RIP Mike Leach, the most interesting man in college football
December 13, 2022 11:27 AM Subscribe
Mike Leach died today at the age of 61, a couple days after suffering a heart attack. Best known as a college football coach, currently at Mississippi State (but also an author of a biography of Geronimo), Leach was one of the more interesting public figures in American life at a time when public eccentricity isn't appreciated as much as maybe it once was. Someone once asked Leach how he'd like to be remembered in his obituary. Leach responded "well, that's their problem. They're the one writing the obituary. What do I care? I'm dead."
Stories and memorable moments inside.
Leach's combination of coaching prowess and idiosyncratic musings attracted a lot of attention. 60 Minutes profiled him, as did Michael Lewis in the New York Times Magazine, because Leach's biography was unique for a big-time coach. He never played college football, went to law school, and spent the 1989 season coaching in Finland, of all places. Despite that, and despite the fact that he never won a conference championship at any of his three head coaching stops, nobody has had more of an effect on the game of football over the past quarter century. During Leach's first season Texas Tech in 2000, only two other quarterbacks attempted 500 passes that season: Purdue's Drew Brees (who would go on to break most of the NFL's all-time passing records) threw 512, and Jared Lorenzen of Kentucky, where Leach had been the offensive coordinator the year before, who threw 559. Leach's first starting quarterback, Kliff Kingsbury, threw 585. The next year, Kingsbury threw 529. By 2002, their third year together, he threw 712. In Leach's fourth year, new QB BJ Symons threw 719, which is still the NCAA record for most passes thrown in a season. That leaderboard is basically a list of Leach QBs: 12 of the top 21 played under Leach, and of the nine who didn't, four played for coaches who were direct disciples of Leach.
Leach's coaching tree will be one of his lasting legacies. Of the eight full-time assistant coaches on Leach's first staff at Texas Tech in 2000, six went on to become Division I head coaches, a figure that, if anything, downplays the coaching talent in Lubbock. Two graduate assistants also went on to head coaching gigs, as well as three players. Kingsbury is now a head coach in the NFL. Lincoln Riley coaches USC, whose quarterback just won the Heisman Trophy. Sonny Dykes's TCU team will play in the College Football playoff later this month. Josh Heupel's Tennessee team was ranked #1 for a few weeks earlier this season. Former Leach players and assistants have coached at West Virginia, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Baylor, and Cal, among others.
Leach's other legacy will be his absolutely delightful interviews, where his answers only occasionally touched on football. Here's Leach giving a reporter advice about planning her upcoming wedding. Here's Leach on dating apps. Leach on coffee. Leach on Halloween candy. Leach on hot dogs. Leach with an in-depth exploration of who would win in a mascot fight. There are a lot more where these came from.
Leach's eccentric personality was a frequent source of slow-news-day stories for the Athletic. This past summer, they collected several former players' first impressions of their coach, and during the 2019 offseason, they reported a story about what happened during meetings between Leach and his QBs, one of the single most entertaining pieces of sports reporting ever written. Both of those links are paywalled, but you can subscribe to the Athletic for $1/month, and it's absolutely worth it just for these two stories.
Outside of football (sort of), Leach had a cameo on Friday Night Lights where he offered unsolicited pirate sword-swinging instruction to Coach Eric Taylor at a gas station, which is probably as succinct a summary of the Mike Leach experience as anything. RIP.
Leach's combination of coaching prowess and idiosyncratic musings attracted a lot of attention. 60 Minutes profiled him, as did Michael Lewis in the New York Times Magazine, because Leach's biography was unique for a big-time coach. He never played college football, went to law school, and spent the 1989 season coaching in Finland, of all places. Despite that, and despite the fact that he never won a conference championship at any of his three head coaching stops, nobody has had more of an effect on the game of football over the past quarter century. During Leach's first season Texas Tech in 2000, only two other quarterbacks attempted 500 passes that season: Purdue's Drew Brees (who would go on to break most of the NFL's all-time passing records) threw 512, and Jared Lorenzen of Kentucky, where Leach had been the offensive coordinator the year before, who threw 559. Leach's first starting quarterback, Kliff Kingsbury, threw 585. The next year, Kingsbury threw 529. By 2002, their third year together, he threw 712. In Leach's fourth year, new QB BJ Symons threw 719, which is still the NCAA record for most passes thrown in a season. That leaderboard is basically a list of Leach QBs: 12 of the top 21 played under Leach, and of the nine who didn't, four played for coaches who were direct disciples of Leach.
Leach's coaching tree will be one of his lasting legacies. Of the eight full-time assistant coaches on Leach's first staff at Texas Tech in 2000, six went on to become Division I head coaches, a figure that, if anything, downplays the coaching talent in Lubbock. Two graduate assistants also went on to head coaching gigs, as well as three players. Kingsbury is now a head coach in the NFL. Lincoln Riley coaches USC, whose quarterback just won the Heisman Trophy. Sonny Dykes's TCU team will play in the College Football playoff later this month. Josh Heupel's Tennessee team was ranked #1 for a few weeks earlier this season. Former Leach players and assistants have coached at West Virginia, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Baylor, and Cal, among others.
Leach's other legacy will be his absolutely delightful interviews, where his answers only occasionally touched on football. Here's Leach giving a reporter advice about planning her upcoming wedding. Here's Leach on dating apps. Leach on coffee. Leach on Halloween candy. Leach on hot dogs. Leach with an in-depth exploration of who would win in a mascot fight. There are a lot more where these came from.
Leach's eccentric personality was a frequent source of slow-news-day stories for the Athletic. This past summer, they collected several former players' first impressions of their coach, and during the 2019 offseason, they reported a story about what happened during meetings between Leach and his QBs, one of the single most entertaining pieces of sports reporting ever written. Both of those links are paywalled, but you can subscribe to the Athletic for $1/month, and it's absolutely worth it just for these two stories.
Outside of football (sort of), Leach had a cameo on Friday Night Lights where he offered unsolicited pirate sword-swinging instruction to Coach Eric Taylor at a gas station, which is probably as succinct a summary of the Mike Leach experience as anything. RIP.
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posted by MorgansAmoebas at 12:32 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 12:32 PM on December 13, 2022
No mention whatsoever of alleged abuse of his athletes?
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2022
Slate's obituary covers his innovations in the passing game and the aforementioned athlete abuse.
posted by mmascolino at 12:47 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by mmascolino at 12:47 PM on December 13, 2022
Yeah, dude was horrible to a fair number of his players, as football coaches often are -- and worse in college because of the power dynamic. Let's not lionize a jerk.
posted by Galvanic at 1:26 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by Galvanic at 1:26 PM on December 13, 2022
Wikipedia is vague on his provenance — father a forester could mean anything from lumberjack to guy who owns millions of acres of billions of board feet — but it does note his JD from Pepperdine in 1986 and I bet a prestigious law degree made being weird in public a lot more manageable for him.
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:45 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:45 PM on December 13, 2022
His random asides were always great, even if he was a jerk. He contained multitudes.
No mention whatsoever of alleged abuse of his athletes?
Read some of the summary judgements against him re: the abuse. Ego too big to listen to lawyerly advice he should have given himself and be vague, say nothing, or fake contrition. They all have it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:02 PM on December 13, 2022
No mention whatsoever of alleged abuse of his athletes?
Read some of the summary judgements against him re: the abuse. Ego too big to listen to lawyerly advice he should have given himself and be vague, say nothing, or fake contrition. They all have it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:02 PM on December 13, 2022
How about his campaigning for Trump? Fuck that (dead) guy.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:44 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:44 PM on December 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mike Leach always, always believed his own press. I wish he'd been a better person.
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posted by Etrigan at 2:58 PM on December 13, 2022
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posted by Etrigan at 2:58 PM on December 13, 2022
a non mouse - A lot of obituaries don't mention that episode of his life because in the years following his firing from Texas Tech, that accusation was found to be non-credible, to say the least. Here is a collection of player and coach statements on that episode. There's no such thing as an unbiased witness, but in all my years following CFB, and in all my years seeing immature 19 year olds flame out in public, I have never, ever seen so many of a player's team-mates line up to so publicly, so extensively, and so emphatically just shit on that player like they did with Adam James.
Alex Kirshner's obit, also linked by mmascolino above, is probably my favorite, and does the best of surveying the complexities of Coach Leach. It's no accident I think that though, I'm a patron subscriber to his podcast, spend too much time on a discord devoted to the cadre of sports journalists that share connections to College Football mensch Spencer Hall ye old Everyday Should Be Saturday, and I'm partial to everything Kirschner has put out in his young career. If your similar CFB nerd like me, you'll recognize some of the talking points that are going to follow:
One thing you consistently confront in College Sports is the coaches are often the most visible personalities, but also the most consistently morally suspect actors. By definition, just about every power program coach is a millionaire who's job depends on (somewhat) unpaid quasi-adults who predominately come from lower socio-economic status. Many would argue that, by definition, you have to be an asshole to cash six-figure checks to supervise and bully unpaid workers.
In that landscape, the fact that Coach Leach seems like the type of old guy who'd get in internet-fights in the comment section of an OAN Facebook post, kinda takes on a different relevance. Sure, Coach Leach is an asshole, every coach is, but not every coach was entertaining and congenial of a crank as Coach Leach was. In a sport dominated by conformity and orthodoxy, he was never afraid to just go off to the beat of his own drum. My earliest Leach memory was when NFL films did a profile on him, and instead of selling himself or his program, he just took the camera crew around the facilities as he performed an impromptu trial of hot-water versus coffee as a means killing the ant colonies on his fields.
You don't have to mourn for him. As a white guy from Oklahoma, I probably am too practiced and too accustomed to mourning the death of a loved family member who was also an asshole.
But a lot of the "CFB sickos" that make up the online communities I frequent, we will mourn his death.Or maybe more accurately I should steal from Lester Bangs and say, like Elvis, he was a flawed person, but he was the flawed person we could all agree on. Maybe it's not so much that I will miss him, more that we will miss each other. We will miss the opportunities we had to connect with each other about how weird of an asshole he was.
posted by midmarch snowman at 9:45 PM on December 13, 2022 [11 favorites]
Alex Kirshner's obit, also linked by mmascolino above, is probably my favorite, and does the best of surveying the complexities of Coach Leach. It's no accident I think that though, I'm a patron subscriber to his podcast, spend too much time on a discord devoted to the cadre of sports journalists that share connections to College Football mensch Spencer Hall ye old Everyday Should Be Saturday, and I'm partial to everything Kirschner has put out in his young career. If your similar CFB nerd like me, you'll recognize some of the talking points that are going to follow:
One thing you consistently confront in College Sports is the coaches are often the most visible personalities, but also the most consistently morally suspect actors. By definition, just about every power program coach is a millionaire who's job depends on (somewhat) unpaid quasi-adults who predominately come from lower socio-economic status. Many would argue that, by definition, you have to be an asshole to cash six-figure checks to supervise and bully unpaid workers.
In that landscape, the fact that Coach Leach seems like the type of old guy who'd get in internet-fights in the comment section of an OAN Facebook post, kinda takes on a different relevance. Sure, Coach Leach is an asshole, every coach is, but not every coach was entertaining and congenial of a crank as Coach Leach was. In a sport dominated by conformity and orthodoxy, he was never afraid to just go off to the beat of his own drum. My earliest Leach memory was when NFL films did a profile on him, and instead of selling himself or his program, he just took the camera crew around the facilities as he performed an impromptu trial of hot-water versus coffee as a means killing the ant colonies on his fields.
You don't have to mourn for him. As a white guy from Oklahoma, I probably am too practiced and too accustomed to mourning the death of a loved family member who was also an asshole.
But a lot of the "CFB sickos" that make up the online communities I frequent, we will mourn his death.Or maybe more accurately I should steal from Lester Bangs and say, like Elvis, he was a flawed person, but he was the flawed person we could all agree on. Maybe it's not so much that I will miss him, more that we will miss each other. We will miss the opportunities we had to connect with each other about how weird of an asshole he was.
posted by midmarch snowman at 9:45 PM on December 13, 2022 [11 favorites]
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posted by Silverstone at 11:24 PM on December 13, 2022
posted by Silverstone at 11:24 PM on December 13, 2022
that accusation was found to be non-credible, to say the least.....I have never, ever seen so many of a player's team-mates line up to so publicly, so extensively, and so emphatically just shit on that player like they did with Adam James.
Yeah, that's what gets me about the court cases. His lawsuits were dismissed, with him losing, because they used his own words he said to investigators against him.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:56 AM on December 14, 2022
Yeah, that's what gets me about the court cases. His lawsuits were dismissed, with him losing, because they used his own words he said to investigators against him.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:56 AM on December 14, 2022
@midmarch snowman. I did not expect an EDSBS or Sickos reference on this site, but happy to see it.
posted by sandmanwv at 8:38 AM on December 16, 2022
posted by sandmanwv at 8:38 AM on December 16, 2022
Drew Magary has thoughts on Leach today. (Defector soft paywall. Not sharing archive link, because Defector seems to do the paywall for the right reasons... being self-owned and paying the staff.)
I still find the whole framing of this thread weird, as most MeFi obit posts generally at least include mentions of scandals, for lack of a better word, or known bad things that the deceased had done. (I was unaware that Leach was largely exonorated, despite being pretty deep in to CFB, particularly Texas CFB at that time... which is one reason I thought it should be included. For those who remember the bad story but didn't hear the outcome.)
The post, and a large set of reports which Magary acknowledges just seem way more flowery than most people get.
It's really weird to read:
"Many would argue that, by definition, you have to be an asshole to cash six-figure checks to supervise and bully unpaid workers. " on the blue and think that sort of apologia is something we find as acceptable.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:03 PM on December 16, 2022
I still find the whole framing of this thread weird, as most MeFi obit posts generally at least include mentions of scandals, for lack of a better word, or known bad things that the deceased had done. (I was unaware that Leach was largely exonorated, despite being pretty deep in to CFB, particularly Texas CFB at that time... which is one reason I thought it should be included. For those who remember the bad story but didn't hear the outcome.)
The post, and a large set of reports which Magary acknowledges just seem way more flowery than most people get.
It's really weird to read:
"Many would argue that, by definition, you have to be an asshole to cash six-figure checks to supervise and bully unpaid workers. " on the blue and think that sort of apologia is something we find as acceptable.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:03 PM on December 16, 2022
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I am not a huge sportsball fan in general, but I'm an avid Michael Lewis reader. Leach has stayed with me as a colorful and inspiring character, ever since I read the Lewis/NYT profile. Thanks for posting this, kevinbelt.
posted by sockshaveholes at 11:45 AM on December 13, 2022