On this day a year ago - Mike Leach passed away...

[dawgstudent]

a lot has happened in the past 365 days since Leach died but we were definitely lucky to have him as our head coach for 3 seasons. He was so unique in the football world. Guy marched to the beat of his own drum.

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

RIP Corch. May the pirate always be remembered

 

[thatsbaseball]

I wish I had known a lot of the things I learned about him after his death earlier. RIP Coach.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Biggest what could have been in MSU football history. We finally got it right. Many coaches do their best work in their last decade. He was 58 when we hired him, and I was like, man we are set up for a solid run here, because not many like to jump jobs at that point. He had the name cache to recruit too. But he did show us glimpses of what could be if we would just commit to something like that.

RIP Mike

 

[She Mate Me]

If you're in the mood...

Thread 'Twitter tributes to Coach' https://www.on3.com/boards/threads/twitter-tributes-to-coach.813438/

 

[dawgstudent]

 

[ZombieKissinger]

Little doubt that he would’ve gotten us to the playoff within the first five years of expansion

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Even the Devil cries. RIP Coach, I do not think I will ever stop missing you. When I saw this post I thought about this Marshall Ramsey cartoon. I can remember Mrs. Devil coming home from work that day and finding me on our back porch. She asked "Are you ok"? My response was something just like a little kid "I want my Pirate back". I can also remember the day we hired CL because all my friends and family thought I was nuts. I sent out a message to all of them that said breaking news the Louisville Police Department has reported a pirate ship sailing up highway 25. All of them that knew football caught on real quick. I do not know if he was the greatest X's and O's coach or recruiter, but I do know I miss the man and most likely always will.

 

[POTUS]

I posted this on that day, and it still rings true. RIP Coach.

Leach chose us

I think this is what hurts the most. He chose to come here and coach. He knew it would be a challenge and he welcomed it. He embraced State & Starkville. I firmly believe he would’ve delivered our best season in program history if he’d been given time to do so. When many programs are worried their coach might leave for greener pastures or about the skeletons in their coach’s closet, Leach was a verifiably great guy and loyal to boot. This is just a huge blow to the State community and college football as a whole. I mean his coaching tree speaks for itself. Sorry to rant, I’m just really upset right now. There’s just no replacing him. He broke the mold. RIP.

 

[MSUDOG24]

I posted this on that day, and it still rings true. RIP Coach.

Leach chose us

I think this is what hurts the most. He chose to come here and coach. He knew it would be a challenge and he welcomed it. He embraced State & Starkville. I firmly believe he would’ve delivered our best season in program history if he’d been given time to do so. When many programs are worried their coach might leave for greener pastures or about the skeletons in their coach’s closet, Leach was a verifiably great guy and loyal to boot. This is just a huge blow to the State community and college football as a whole. I mean his coaching tree speaks for itself. Sorry to rant, I’m just really upset right now. There’s just no replacing him. He broke the mold. RIP.

Well said even a year later. "One of one" gets used a lot but really was applicable to him as there will never be that combination of profession, personality and interests again.
Interesting you used "skeletons in the closet" as my biggest learning after his passing was his "skeletons" seemed to be endless acts of kindness and just being a regular guy that nobody knew about. Finebaum had 2 days of Leach and random caller after caller told of their encounters with Mike and how he treated them. Sat there thinking I thought I knew what we had but not even close to the full picture.
We all likely had our moments of frustration and fussing about him but man, I still miss him being our coach.

 

[Del B Vista]

I really would have liked to have met him. Would have been cool to see where the conversation went.

One thing I think is overlooked is how good a coach he was outside the Air Raid. He had a way to run a program that was way more than X's and O's.