The national sports world has been stunned by the untimely death of Mississippi State head football coach Mike Leach. I have long observed the results of Leach’s coaching at such stops as Texas Tech, Washington State and lastly Mississippi State. But it was only after his death that I began to see that he was a very unique man.

I have been reading a number of stories, there seems to be a plethora circulating now. I am sure some will already be old-hat to readers here. But I have had fun gathering the crop that I’ve been able to find.

For one thing, Leach had a rather unusual bedtime schedule. He was known to be awake at what others would describe as early morning hours. His arising time was usually at noon or later. One of his coaches at Mississippi State accompanied him on a 12-day recruiting trip. When the assistant walked into his house on the return, his wife told him that he looked terrible. “I haven’t been able to go to bed before 1 a.m. for 12 solid days,” was his explanation.

Brandon Langlois, the primary spokesman for the Mississippi State athletic program has said that it was normal for him to receive calls from Leach at 2 a.m. The calls weren’t associated with work. They were just random musings about something Leach had on his mind at the time. Langlois said “You would never know what the calls would be about. He’d be like ‘Hey I’m sitting here watching this documentary about John McEnroe. Have you seen it?’ You would look up and it’s 3:30.”

When he was hired by Mississippi State, signing the memorandum of understanding in his Key West home. Leach celebrated by striking up a bizarre conversation with the Mississippi State athletic brass that had come to work out a deal.

“We got to talking about Natchez, Miss., which led him to talking about the Natchez Indians, then the Choctaw Indians, then the Trail of Tears, then Oklahoma, then the West and the Navajo Indians and then he compared the Finnish language to the Navajo code talkers and how it wasn’t a great code because the Germans spoke too much Finnish, and then he talked about the Germans migrating to the U. S. and the next thing I know we are talking about Vicksburg and Natchez again,” one of the Mississippi State athletic representatives said.

He obviously loved to talk. An assistant at both Washington State and Mississippi State, Eric Mele told about his first staff meeting with Leach at Washington State. “We were drawing up particular plays with tags and motion on the whiteboard. We’d draw a play and then we’d talk about the Germanic Vikings. We’d draw up another play and then talk about the hierarchy of the New York mafia. We’d draw another play and then rank our favorite pizza joints.”

Sportswriters in the SEC were often treated to unique dialogues from Mike Leach during post-game interviews. After Mississippi State defeated Vanderbilt in 2021 eight days before Halloween Leach revealed that he hated candy corn. Following up, the interviewer asked what candies he did like. The answer was a minute-long rant that covered everything from Haribo gummy bears to Almond Joys.

SEC Network reporter Alyssa Lang shared with Coach Leach during an interview that she was getting married. His response was to encourage her and her fiance to elope.

“We’ll keep a close eye on it, but whatever you and Trevor decide, I would kind of keep it on the down low, which you failed to do. Trevor was probably planning to , but you didn’t so go ahead and don’t say anything else about it, but as soon as the season’s over, or even an off week, go elope. Trust me on that. Go elope, because basically every female in the family is gonna terrorize you guys until it is over. Once it is over, I mean, they will be upset for a few days, but it’ll be over and then you can cruise along and have a happy marriage, have a happy life.”

He grew up in Wyoming and as a youth had an infinity for wild animals. He often told of his pet raccoon which was named Bilbo Baggins, named after a character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” In his Key West home, he loved the wildlife there, which included alligators and other fearsome creatures. When asked if he wasn’t scared of dealing with such creatures, his usual response was “I don’t bother them and they have no issues with me.”

He recruited a kicker, Matt Williams, at a promotional event at Texas Tech. There was a contest with Tech students being offered money if they could kick a field goal during a half time. Leach observed the event and Williams kicked the ball right dead center over the crossbar. “I figured the kid was operating under a lot of pressure. If he could do it in that environment, he’d be a good kicker for us.” Williams was given a scholarship to Tech and never missed a kick during his college career. When he needed a kicker at Mississippi State, he put out a notice to the student body saying that the team would hold open kicking tryouts. About 40 students expressed interest.

I read one story about a man who took his son to see a game in which Leach was the head coach. The son ran down to the front row of the stadium and called out to the coach. The Dad was mortified, but Leach came over and talked a little with the boy. He gave him a memento to take with him. The next year again they went to a game in which a Leachcoached team was involved. Again, the boy went over and called to Leach. Again, he interrupted what he was doing, walked over to the lad and called him by name inviting him to the field so his players could meet him.

Another story had Leach taking a phone call during a recruiting trip. He talked very energetically with the caller, telling stories and laughing a lot. At one point, apparently, he lost the caller and called back and the conversation continued. When the call eventually ended an hour after it started, one of his coaching staff asked him who he was talking to. “I don’t know,” was his response. “It was a wrong number.”

In addition to being a character, Mike Leach could coach. He coached a wideopen offensive style that featured a lot of passing. He once was part of Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma, serving as offensive coordinator and was a part of the Sooners’ national championship team of 2000. Josh Heupel, now the coach at Tennessee, paid tribute to him for helping him become the quarterback that he was at Oklahoma. So did Kliff Kingsbury, now the coach of the Arizona Cardinals and who was Leach’s first quarterback at Texas Tech. Leach was instrumental in recruiting future Heisman Trophy winner Jason White to Oklahoma. One of Stoops’ pitches was that he was going to hire the best offensive coordinator in college football, which eventually was Mike Leach. When White met Leach, he remembers that Leach said “We’ll run it (the ball) when we have to,” implying that White would have plenty of opportunity to throw. And after Leach drew countless passing plays on the white board, White was sold.

Patrick Mahomes, who is currently guiding the Kansas City Chiefs as their quarterback, credits Mike Leach with influencing his career even though he never played for him. Mahomes’ thinking is that Leach did coach Kingsbury, who was his coach. “He taught Coach Kingsbury most of what Coach Kingsbury passed along to me,” Mahomes said.

These are just a few of the stories that have been circulating after Mike Leach’s death. The sports world loves colorful characters and this coach certainly qualified as one.