The Legend of Mike Leach: How One Coach Changed Everything For Me
Coming into Mississippi State, I was unaware of who Mike Leach was, but now he changed my perspective on sports forever.
When I accepted a scholarship from Mississippi State, the football team was just coming out of the Joe Moorhead era, and hired a coach named Mike Leach from Washington State as their new head coach.
Growing up in a household dominated by Alabama alumni, I never heard of Mike Leach prior to his hiring at Mississippi State, but I quickly learned how eccentric he was as a coach, both on and off the field.
At SEC Media Days after he was first introduced as head coach of the Bulldogs, his opening statement was only seven words long. I also quickly learned about his passion for pirates, Geronimo, and his distaste for candy corn.
As a freshman, college football had changed. The COVID-19 pandemic was still at its peak. I never got to see the team play in person. Some players managed to play through it while others never got to see the field again. We were all affected by it one way or another and Leach had to navigate his team through a rough time in the world of sports.
Our first game was against No. 6 ranked LSU, who had just won a national championship the season before on a historic run of which we may never see the likes of again. I remember watching the game in a hotel lobby thinking "There is no way we win this." Then, the Air Raid happened.
We beat them on a historic pefromance from quarterback KJ Costello. The first time a defending national champion lost their opener since 1998, when Michigan lost to Notre Dame. Mike Leach, in his post-game interview, told the reporter that "We played LSU because New England, Green Bay, and the Chiefs already had somebody scheduled."
We ended up going 4-8 that season, but after that game at LSU, Mike Leach quickly became one of my favorite coaches in the college football landscape.
Next season, my sophomore year, crowds were allowed back into the stadium. Our home opener was vs Louisiana Tech and I got the experience the atmosphere Davis Wade Stadium for the first time ever. As the team ran out onto the field, the sounds of cowbells nearly deafened by ears and the bleachers below me rumbled as the crowd cheered the team coming out onto the field. Davis Wade is one of the best atmospheres in college football and that is a hill I am willing to die on.
Unlike the year before vs. LSU, where we gained a pretty decent lead, this year, we were down 20 points to Louisiana Tech. At home. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, my section was getting empty.
The Bulldogs will end up engineering an amazing comeback. I will never forget that missed field goal that sealed the win for us. Me and everyone who was still in our section went absolutely nuts.
Mike Leach, in his post game interview, said "I basically said we tried every way known to man to lose it, just for fun let's try something different. Let's go ahead and do our job because we've got nothing to lose. And off we went."
We may have looked bad then, but we were 1-0 so it didn’t matter. We ended the season 7-6, including a blow-out loss to Leach's old team, Texas Tech, in the Liberty Bowl. Despite this, it was an improvement over the season before and I believed the team was in good hands.
During this time, I have also started to take my journalism career seriously. I joined Mississippi State's student newspaper, The Reflector, as a sportswriter and I started working broadcast operations for SEC Network as a cameraman. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working each of these jobs and I am very grateful for the people I have met and the opportunities that it has given me.
Through my career so far as a student journalist, covering Mike Leach was a treat. In every press conference and interview, he spoke intelligently about football while also giving his own takes on any topic that gets brought up. He was an eccentric figure in the world of college football that we will never see again. I am glad we got to call him our coach for the past three seasons.
About a month or so ago, someone asked me what one thing is I would love to do as a journalist. I told them the one thing I would love to do is to interview the one and only Mike Leach. In fact, that is what I was planning to do, have a one-on-one interview with him in the spring during the offseason if it was possible. It's a massive shame, as both a fan and a journalist, that I never had the chance to meet him or to speak to him. I would have loved to have just an hour conversation with him about football, his time in Starkville, and the Golden Age of Piracy. I have heard from other journalists and students their stories with him and to say he is a national treasure is an understatement. He is one of the defining figures in college football.
Despite never having the chance to talk with him, at least Mike Leach will go out as a winner. What ended up being the last game he coached was a 24-22 victory in the Egg Bowl over Ole Miss on Thanksgiving night. It was my first Egg Bowl win as a student at Mississippi State, and it's a win I will never forget.
With Mike Leach's sudden passing this week, it reminds me of how fragile life can be. As we get older, the people and places we know and love pass on, becoming memories and photographs in time. Remember to tell your family, friends, and those close to you that you love them, and treat every day like it’s your last day with them, because life is too short to focus on the statistics and records. Make every second with them count.
And always remember,
To Swing Your Sword.
