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Mississippi State honors Mike Leach with pirate flag helmets for bowl game

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•01/02/23•

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(Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)

The Mississippi State football program pulled off another tremendous honor for late-coach Mike Leach. The former Bulldogs coach was a huge fan of pirates, so the team decided to deck out the helmets with a big pirate theme ahead of the ReliaQuest Bowl against Illinois.

The new Bulldogs helmets replaced the Mississippi State “M” with a pirate flag on the side of the helmet. The flag also contains Leach’s initials right underneath the skull and crossed swords.

The new helmet look can be seen below.

Leach was the head coach of Mississippi State for just three seasons. He went a combined 19-17 in those three years and led the Bulldogs to a bowl game every season. The 2022 season, his final one in Starkville, he went 8-4, his best record with the Bulldogs. Mississippi State earned a berth in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Illinois.

Leach started his coaching career in 1987 as an offensive line coach for Cal Poly. Leach would coach at some smaller schools until 1997 when he got his first Power Five job as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky. He would then leave for Oklahoma two years later for the same position.

After one season with the Sooners, Leach was hired as Texas Tech’s head coach. Leach put the Red Raiders on the map, winning nine games in just his third season. Leach would remain the head coach at Texas Tech for 10 years, going 84-43 and 5-4 in bowl games. He took Texas Tech to a 10th bowl game in his final season but did not coach in it. Following a few seasons out of coaching, Leach was hired by Washington State in 2012. Leach found strong success once again as a head coach, going 55-47 and making it to six bowl games in eight seasons with the Cougars. After that time, he was hired by Mississippi State.