Dana Holgorsen, Houston staff to wear Mississippi State sweatshirts for Mike Leach

When Houston takes the field for the Independence Bowl, several coaches will wear black sweatshirts that say, “State,” as a way of honoring Mike Leach. Among those coaches are head coach Dana Holgorsen, Brandon Jones, and Shannon Dawson. The Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte first reported the news.

Mike Leach, who died earlier in December due to complications relating to a heart condition, was known for wearing the same black sweatshirt that said, “State” on it during his time with Mississippi State.

Honoring a legend. @HailStateFB #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/QRs9lTJ1X8

— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) December 23, 2022

For his part, Dana Holgorsen was a Mike Leach disciple. He played for leach at Iowa Wesleyan and later coached under him at Texas Tech. After going their own way, the two remained close, with Leach acting as a mentor to Holgorsen.

When Mike Leach died, Dana Holgorsen took to Twitter to give some thoughts on the Pirate.

“Mike Leach was more than an incredible, innovative, impactful, successful, popular football coach,” Dana Holgorsen tweeted. “He was all that as a husband to Sharon and a father to Janeen, Kimberly, Cody & Kiersten! Brilliant, thoughtful, kind man who taught me so much in so many different ways. RIP Coach!”

Houston plays Louisiana in the Independence Bowl on Friday, December 23rd.

Several teams have honored Mike Leach

There have been numerous memorials to Mike Leach during the weeks following his death. That includes several teams honoring him during bowl season.

BYU, which was Leach’s alma mater, wore pirate flags on the team’s helmets to honor him. Even Miami (OH) honored Leach, despite having no real connection to him. They did so by turning the MAC logo into a pirate flag, once again wearing it on their helmets for the Bahamas Bowl.