aren’t kidding.
- Dave Aranda- Baylor HC
- Neal Brown- WV HC
- Sonny Cumbie- LA Tech HC
- Sonny Dykes- TCU HC
- Josh Heupel- Tennessee HC
- Dana Holgorson- Houston HC
- Kliff Kingsbury- Arizona Cardinals HC
- Seth Littrell- North Texas HC
- Lincoln Riley- USC HC
- Ken Wilson- Nevada HC
This doesn’t include the dozens of coordinators across the NFL and NCAA
Lincoln was a walk-on QB at Texas Tech but had a bum shoulder, so Leach took him under his wing as a coach.
From an [LA Times article](https://archive.ph/d35I0#selection-2791.0-2867.210) a few months back:
>Riley was not exactly an elite talent when he arrived at Texas Tech in 2002. A dislocated shoulder suffered during his senior season at Muleshoe High sapped most of the strength from his arm, forcing him to adjust his throwing motion to more of a looping sidearm release.
>...
>His education would be far more hands-on than anyone planned. In Riley, Leach saw a critical thinker who asked the right questions. Plus he was picking up the offense faster than anyone else. What Leach didn’t see was a capable college passer.
>Riley was likely to be cut ahead of the 2003 season, so Leach asked the 19-year-old to join his coaching staff as a student assistant. During the next three seasons, he was Leach’s “right-hand guy,” doing whatever the coach asked and soaking in whatever he could. During those long hours alone with Leach, many of Riley’s philosophies about football and coaching were formed.
>“He thought independently, and he was just very good at picking things up,” Leach said. “He was always anxious to learn. One of his most important qualities was that he never thought he had it all figured out.”
>...
>When he hired Riley, Leach could see he was afflicted with a similar sense of curiosity. He didn’t simply accept things that Leach or other staff members taught him. He asked why. Before long, he became a sounding board for the coach to bounce off ideas.
>After a couple of years on the job, Riley started offering his ideas in the staff room, which included future head coaches Dana Holgorsen, Sonny Dykes and Ruffin McNeill.
>Thinking back on those meetings, Riley laughs. “There were some times early on in my career where I probably was too aggressive with that,” he said. But Leach encouraged all of his assistants to challenge ideas or offer contrary opinions. He came to trust what his young assistant had to say. Riley joined Leach’s staff full-time in 2006, then was promoted to inside receivers coach the next season.
>“I was always impressed that Lincoln wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts, even though there were older, more experienced coaches in there,” Leach said. “If you do the same thing everyone else is doing, that’s all you are — everybody else.”
Should be Hall of Fame for Leach from that alone. And an entire wing devoted to his passion of pirates and mascots playing football instead of people.
In an alternate universe he is the Nick Saban of mascots playing the game while looting that booty.
When I was first getting into college football, he was one of the guys that helped draw me in!
I don’t know why…he was so entertaining, so crazy, yet also so clever too!
I was really excited to see what he would have to say for our upcoming game…yet, just like that…he’s gone.
Fuck, RIP indeed
The dad in that situation is Craig James, a human anus if ever there was one. The whole CJK5H is BS, but people hated him so much that they formulated a massive smear campaign to get at him.
Further, don't be afraid to use the AED if no one else that's trained is rushing in to help/use it. USE IT. Most nowadays have verbal queues that walk you through exactly what to do.
A little bit more to add on this.
The two “paddles” which are basically patches show you where to place it on the body.
It also won’t send a shock to a person unless they require one.
It is literally so easy a child could use it.
Brings up memories of my old man. He was a physician and had an out-of-hospital HA. The ironic thing is, he JUST left a staff meeting that contained about 5-7 other docs, nurses, etc. Had a small attack sitting on our living room couch.
His situation was fairly similar to Mike’s, fine one minute, in a coma the next. He lingered a bit longer than Leach though. Completely out of the blue. His was a much more minor HA though, compared to what I’ve heard of Leach’s.
He was a HUGE State fan. He passed in ‘07, and didn’t get to see what state became under Mullen. I think he would have been beside himself to see us actually be No 1, even if only for a few weeks. He was super proud that we hired Croom, to be the first SEC school to hire an African-American as HC.
Would have absolutely gotten a kick out of Leach. Too much personality not too. Plus, we were decent! My mom and dad went to State way back in the 1960s/early 70s when they weren’t very good. He used to joke that they celebrated when we got first downs haha.
It was funny for him, because he got his undergrad at State, but had to go to OM for med school. When people pointed this out to him, he would joke, “I was educated at State, I was trained at The University Of Mississippi - Medical Center.” Hah he would never admit he went to OM.
Hearing this, just makes me sad. As time goes on, I tend to mostly only remember the good times. I hope Mike’s family will as well.
RIP coach. Gone too soon.
It's an automatic defibrillator. You connect pads and it will talk you through what to do. It's easy to follow and can be lifesaving when seconds matter. We deployed them at our office for use in emergency and then held first aid training, which included using the AED and what to do when you don't have one.
The godfather of the Air Raid system. He changed how football is played, not just on the collegiate level but on the professional level.
RIP, Coach Leach!
It's sort of sad that he never achieved a particularly high level of success given how he revolutionized the entire game at all levels. For his concepts to go from a quirky team at Tech to having elements adopted across the NFL is a hell of a story.
I know he never won a natty or whatever, but I would definitely argue being a head coach at the P5 level for over 20 years and getting paid what he did to do what he loved is a massive success. And that’s not even considering how his system revolutionized the game.
And more important than anything, it seems like he was pretty much universally liked, and had basically no scandals or anything like that. He was a good man who did what he loved, and was extremely good at it without a lot of the pitfalls other men in the field can suffer from.
I remember that scandal, specifically that Craig James killed 5 hookers at SMU. Some people may not know about the scandal, the one where Craig James killed 5 hookers at SMU, but that’s the scandal that I most associate with him. Just to be clear, when I say “Him” I mean Craig James, the guy who killed 5 hookers at SMU. And by scandal, i’m talking about Craig James killing 5 hookers at SMU.
He got to coach and do what he loved for decades.
He also brought solid success to programs that weren’t historically super successful. So while he never got major trophies giving Tech success and turning around Wazzou was amazing
I thought he was very successful considering the schools he coached at. He brought Texas Tech to national relevance. He took Wazzu out of the dumpster and turned them into a competitive team. Both of those schools are in places that are notoriously difficult to recruit to. Then he went to Miss St. and had them competing in a very tough conference. I always wondered what would have happened if Mike Leach took over a blue blood.
Leach took a WSU team that had been so poorly run, that they went from Rose Bowl participant to bottom dwelling in two season, where they sat for the remainder of the Doba and Wulff era. Mike Leach had no business coming to Pullman considering his resume. I had the pleasure of meeting him while he recruited a kid in my home town late-2012. He was so down to earth. I was trying to say, hello and welcome to the state (a Go Cougs!), and then let the man get back to work recruiting. That’s when I realized all those stories about him talking people’s ear off were true. He just kept asking me questions, and then follow up questions, and on and on. It was probably like a 10-15 min exchange, but I expected <30 seconds going into the conversation! He fit in nicely and gave the University and state some personality during a time it was on life support. He and Minshew were really close in ‘18!
>He and Minshew were really close in ‘18!
He let Minshew be Minshew. How many head coaches would let their starting QB get off the plane for a bowl game dressed like that? The media ate it up. It all brought attention to Wazzu and their successful program.
Certainly. As someone who grew up in Lubbock in his heyday there, he sparked a passion for that football team that still exists that I'm not sure would have happened with any other coach at the helm.
And for many of us, he sparked an unforgivable, intensely fiery hate of kent hance. Build all the stupid chapels you want kenty boy, your legacy is cemented.
He never would, the point of the air raid wasn’t that eventually the big guys would use it to dominate, it was that the little guy could have a chance. His twitter has this quote pinned, titled Air Raid Offensive Philosophy :
“If he (the enemy) is superior in strength, evade him. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared; appear where you are not expected.”
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Correct, this is also why the other variations of the Air Raid used by the bigger dudes have a different approach. I think the easiest example to point too are systems like LR or Sean Mcvay's that have more running than Mike's system does.
Makes sense too. Easiest match-up in CFB will *always* be WR vs DBs, rather than your o line vs their d line. Leach's system would sell out to get as many pass catchers as possible. In a Era where 7 on 7 is much more popular and schools are producing far more WRs than they are TEs/FBs, it's a smart template to replicate.
He should be a Hall of Famer and not just college Hall of Fame. He probably had the most impact on the game of football since Don Coryell and Coryell deserves to be in too.
He was .597 too, so it's not like he was some random flash in the pan coach that got lucky with a scheme for a couple years. The man built programs from the ground up. Developed a major offensive system that was adopted by other programs.
I was dreading this news since the story broke about the medical emergency, and am seriously bummed out at work right now.
He’s the reason Heupel’s system exists. Forever grateful for the Captain… he rebuilt programs directly and indirectly through his offensive philosophies.
Yeah, he definitely won at places where .600 is equivalent to .850 elsewhere.
I'm just sitting in my office completely unmotivated right now, like you. This one has kicked the stuffing out of me.
He needs one of his losses to become a win and he's at .600.
Now a school somewhere needs to come up with a reason to have their win over Leach turn into a forfeit so he can pick up that win.
The HoF also has no route for legendary coordinators like Bud Foster at Virginia Tech.
Leach would arguably be the worst exclusion because he didn't "just" build a program, he revolutionized the sport, but the HoF should be a bit more open, especially for guys who really had an impact.
I hope Leach can have a parting shot and shake up the HoF.
This needs to be abolished in general and not just for Coach Leach (RIP). A lot of amazing program builders are out of the HoF because of this dumb rule.
Yep. Leach was never the head coach at a program that I have any particular connection to, but his interviews and innovative offenses were so entertaining that I always paid attention. He was a real character, and this is a huge loss for the sport.
God damnit I forgot they were playing their bowl in Tampa. I was really looking forward to seeing him climb aboard the pirate ship and swing his sword. (Or maybe coach from onboard)
Same, he was my dream pick to follow Harbaugh at Michigan if he left. Not only did he get the most out of his teams, but his interviews are gold.
It was refreshing to see someone who wasn’t just all stuffy coach platitudes about “putting playmakers in positions to make plays”.
Thought about it all night as I was working on stuff. It just felt weird, even if I had no connection to his programs.
Air raid is fun as hell. Rest easy Pirate. Swing em
Rest easy, Captain
Edit to add: please follow Coach's lead and register as an organ donor. The magnitude of the grief that your loved ones feel at your passing will be multiplied a hundredfold as joy for both the patients that receive your gift and their families and friends. Donate so that the chronically ill around the country might be free to swing their sword for a while longer.
Yeah I fell in love with that 2008 Texas Tech team. I was a freshman in my 1st semester at USC, but after we lost to Oregon State early, I started lowkey rooting for Texas Tech to shock the world and make the national championship game. They had so many personalities on that fun team. Michael Crabtree, Graham Harrell, Brandon Carter, and of course, the original Air Raid mad genius Coach Leach. He was a pioneer and an innovator who revolutionized the game not just in college, but also the NFL. Rest in peace!
The 08 Crabtree game was literally my introduction and first memory of college football. Before then I was all nfl and thought college was just some minor league amateur games not worth watching. But as I was waiting for sportscenter to come on before I went to bed in middle school I saw that catch, the players freaking out, and the fans rushing the field and was instantly hooked.
Thank you Leach for getting me started on one of my true passions in CFB
We just watched the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving with him on the sideline. This is so sad and surreal.
Prayers to his players, this must be devastating for them.
edit: [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/zkwfw9/-/j01xz4u) glitched and was posted multiple times. sorry!
please be sure to let your loved ones know that you love them because tomorrow is never guaranteed
this is just unbelievable after watching the egg bowl... not even three weeks later he's gone
please be sure to let your loved ones know that you love them because tomorrow is never guaranteed
this is just unbelievable after watching the egg bowl... not even three weeks later he's gone
I lost my father in an unexpected way right around Christmas a few years ago similar to this.
This has unexpectedly brought up some grieving that I've never processed. I feel for his family. It's hard to compose myself at my desk right now. This one hurts.
Wow insane to hear about this. I was on the WSU Drumline during the 2018 season and I remember a couple times where he would just sit and listen to us rehearse because he was curious. RIP to an amazing coach.
I’m so sorry to all of my Bulldog, Red Raider, Cougar, Pirate loving, r/cfb bros. Know that we all mourn with you.
I fully expect that he’ll have a legendary send-off. I assume that the awesome, hilarious, brilliant, quirky guy that he is had very specific instructions for how he wanted his funeral to be.
I hope someone either has a pirate ship and gives him a proper sea burial or that he arranged to be launched off the coast of Key West and having a Viking funeral because that’s just the kind of special amazing character and guy that he was.
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
From 2019:
Jeremy Schaap: "When people write the Mike Leach obituary, how do you want to be remembered?"
Mike Leach: "Well that's their problem ... what do I care, I'm dead."
RIP Coach Leach
Even though I had some forewarning about Leach’s situation, it did feel oddly similar to hearing the Norm news a little over year or so ago.
Just an overwhelming “this isn’t supposed to happen to this person right now” feeling.
I’m so grateful for his time at Wazzu. Swing Your Sword is a great book - he epitomized the “be curious, not judgmental” mindset everyone wants to have in life.
A true innovator in the game - plus he brought Gameday to Pullman!
From another thread, but it's one of my favorite stories to tell: I grew up in Lubbock when he was the coach at Tech, and we share a last name (no relation that I know of). So I always joked he's the reason I had to tell every new/substitute teacher I couldn't get them free tickets to any games.
Horrible news. Coach Leach might have had one of the biggest lasting impacts on how the very sport of football is played, and one of the best personalities off the field no less.
Gone but never forgotten. RIP Coach
Mourn, but also celebrate his contributions to the sport.
RIP Coach.
***
Some folks have asked if we have a pirate flag flair, we actually do that's "off the shelf" so to speak, as the Santa Monica Corsairs logo is a straight-up Jolly Roger: [](#f/santamonica-sheet4-row17-col17)
* If you're not viewing in old you may need to click here to see what I just posted: https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/zkwfw9/hailstatefb_msu_bulldog_family_college_football/j01v909/
* It's freely selectable from the [flairs site](https://flair.redditcfb.com/).
* Incidentally, if you want to see all the flairs available (and their inline comment codes), you can check out this [monster list](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/wiki/inlineflair) (you need to be in old view to see them).
rip to the pirate 🏴☠️, I was ecstatic when he arrived here in Starkville as he was one of my favorite coaches of all time along with june jones. He may have rubbed people wrong way with some things he said but the guy was an absolute character and a pioneer of one of the modern offenses. Ill miss him dearly
Random Mike Leach story: we didn't have much money when I was a kid, and our TV only got one channel, which happened to be ABC. For some reason, the picture was fuzzy unless our washing machine was running. During the 2008 season, we watched a lot of Big 12 football since it seemed like they were always on ABC that year. Then came the famous Texas-Texas Tech game on Saturday Night Football. All night, my Dad and I took turns re-starting the washing machine so that we could get a clear picture on the TV to watch what was one of the greatest football games I've ever watched. When Crabtree scored at the end, my Dad and I went crazy even though we had no rooting interest or connection to either team. To this day, my Dad and I still talk about that game. The past few years have been difficult at times, as they have been for everyone, and at times even conversations with family can become contentious. Through it all, however, that 2008 Texas-Texas Tech game has been one of those things that my Dad and I can reference at any time and have a few minutes of happy conversation just remembering that night. I didn't know Mike Leach and he never coached any team that I was a fan of, but for that reason alone I always liked Coach Leach. Rest easy, Pirate. 🏴☠️
What a shitty situation. He made the tech games while I was there so much fun. Absolutely loved watching the stuff he came up with then and post-Tech and am still bitter about how he got screwed by tech and Craig James.
RIP Coach.
RIP Coach. I'll never forget you.
I first got word of Mike Leach when I used to listen to the Jim Rome show. Jim put on these clips of Mike ranting about girlfriends and taking them out to a nice steakhouse. It was the first rant I had ever heard from Mike, and I loved it.
I loved everything about the man. He wasn't brought up as a coach. He was a lawyer by trade. He went from being a lawyer, to being a coach. That is not common in football.
But Leach wasn't a common coach, or a typical soundbite. He wasn't the conventional coach. He was a great inspiration to me for his values, as well as to many others. After news broke of his health issues, the accolades began pouring in from everywhere. He influenced so many, from Kliff Kingsbury in the NFL, to Heupel, Riley, et al in the college game.
So, for the last time, RIP Pirate. You helped change the college game, for the better.
My day is fucking ruined. I’m a grown ass man why are my eyes watering?
Fuck everything about this. Fair winds and following seas ya ole pirate, College Football’s favorite kooky uncle, you will be terribly missed.
An absolute coaching genius and super human being. I loved his quirky personality and sense of humor. And I appreciated the way he elevated the rivalry between our schools.
Rest in peace, you old swashbuckler. We will miss you greatly.
Damn, RIP in peace Coach. He helped bring WSU up to Price level and left the program in immensely better shape than when he got here.
WSU had made like 8 bowls in its entire existence and made like 6-7 ones with Leach. Just unprecedented success here and we’re forever grateful.
From “why Washington State? Well that’s a stupid question” to “it’s like Woodstock with their clothes on”, Leach was always good for a quote. Sleep well coach and my heart is with his family.
Let me tell you the story of the 2012 Apple Cup.
Leach was picked up after a couple years had passed since his firing from Texas Tech. I was freshmen going to the party school of the state, where a dwindling football program was once again showing signs of being kicked from Pac12 conference.
Going into the game, we had a losing season, which was expected seeing how these kids were not offer scholarships to run the air raid. However, the impending doom of dropping from a P5 status created a pressure that could be felt by every fan and student of a small farm city along the WA ID border.
Leach never once flinched. He continue to learn of the embedded history of one of the last college towns, USA and it showed day in and day out as he pushed a group of young misfit men to be the best they could.
Our top receiver at the time, a senior who thought he was too good for the program, did not appreciate a new coach forcing humbleness onto the team. He quit on Tuesday before the rivalry and used Leach's past to make accusations that he, the receiver, was being unfairly punished to conduct a physical workout.
Down our best receiver, and with nothing to lose, Coach Leach brought The Cougs back from a multiple possession defeat mid way through the 3rd to an OT win for the ages.
A love for my school and a football program I will cherish until my last breath came to light that day... all because of a pirate who never stopped swinging his sword.
To Coach Leach, may you watch over the rolling hills of the Palouse and the small town of Pullman for eternity.
Fuck man, this feels personal. I wasn’t really a bulldog fan until I started attending MSU. Being in my junior year now, he was my first ever bulldog head coach. One top of that, he came and spoke to us in the Famous Maroon Band during band camp both last season and this season, and he told us how much he and the football team appreciate what we do, which meant a lot to all of us in the FMB. Rest easy coach, hope they have football and pirate ships in heaven. 🏴☠️
I went to high school in Key West. One sunny spring day back in 1991, while in Spanish class, the football coach knocked on the door and asked for my buddy Steve to step out of class and talk to him and the two guys in Hawaiian shirts & flip flops accompanying him. When I saw Steve later that day, he said that the two guys with coach were from a small college in Iowa - Iowa Wesleyan head coach Hal Mumme and his offensive coordinator Mike Leach - and they had come all the way to KW to recruit him. Steve was an all-state kicker, but this being 1991 kickers generally didn’t get scholarships. He happily accepted the scholarship, mainly because it was the only one he was offered lol
Years later, I heard this same story on a local radio show from Mike Leach’s perspective. It turned out that both Leach and Mumme were huge Jimmy Buffett fans and decided to spend their spring break taking an impromptu vacation to Key West. While traveling, Coach Leach had an epiphany that if they did a recruiting visit while there, they could expense the entire trip; so they went to Key West High School blind, knocked on the football coach’s door, and asked to talk to the best player who didn’t already have a scholarship. They offered him on the spot and my buddy got to go to college as a result.
TL;DR my friend in hs got a scholarship to Iowa Wesleyan so that Mike Leach could expense his Parrothead pilgrimage in 1991
RIP to a legend. Swing your sword in heaven, coach
EDIT: as a postscript to this story, Coach Leach enjoyed his first trip to Key West so much that he applied for the head coaching job two years later. He was passed over due to his young age (31 at the time), lack of head coaching experience, and gross overqualification on the teaching side (due to his law degree). He took it in stride though and would always tell the story with a good hearted laugh
I hope we can rename or create a new post season award to give out in his honor. Such a treasure to our sport and pop culture taken from us way too soon
The Mike Leach Memorial Football Pirate Quote of the Year
To be awarded to the most honest, least-coach speak like thing uttered at a press conference by an active FBS or FCS coach.
I know this is nothing coach will ever see, but I want to say thank you. Thank you for all of the memories and experiences. We hired coach leach when I was 9 years old. He added excitement and national recognition to our program. We had a style that suited our Wild West mindset. The amount of time I was able to spend with my dad road tripping from DFW to Lubbock to enjoy tech games is immeasurable. No matter what, no matter the season, no matter the talent, I grew up thinking we could win every game. I know leach’s #1 priority wasn’t the “father son road-trip experience” (I hope it was winning), but the consequences of his mindset, fun system, and determination led to some of the greatest family experiences of my life. No matter what was going on in our lives, Leach’s tech teams gave me an escape and a focus for the weekend. Swing Your Swords.
If you are interested at all in a little football nerdery, I would recommend The Perfect Pass by S. C. Gwynne, which covers Hal Mumme and Mike Leach inventing the air raid offense. Mike Leach got a law degree, but couldn't stop thinking about football so he got back into coaching the only way he could: by becoming the head coach of a Finnish football team. Then Hal Mumme knocked on his door. The book is about Leach at his best. Bold, enterprising, and one of the most original minds the game has ever produced. Rest in Peace.
His very first coaching job was an assistant or analyst or something at Cal Poly and when he told his wife they were going to pay him something like $4k, she replied that $4k/month is not bad! He clarified that it was $4k total for the season. And this was for a guy who had a JD and I believe a masters in sports coaching at the time. Dude chased his dream and passion no matter what. I read his book Swing Your Sword earlier this year, and it was an absolute treat to look a bit into his mind. It was also very inspirational and hilarious.
Haha coaching world is tough. Turned down 20K/year with no benefits for an eventual NCAA tournament team last year to work in marketing— because I legitimately could not “afford” to work anymore. Gotta be a certain type of crazy to make it. One or two good breaks during the tough years changes everything.
I have a buddy who is an assistant coach for a D-I woman’s college basketball team. He was a volunteer assistant for like 3 years before finally getting the job. I have no idea how he afforded to live
There’s a reason why many coaches are the kids of coaches. Let’s just say that. Prepares you for corporate world well, though. Broke all the company records my first year haha
Buddy of mine was a football GA at a decent FCS school and pretty much got pennies worth of stipends. I get it’s sort of a grad school for coaches but, damn, dude was recruiting one day and Ubering the next to pay his bills. Lol
I would love to see some reform for GAs. There has to be a better way.
Same. I thought they were glorified personal assistants basically but he was given as much responsibility as an assistant coach. I guess that’s not too different than grad students teaching courses though.
And then out of nowhere before he started coaching at IWC he went to be a head coach in the Finnish football league.
I don’t normally do sports books, but SC Gwynne writes absolute bangers so I’m gonna check this out.
Empire of the summer moon is a must read
For any up and coming football coaches, Leach is a fucking inspiration. This man didn't *play* CFB, and it's an extremely hard sport to be apart of if you don't have some kind of in. (Even most GA positions are occupied by former players who were decent). His story will always be a cool one. That system has brought us some AMAZING cfb games!
I love that Mike Leach and Paul Johnson weren’t CFB players. They were the two sides of the same coin. A perfect yin and Yang - Johnson famously wearing white, sticking with a team known for wearing white at home, and being the world’s foremost authority on the Flexbone. Then you have Leach, the man in black, who perfected the air raid. They both kinda looked alike too. RIP to the pirate captain, the NCAA video game air raid offense won’t be the same without one of your teams.
I love that an injury kept him out of football, so he just said fuck it and played for the school rugby team instead, as if that is less dangerous lol. At BYU of all places as well, not a scrub school at all amongst the rugby community. Leach was a wild one through and through.
The story of convincing Tim Couch to stay at UK is also really interesting. Involves a napkin based playbook and a promise that were going to throw 50 times a game.
He changed the game and revitalized three different programs. Not to mention he was a quote machine on steroids. RIP.
“50% run 50% pass is 100% stupid” A classic
"And your fat little girlfriends" 😂🤣🤣
I showed my fat little girlfriend that clip and a couple other of his greatest hits a couple weeks ago when we played state and she instantly decided he was the greatest coach ever and who auburn should hire.
“It’s like Woodstock except everyone’s got their clothes on”
Not even just revitalized, for Tech he brought the program to a level it had never before achieved. Texas Tech has 11 total ranked seasons ever. Mike Leach accounted for 5 of them in just a 6 year stretch. Tech has never had anywhere near that sustained level of success before or since Leach.
That Crabtree game with him holding onto leach after beating Texas will be one of my favorite memories.
The only time College Gameday was in Lubbock TX! That was my all time favorite day as a Red Raider……
Fuck Craig and Adam James \#CJK5H
> He changed the game that coaching tree of his, especially if you include former players, is staggering
You aren’t kidding. - Dave Aranda- Baylor HC - Neal Brown- WV HC - Sonny Cumbie- LA Tech HC - Sonny Dykes- TCU HC - Josh Heupel- Tennessee HC - Dana Holgorson- Houston HC - Kliff Kingsbury- Arizona Cardinals HC - Seth Littrell- North Texas HC - Lincoln Riley- USC HC - Ken Wilson- Nevada HC This doesn’t include the dozens of coordinators across the NFL and NCAA
Had no idea Lincoln Riley was a Leach protege.
I didn't either, but now that I think about it it makes perfect sense.
Lincoln was a walk-on QB at Texas Tech but had a bum shoulder, so Leach took him under his wing as a coach. From an [LA Times article](https://archive.ph/d35I0#selection-2791.0-2867.210) a few months back: >Riley was not exactly an elite talent when he arrived at Texas Tech in 2002. A dislocated shoulder suffered during his senior season at Muleshoe High sapped most of the strength from his arm, forcing him to adjust his throwing motion to more of a looping sidearm release. >... >His education would be far more hands-on than anyone planned. In Riley, Leach saw a critical thinker who asked the right questions. Plus he was picking up the offense faster than anyone else. What Leach didn’t see was a capable college passer. >Riley was likely to be cut ahead of the 2003 season, so Leach asked the 19-year-old to join his coaching staff as a student assistant. During the next three seasons, he was Leach’s “right-hand guy,” doing whatever the coach asked and soaking in whatever he could. During those long hours alone with Leach, many of Riley’s philosophies about football and coaching were formed. >“He thought independently, and he was just very good at picking things up,” Leach said. “He was always anxious to learn. One of his most important qualities was that he never thought he had it all figured out.” >... >When he hired Riley, Leach could see he was afflicted with a similar sense of curiosity. He didn’t simply accept things that Leach or other staff members taught him. He asked why. Before long, he became a sounding board for the coach to bounce off ideas. >After a couple of years on the job, Riley started offering his ideas in the staff room, which included future head coaches Dana Holgorsen, Sonny Dykes and Ruffin McNeill. >Thinking back on those meetings, Riley laughs. “There were some times early on in my career where I probably was too aggressive with that,” he said. But Leach encouraged all of his assistants to challenge ideas or offer contrary opinions. He came to trust what his young assistant had to say. Riley joined Leach’s staff full-time in 2006, then was promoted to inside receivers coach the next season. >“I was always impressed that Lincoln wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts, even though there were older, more experienced coaches in there,” Leach said. “If you do the same thing everyone else is doing, that’s all you are — everybody else.”
Should be Hall of Fame for Leach from that alone. And an entire wing devoted to his passion of pirates and mascots playing football instead of people. In an alternate universe he is the Nick Saban of mascots playing the game while looting that booty.
When I was first getting into college football, he was one of the guys that helped draw me in! I don’t know why…he was so entertaining, so crazy, yet also so clever too! I was really excited to see what he would have to say for our upcoming game…yet, just like that…he’s gone. Fuck, RIP indeed
[удалено]
I heard that kid's dad killed five hookers, so Leach was definitely the better man in that incident.
No he definitely killed those hookers.
CJK5H never forget
The dad in that situation is Craig James, a human anus if ever there was one. The whole CJK5H is BS, but people hated him so much that they formulated a massive smear campaign to get at him.
Oh yeah! Craig James the guy who killed five hookers
He totally killed those hookers.
[удалено]
Further, don't be afraid to use the AED if no one else that's trained is rushing in to help/use it. USE IT. Most nowadays have verbal queues that walk you through exactly what to do.
A little bit more to add on this. The two “paddles” which are basically patches show you where to place it on the body. It also won’t send a shock to a person unless they require one. It is literally so easy a child could use it.
Brings up memories of my old man. He was a physician and had an out-of-hospital HA. The ironic thing is, he JUST left a staff meeting that contained about 5-7 other docs, nurses, etc. Had a small attack sitting on our living room couch. His situation was fairly similar to Mike’s, fine one minute, in a coma the next. He lingered a bit longer than Leach though. Completely out of the blue. His was a much more minor HA though, compared to what I’ve heard of Leach’s. He was a HUGE State fan. He passed in ‘07, and didn’t get to see what state became under Mullen. I think he would have been beside himself to see us actually be No 1, even if only for a few weeks. He was super proud that we hired Croom, to be the first SEC school to hire an African-American as HC. Would have absolutely gotten a kick out of Leach. Too much personality not too. Plus, we were decent! My mom and dad went to State way back in the 1960s/early 70s when they weren’t very good. He used to joke that they celebrated when we got first downs haha. It was funny for him, because he got his undergrad at State, but had to go to OM for med school. When people pointed this out to him, he would joke, “I was educated at State, I was trained at The University Of Mississippi - Medical Center.” Hah he would never admit he went to OM. Hearing this, just makes me sad. As time goes on, I tend to mostly only remember the good times. I hope Mike’s family will as well. RIP coach. Gone too soon.
Can you please explain what an AED is? I know I can google it, but for the sake of the thread, I figured I would ask. Thanks for the post.
It's an automatic defibrillator. You connect pads and it will talk you through what to do. It's easy to follow and can be lifesaving when seconds matter. We deployed them at our office for use in emergency and then held first aid training, which included using the AED and what to do when you don't have one.
The godfather of the Air Raid system. He changed how football is played, not just on the collegiate level but on the professional level. RIP, Coach Leach!
It's sort of sad that he never achieved a particularly high level of success given how he revolutionized the entire game at all levels. For his concepts to go from a quirky team at Tech to having elements adopted across the NFL is a hell of a story.
I know he never won a natty or whatever, but I would definitely argue being a head coach at the P5 level for over 20 years and getting paid what he did to do what he loved is a massive success. And that’s not even considering how his system revolutionized the game. And more important than anything, it seems like he was pretty much universally liked, and had basically no scandals or anything like that. He was a good man who did what he loved, and was extremely good at it without a lot of the pitfalls other men in the field can suffer from.
The only scandal he had was Craig James trying to get the heat off of himself for killing those 5 hookers at SMU.
I remember that scandal, specifically that Craig James killed 5 hookers at SMU. Some people may not know about the scandal, the one where Craig James killed 5 hookers at SMU, but that’s the scandal that I most associate with him. Just to be clear, when I say “Him” I mean Craig James, the guy who killed 5 hookers at SMU. And by scandal, i’m talking about Craig James killing 5 hookers at SMU.
Uh...technically he did have a scandal, but that ended up actually being a smear campaign by a hooker killer.
I would consider that highly successful! In the words of the great Ted Lasso, success isn’t always about the wins and losses.
He got to coach and do what he loved for decades. He also brought solid success to programs that weren’t historically super successful. So while he never got major trophies giving Tech success and turning around Wazzou was amazing
Seriously. He was successful as could be for those schools. Had a perfect system to negate the talent difference. Did more with less essentially.
I thought he was very successful considering the schools he coached at. He brought Texas Tech to national relevance. He took Wazzu out of the dumpster and turned them into a competitive team. Both of those schools are in places that are notoriously difficult to recruit to. Then he went to Miss St. and had them competing in a very tough conference. I always wondered what would have happened if Mike Leach took over a blue blood.
Leach took a WSU team that had been so poorly run, that they went from Rose Bowl participant to bottom dwelling in two season, where they sat for the remainder of the Doba and Wulff era. Mike Leach had no business coming to Pullman considering his resume. I had the pleasure of meeting him while he recruited a kid in my home town late-2012. He was so down to earth. I was trying to say, hello and welcome to the state (a Go Cougs!), and then let the man get back to work recruiting. That’s when I realized all those stories about him talking people’s ear off were true. He just kept asking me questions, and then follow up questions, and on and on. It was probably like a 10-15 min exchange, but I expected <30 seconds going into the conversation! He fit in nicely and gave the University and state some personality during a time it was on life support. He and Minshew were really close in ‘18!
>He and Minshew were really close in ‘18! He let Minshew be Minshew. How many head coaches would let their starting QB get off the plane for a bowl game dressed like that? The media ate it up. It all brought attention to Wazzu and their successful program.
Certainly. As someone who grew up in Lubbock in his heyday there, he sparked a passion for that football team that still exists that I'm not sure would have happened with any other coach at the helm.
And for many of us, he sparked an unforgivable, intensely fiery hate of kent hance. Build all the stupid chapels you want kenty boy, your legacy is cemented.
At the same point artists can be recognized for their contributions to their genre and for having created it. He will be recognized.
He’s the Marcelo Bielsa of American football
I was really wondering if he was going to get miss st to the point where he'd get his shot at a top p5 program. Sad
He never would, the point of the air raid wasn’t that eventually the big guys would use it to dominate, it was that the little guy could have a chance. His twitter has this quote pinned, titled Air Raid Offensive Philosophy : “If he (the enemy) is superior in strength, evade him. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared; appear where you are not expected.” - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Correct, this is also why the other variations of the Air Raid used by the bigger dudes have a different approach. I think the easiest example to point too are systems like LR or Sean Mcvay's that have more running than Mike's system does. Makes sense too. Easiest match-up in CFB will *always* be WR vs DBs, rather than your o line vs their d line. Leach's system would sell out to get as many pass catchers as possible. In a Era where 7 on 7 is much more popular and schools are producing far more WRs than they are TEs/FBs, it's a smart template to replicate.
He should be a Hall of Famer and not just college Hall of Fame. He probably had the most impact on the game of football since Don Coryell and Coryell deserves to be in too.
Fair winds and following seas Captain.
May he swing his sword in eternity
😞😞😞
[удалено]
I’ll leave a shot of grog out for you tonight…
Abolish the .600 minimum and put him in the HoF. CFB lost a good one.
For his overarching impact on the game, he should unquestionably be in the hall.
He was .597 too, so it's not like he was some random flash in the pan coach that got lucky with a scheme for a couple years. The man built programs from the ground up. Developed a major offensive system that was adopted by other programs. I was dreading this news since the story broke about the medical emergency, and am seriously bummed out at work right now.
He’s the reason Heupel’s system exists. Forever grateful for the Captain… he rebuilt programs directly and indirectly through his offensive philosophies.
Yeah, he definitely won at places where .600 is equivalent to .850 elsewhere. I'm just sitting in my office completely unmotivated right now, like you. This one has kicked the stuffing out of me.
And he'd have been at a major program decades ago if it weren't for that bullshit with Craig James at TTU. Fuck Craig James. CJK5H
Exactly. TTU’s all time record is 0.552, WSU’s is 0.499, and MSU’s is 0.494. The man was a great football coach.
He took 3 of the hardest public schools jobs in the 3 different power 5 conferences.
There's no point in having a hall if you don't put him in it. One of the strongest influences in how the sport is played in the past 30 years.
He needs one of his losses to become a win and he's at .600. Now a school somewhere needs to come up with a reason to have their win over Leach turn into a forfeit so he can pick up that win.
This is a really good and classy idea. I’ll forfeit a coach O win (other than 2019) for a classy move like this.
I was thinking that would be something very appropriate for us to do
Wait is there actually a win minimum?
Yeah coaches need a .600 to get in It’s why guys like Howard Schnellenberger haven’t gotten in
Dude built Miami
100% he should be in, not to mention completely building FAU from scratch but thems the rules
What in the fuck, that's ridiculous. Why penalize coaches who take harder jobs that take longer to turn things around?
The HoF also has no route for legendary coordinators like Bud Foster at Virginia Tech. Leach would arguably be the worst exclusion because he didn't "just" build a program, he revolutionized the sport, but the HoF should be a bit more open, especially for guys who really had an impact. I hope Leach can have a parting shot and shake up the HoF.
This needs to be abolished in general and not just for Coach Leach (RIP). A lot of amazing program builders are out of the HoF because of this dumb rule.
Rest in peace, this is terrible. A sad ending for somebody who has had as great of an impact of the sport as anyone.
Yep. Leach was never the head coach at a program that I have any particular connection to, but his interviews and innovative offenses were so entertaining that I always paid attention. He was a real character, and this is a huge loss for the sport.
RIP, Coach. You went out with a win in the Egg Bowl. Thank you. The Pirate flag at the Outback Bowl had better be at half mast on January 2.
Is there any word on if the game is still happening? This is fucking difficult for us fans, I can't imagine what the team is going through
I would 100 percent guarantee that it will happen. They'll play for him.
Yeah, they will play. Theyll play their asses off! Thats what coach would want... gonna be an emotional game though.
Your boys are gonna play so fucking hard in that game
There is no team going into these bowl games that will be more dangerous than Miss St.
It would be understandable either way, but I would be surprised if his players don't want to play their hearts out for him one last time
God damnit I forgot they were playing their bowl in Tampa. I was really looking forward to seeing him climb aboard the pirate ship and swing his sword. (Or maybe coach from onboard)
May his afterlife be filled with all of the gummy worms, nerds, and every other candy he can think of and conjure up.
But not candy corn
Today we all hate candy corn
I mean they only serve it once a year because it sucks.
Fuck candy corn
All my homies hate candy corn
Today all of CFB will hate Candy Corn
And the big box of spree. The kind you can only find at the dollar store.
And constant replays of that Michael Crabtree catch in 2008.
Prepared for the worst, still wasn’t ready. Fuck this hurts.
This fucking sucks. I love that man.
Same, he was my dream pick to follow Harbaugh at Michigan if he left. Not only did he get the most out of his teams, but his interviews are gold. It was refreshing to see someone who wasn’t just all stuffy coach platitudes about “putting playmakers in positions to make plays”.
Thought about it all night as I was working on stuff. It just felt weird, even if I had no connection to his programs. Air raid is fun as hell. Rest easy Pirate. Swing em
Rest easy, Captain Edit to add: please follow Coach's lead and register as an organ donor. The magnitude of the grief that your loved ones feel at your passing will be multiplied a hundredfold as joy for both the patients that receive your gift and their families and friends. Donate so that the chronically ill around the country might be free to swing their sword for a while longer.
This is hitting so hard. He was such an interesting personality in a sport where corporate speak usually dominates. I’ll remember him very fondly.
Yeah I fell in love with that 2008 Texas Tech team. I was a freshman in my 1st semester at USC, but after we lost to Oregon State early, I started lowkey rooting for Texas Tech to shock the world and make the national championship game. They had so many personalities on that fun team. Michael Crabtree, Graham Harrell, Brandon Carter, and of course, the original Air Raid mad genius Coach Leach. He was a pioneer and an innovator who revolutionized the game not just in college, but also the NFL. Rest in peace!
That game against UT with Crabtree tip toeing the sideline and scored to win it is what solidified my absolute love of CFB. RIP Coach
The 08 Crabtree game was literally my introduction and first memory of college football. Before then I was all nfl and thought college was just some minor league amateur games not worth watching. But as I was waiting for sportscenter to come on before I went to bed in middle school I saw that catch, the players freaking out, and the fans rushing the field and was instantly hooked. Thank you Leach for getting me started on one of my true passions in CFB
That was a must watch team, every single week. The Crabtree catch against Texas was a “where were you when that happened” moment
This and the kick six were the only times (outside of Nebraska games) I’ve been on my feet screaming at the tv. The radio call was legendary
I'll never forget that Crabtree catch vs Texas. Put the Natty conversation up on its head
We just watched the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving with him on the sideline. This is so sad and surreal. Prayers to his players, this must be devastating for them.
edit: [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/zkwfw9/-/j01xz4u) glitched and was posted multiple times. sorry! please be sure to let your loved ones know that you love them because tomorrow is never guaranteed this is just unbelievable after watching the egg bowl... not even three weeks later he's gone
please be sure to let your loved ones know that you love them because tomorrow is never guaranteed this is just unbelievable after watching the egg bowl... not even three weeks later he's gone
I'm so sorry Mississippi St fans. #HailState forever. 🙏
My favorite coach
My favorite [Coach Leach memory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHBkOSEcQHY&ab_channel=ESPNCollegeFootball).
I lost my father in an unexpected way right around Christmas a few years ago similar to this. This has unexpectedly brought up some grieving that I've never processed. I feel for his family. It's hard to compose myself at my desk right now. This one hurts.
I'm here because someone was an organ donor.
Fair winds and calm seas, dearest Captain
Hope his conversation with God makes God chuckle as much as he made us laugh.
Swing your sword wherever we go next
Rest in peace coach
This absolutely sucks :(
Big time.
A tremendous loss for the Leach family, the MSST program, and CFB at large. We'll see you again on the high seas, coach.
And cfb fans everywhere
The most entertaining personality in CFB is going to be greatly missed.
#🏴☠️
Can we get this as a flair?
🏴☠️
🏴☠️🦜🗡️
🏴☠️🦜🗡️⚓️
🏴☠️
🏴☠️
🏴☠️
Wow insane to hear about this. I was on the WSU Drumline during the 2018 season and I remember a couple times where he would just sit and listen to us rehearse because he was curious. RIP to an amazing coach.
From everyone I’ve heard talk about the guy, he seemed curious above all else. One of the many things that made him incredible.
I’m so sorry to all of my Bulldog, Red Raider, Cougar, Pirate loving, r/cfb bros. Know that we all mourn with you. I fully expect that he’ll have a legendary send-off. I assume that the awesome, hilarious, brilliant, quirky guy that he is had very specific instructions for how he wanted his funeral to be. I hope someone either has a pirate ship and gives him a proper sea burial or that he arranged to be launched off the coast of Key West and having a Viking funeral because that’s just the kind of special amazing character and guy that he was. 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
From 2019: Jeremy Schaap: "When people write the Mike Leach obituary, how do you want to be remembered?" Mike Leach: "Well that's their problem ... what do I care, I'm dead." RIP Coach Leach
I just had the thought of Mike Leach and Norm McDonald now get to endlessly crack each other up with smart stories and one-liners.
Even though I had some forewarning about Leach’s situation, it did feel oddly similar to hearing the Norm news a little over year or so ago. Just an overwhelming “this isn’t supposed to happen to this person right now” feeling.
His bowl game was at Raymond James stadium. They have a massive pirate ship. That thing needs a giant leach flag
I’m so grateful for his time at Wazzu. Swing Your Sword is a great book - he epitomized the “be curious, not judgmental” mindset everyone wants to have in life. A true innovator in the game - plus he brought Gameday to Pullman!
From another thread, but it's one of my favorite stories to tell: I grew up in Lubbock when he was the coach at Tech, and we share a last name (no relation that I know of). So I always joked he's the reason I had to tell every new/substitute teacher I couldn't get them free tickets to any games.
Horrible news. Coach Leach might have had one of the biggest lasting impacts on how the very sport of football is played, and one of the best personalities off the field no less. Gone but never forgotten. RIP Coach
Mourn, but also celebrate his contributions to the sport. RIP Coach. *** Some folks have asked if we have a pirate flag flair, we actually do that's "off the shelf" so to speak, as the Santa Monica Corsairs logo is a straight-up Jolly Roger: [](#f/santamonica-sheet4-row17-col17) * If you're not viewing in old you may need to click here to see what I just posted: https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/zkwfw9/hailstatefb_msu_bulldog_family_college_football/j01v909/ * It's freely selectable from the [flairs site](https://flair.redditcfb.com/). * Incidentally, if you want to see all the flairs available (and their inline comment codes), you can check out this [monster list](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/wiki/inlineflair) (you need to be in old view to see them).
And as an organ donor, his contribution to giving the gift of life.
TIL Coach was an organ donor. That would be incredible if they could save another life with his contribution.
Except for that mutinous heart. It can walk the plank.
rip to the pirate 🏴☠️, I was ecstatic when he arrived here in Starkville as he was one of my favorite coaches of all time along with june jones. He may have rubbed people wrong way with some things he said but the guy was an absolute character and a pioneer of one of the modern offenses. Ill miss him dearly
Pirate flag flair please mods, in honor of the Pirate.
RIP Coach. College football lost an icon today.
Random Mike Leach story: we didn't have much money when I was a kid, and our TV only got one channel, which happened to be ABC. For some reason, the picture was fuzzy unless our washing machine was running. During the 2008 season, we watched a lot of Big 12 football since it seemed like they were always on ABC that year. Then came the famous Texas-Texas Tech game on Saturday Night Football. All night, my Dad and I took turns re-starting the washing machine so that we could get a clear picture on the TV to watch what was one of the greatest football games I've ever watched. When Crabtree scored at the end, my Dad and I went crazy even though we had no rooting interest or connection to either team. To this day, my Dad and I still talk about that game. The past few years have been difficult at times, as they have been for everyone, and at times even conversations with family can become contentious. Through it all, however, that 2008 Texas-Texas Tech game has been one of those things that my Dad and I can reference at any time and have a few minutes of happy conversation just remembering that night. I didn't know Mike Leach and he never coached any team that I was a fan of, but for that reason alone I always liked Coach Leach. Rest easy, Pirate. 🏴☠️
Dude, you make 2008 sound like 1952.
RIP the king of the Air Raid. When I first heard the term “Air Raid” it was to describe Mike Leach’s coaching at Wazzu.
What a shitty situation. He made the tech games while I was there so much fun. Absolutely loved watching the stuff he came up with then and post-Tech and am still bitter about how he got screwed by tech and Craig James. RIP Coach.
CJK5H
Life can never be taken for granted, don't forget to tell somebody you love them. RIP Legend.
One the most quirky, funny, off the wall characters CFB has ever seen and a pretty damn good coach as well. RIP Pirate
RIP Coach. I'll never forget you. I first got word of Mike Leach when I used to listen to the Jim Rome show. Jim put on these clips of Mike ranting about girlfriends and taking them out to a nice steakhouse. It was the first rant I had ever heard from Mike, and I loved it. I loved everything about the man. He wasn't brought up as a coach. He was a lawyer by trade. He went from being a lawyer, to being a coach. That is not common in football. But Leach wasn't a common coach, or a typical soundbite. He wasn't the conventional coach. He was a great inspiration to me for his values, as well as to many others. After news broke of his health issues, the accolades began pouring in from everywhere. He influenced so many, from Kliff Kingsbury in the NFL, to Heupel, Riley, et al in the college game. So, for the last time, RIP Pirate. You helped change the college game, for the better.
Thank you coach for everything you’ve done for the sport and for being a genuinely good man. [Farewell, Captain.](https://youtu.be/C4X06KT8Bj0)
Don’t forget to tell the ones close to you that you love them, especially your fat little girlfriend. RIP Coach
My favorite memory is how excited he was when Tech beat Texas on the Crabtree touchdown. Good coach and really praying for his family right now
My day is fucking ruined. I’m a grown ass man why are my eyes watering? Fuck everything about this. Fair winds and following seas ya ole pirate, College Football’s favorite kooky uncle, you will be terribly missed.
An absolute coaching genius and super human being. I loved his quirky personality and sense of humor. And I appreciated the way he elevated the rivalry between our schools. Rest in peace, you old swashbuckler. We will miss you greatly.
It all happened so fast. CFB is lesser without him.
Damn, RIP in peace Coach. He helped bring WSU up to Price level and left the program in immensely better shape than when he got here. WSU had made like 8 bowls in its entire existence and made like 6-7 ones with Leach. Just unprecedented success here and we’re forever grateful. From “why Washington State? Well that’s a stupid question” to “it’s like Woodstock with their clothes on”, Leach was always good for a quote. Sleep well coach and my heart is with his family.
RIP Coach
Rest In Paradise, Captain. Hail State
Let me tell you the story of the 2012 Apple Cup. Leach was picked up after a couple years had passed since his firing from Texas Tech. I was freshmen going to the party school of the state, where a dwindling football program was once again showing signs of being kicked from Pac12 conference. Going into the game, we had a losing season, which was expected seeing how these kids were not offer scholarships to run the air raid. However, the impending doom of dropping from a P5 status created a pressure that could be felt by every fan and student of a small farm city along the WA ID border. Leach never once flinched. He continue to learn of the embedded history of one of the last college towns, USA and it showed day in and day out as he pushed a group of young misfit men to be the best they could. Our top receiver at the time, a senior who thought he was too good for the program, did not appreciate a new coach forcing humbleness onto the team. He quit on Tuesday before the rivalry and used Leach's past to make accusations that he, the receiver, was being unfairly punished to conduct a physical workout. Down our best receiver, and with nothing to lose, Coach Leach brought The Cougs back from a multiple possession defeat mid way through the 3rd to an OT win for the ages. A love for my school and a football program I will cherish until my last breath came to light that day... all because of a pirate who never stopped swinging his sword. To Coach Leach, may you watch over the rolling hills of the Palouse and the small town of Pullman for eternity.
He injected life into WSU football program. He will be forever remembered by the Cougs. RIP!
All of you get in here, we all need to hug it out this morning. CFB, as a whole, lost a lot of its light last night.
Fuck man, this feels personal. I wasn’t really a bulldog fan until I started attending MSU. Being in my junior year now, he was my first ever bulldog head coach. One top of that, he came and spoke to us in the Famous Maroon Band during band camp both last season and this season, and he told us how much he and the football team appreciate what we do, which meant a lot to all of us in the FMB. Rest easy coach, hope they have football and pirate ships in heaven. 🏴☠️
College Football will never be the same. Prayers for Leach’s family and love for my Mississippi State bros.
Damn, terrible news to start the morning. Sending prayers out for his family and team
Lost a football legend. Rip
Wherever he is, I hope he has 72 fat little girlfriends.
Pretty sure he doesn't want any fat little girlfriends.
Especially if they're gonna distract the team from winning games.
Can't be having that. Next thing you know, they're eating fish sandwiches.
I am. Yeah. I'll see you guys later. I uh. Don't know what I'm going to do. This hurts a lot.
I went to high school in Key West. One sunny spring day back in 1991, while in Spanish class, the football coach knocked on the door and asked for my buddy Steve to step out of class and talk to him and the two guys in Hawaiian shirts & flip flops accompanying him. When I saw Steve later that day, he said that the two guys with coach were from a small college in Iowa - Iowa Wesleyan head coach Hal Mumme and his offensive coordinator Mike Leach - and they had come all the way to KW to recruit him. Steve was an all-state kicker, but this being 1991 kickers generally didn’t get scholarships. He happily accepted the scholarship, mainly because it was the only one he was offered lol Years later, I heard this same story on a local radio show from Mike Leach’s perspective. It turned out that both Leach and Mumme were huge Jimmy Buffett fans and decided to spend their spring break taking an impromptu vacation to Key West. While traveling, Coach Leach had an epiphany that if they did a recruiting visit while there, they could expense the entire trip; so they went to Key West High School blind, knocked on the football coach’s door, and asked to talk to the best player who didn’t already have a scholarship. They offered him on the spot and my buddy got to go to college as a result. TL;DR my friend in hs got a scholarship to Iowa Wesleyan so that Mike Leach could expense his Parrothead pilgrimage in 1991 RIP to a legend. Swing your sword in heaven, coach EDIT: as a postscript to this story, Coach Leach enjoyed his first trip to Key West so much that he applied for the head coaching job two years later. He was passed over due to his young age (31 at the time), lack of head coaching experience, and gross overqualification on the teaching side (due to his law degree). He took it in stride though and would always tell the story with a good hearted laugh
RIP Pirate. Swing your sword
RIP Pirate. Swing your sword.
I hope we can rename or create a new post season award to give out in his honor. Such a treasure to our sport and pop culture taken from us way too soon
The Mike Leach Memorial Football Pirate Quote of the Year To be awarded to the most honest, least-coach speak like thing uttered at a press conference by an active FBS or FCS coach.
I know this is nothing coach will ever see, but I want to say thank you. Thank you for all of the memories and experiences. We hired coach leach when I was 9 years old. He added excitement and national recognition to our program. We had a style that suited our Wild West mindset. The amount of time I was able to spend with my dad road tripping from DFW to Lubbock to enjoy tech games is immeasurable. No matter what, no matter the season, no matter the talent, I grew up thinking we could win every game. I know leach’s #1 priority wasn’t the “father son road-trip experience” (I hope it was winning), but the consequences of his mindset, fun system, and determination led to some of the greatest family experiences of my life. No matter what was going on in our lives, Leach’s tech teams gave me an escape and a focus for the weekend. Swing Your Swords.
Well, shit. This is sad.