College Football Won't Be the Same Without Its Pirate King: All Things CW

Even though Mike Leach was only at Mississippi State for three years, he served as a constant reminder that college football is supposed to be fun.

Christopher Walsh | Dec 20, 2022

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The All Things CW notes column by Christopher Walsh will appear in five parts this week, one each day. This is ...

Take 2

I honestly don't wish I had a Mike Leach story that I couldn't wait to tell, at least in the traditional sense.

It would have probably been drowned out amongst the sea of others that have been recalled since the Mississippi State coach left us way too early last week at the age of 61.

Don't get me wrong. I loved listening to Leach talk, especially when he verbally took a left turn away from football and would go on about things like neckties, aliens or Halloween candy.

When almost all you hear is non-stop coach talk and cliches, he was more than a breath of fresh air. Fox example, after the recent Oct. 22 loss at Alabama, 30-6, he talked about his players being scared of the Crimson Tide, his receivers players having dinosaur hands, and his long-term evolutionary concerns for Starkville.

So this is now my wish and instant regret: That I could have met up with Leach for an evening at either his favorite bar in Key West (Captain Tony's) or mine (Green Parrot) sans microphones, cameras or the spotlight that comes with being a college football coach nowadays.

I would have even offered to buy assuming we didn't get into the super-expensive stuff, but that didn't seem to be Leach's style.

The sweatshirt and flip-flops guy who owned a house on the Florida island was probably the most interesting man in college football, an attorney turned coach, who along the way coveted becoming a pirate.

The master of the air-raid offense, Leach was also the ultimate underdog, and the king of comebacks.

On eighteen occasions, Leach led his unranked team to victory over a team listed in the AP Top 25, the most in the poll era. Fittingly, his last game was among them, the win at No. 20 Ole Miss to close out the regular season in the annual Egg Bowl.

Over the last six seasons, Leach's teams defeated 11 ranked opponents. Since he arrived at MSU in 2020, Leach's seven top-25 wins are tied for fifth nationally.

Five were away from home, or at neutral sites: Then-No. 6 LSU (2020), vs. then-No. 22 Tulsa (2020), at then-No. 15 Texas A&M (2021), at No. 16 Auburn (2021), and at No. 20 Ole Miss (2022).

Along the way, the Bulldogs broke the school record for the largest comeback twice in 2021. In the season-opener against Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State trailed by 20 points in the fourth quarter before pulling out a one-point victory.

MSU subsequently scored 40 straight points to erase a 25-point deficit at No. 17 Auburn.

Leach’s Texas Tech team once overcame a 31-point deficit in the 2006 Insight Bowl, which is tied for the largest comeback in a bowl game in FBS history.

They kind of became par for the course from the man whom one never knew what to expect.

He was an innovator, a pioneer and a heck of a quarterbacks coach.

During his first Southeastern Conference stint, as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky in 1997-98, he helped make Tim Couch the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft.

He then moved on to coach Josh Heupel at Oklahoma, who a year later nearly won the Heisman Trophy despite not having much of an arm. Heupel's now the head coach at Tennessee.

At Texas Tech Leach made Kliff Kingsbury the starting quarterback, and he broke the NCAA record for career completions. Kingsbury is now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

B.J. Symons subsequently set the NCAA single-season record for the most passing yards (5,833). Sonny Cumbie, Cody Hodges and Graham Harrell, who set the NCAA single-season record for completed passes, followed at Texas Tech.

However, the quarterback who might have demonstrated Leach's coaching prowess the most, though, may have been Gardner Minshaw at Washington State. The quarterback began his college football career at Northwest Mississippi, winning the NJCAA national title, and played his next two years at East Carolina, where he graduated early with a year of eligibility remaining.

Minshaw committed to spending his final season with the Alabama Crimson Tide and being the fourth quarterback alongside Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Hurts and Mac Jones. That was until Leach called and asked: ""You want to come lead the nation in passing?"

He completed 70.7 percent of his passes, for 4,776 yards while setting Pac-12 season records for passing yards and completions, and won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

Ironically, Minshaw is now Hurts' backup with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Leach navigated the rough waters of college football like none other, and didn't care what anyone else thought, even his bosses.

He was the winningest coach in Texas Tech history with 84 victories from 2000-09 when he was abruptly fired. The school claimed he mistreated a player who had suffered a concussion, while Leach disagreed.

More than a decade later he was still fighting the allegation in court.

Overall, Leach was 158-107 while doing more with less at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State, but he'll be remembered even more for being such a character and a personality.

For example, here's what he had to say about the officiating during a loss at Texas in 2007:"It's a little like breakfast; you eat ham and eggs. As coaches and players, we're like the ham. You see, the chicken's involved but the pig's committed. We're like the pig, they're like the chicken. They're involved, but everything we have rides on this."

There was also this gem, which a lot of people have forgotten was his way of poking a little fun at the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets:

"How come they get to pretend they are soldiers? The thing is, they aren't actually in the military. I ought to have Mike's Pirate School. The freshmen, all they get is the bandanna. When you're a senior, you get the sword and skull and crossbones. For homework, we'll work pirate maneuvers and stuff like that."

The one thing that Leach seemed to never forget was that college football was first and foremost a game, and supposed to be fun. For that alone we should all be thankful for the Captain Mike.

Take 2

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