College football will not be the same without The Pirate, Mike Leach

The true spirit of college football, lost on so many coaches these days, took a major hit with the passing of always-entertaining, delectably and delightfully eccentric Mike Leach, The Pirate.

The Mississippi State head football coach passed away unexpectedly and left a gaping hole in Mississippi and national sports as far as this hack is concerned.

I will certainly miss Coach Leach’s dry wit, his penchant for bluntness via metaphor, his uncompromising demands of accountability and his innovative football mind and I am certain thousands and thousands and thousands of others will as well.

In a day and age of college football being about money and being more serious than it was intended to be, Coach Leach was a breath of fresh air. Make no mistake, he was intense and serious about winning, but not to the extent of some of the current CEO types that run college football programs now.

He had a sense of humor about it, win or lose.

I had two personal encounters with Coach Leach through the years and both were as memorable as you would imagine any interaction with him would be.

Flashback to the 2009 Cotton Bowl with Ole Miss facing a highly-ranked, 11-1 Texas Tech Red Raider squad led by Coach Leach.

There was a question mark surrounding Red Raider star Wide Receiver Michael Crabtree, who had been injured and was trying to make a comeback in the bowl game.

If memory serves, the Red Raiders were practicing in Texas Stadium, the old Dallas Cowboys residence, and I was on a reconnaissance mission to find out about Crabtree as the media was allowed to watch practice that day.

A Texas Tech practice was like none I had ever seen before or since.

For nearly an hour, five quarterbacks were throwing to what seemed like 25 different receivers over and over and over. So what’s different about that? All five were throwing at the same time – footballs were flying everywhere in what looked like synchronized chaos.

Meanwhile, Coach Leach was standing over to the side seemingly gazing at the structure of the stadium and a nest of pigeons at the top of the building. He appeared almost disinterested, but as I watched, I realized he was well aware of what was going on. Several times, when he saw things that didn’t suit him, he’d blow his whistle and stop practice, calmly instructing the team and his assistants what was wrong and what he wanted.

Then he’d go back to his gazing – one eye on the pigeons and one on the team.

After practice, five or six reporters gathered around Coach Leach for some questions. I was the only one that wasn’t a Red Raider beat writer.

“Ah, the enemy is in the house,” he quipped. “Please go tell (Ole Miss coach) Houston (Nutt) that Crabtree will be playing in the game.”

Caught, red-handed and red-faced, but then he laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. I was going to tell him at the luncheon tomorrow,” he smiled.

Moving on, after Ed Orgeron was mercifully relieved of his duties at Ole Miss, the search was on for a new Rebel coach and the name Mike Leach was prominent on the Rebel message boards and among fans.

So I thought I would call The Pirate and see what was on his mind.

I caught up with him via phone in Key West where he has a vacation home.

After introducing myself, I asked him if he was interested in the Ole Miss job. His answer was typical Mike Leach.

“I’m at a restaurant eating the best jerked chicken I have ever had in my life,” he responded. “If you are ever down here, call me and I will bring you here.”

Sure, coach, but about the Ole Miss job. . . .

“I’m telling you, this stuff is delicious. It melts in your mouth,” he continued.

Uh, coach, Ole Miss. Job.

“I don’t know how they cook this to make it so tender, but I can tell it is grilled,” Coach Leach stated.

This went on for another five minutes or so.

Me asking him if he was interested in the Ole Miss job and him telling me about the jerked chicken he was eating.

Finally, after two or three more proclamations about the food, he answered the original question.

“Sure, I would be. What coach would not want to be in the SEC?” he asked.

So, coach, what do you think about the Ole Miss job specifically?

“Please come here and eat some of this jerked chicken,” he ended the conversation.

After that talk and the encounter at the Cotton Bowl, I became a Mike Leach fan.

He was just plain old common sense with a wry twist of funny.

When you look at his head coaching record, the one thing that is clear is that he was never afraid of a challenge. He took on three programs that have rarely been at the top of the heap in their respective conferences and made them all competitive or more.

Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State were all better than their norm with Mike Leach at the helm.

That’s the highest compliment you can pay a coach.

I realize my final statement about Coach Leach is not going to go over well with some Rebel fans, but I have to be true to myself and to you.

I’m glad the last game Mike Leach coached in he won, even if it was at the expense of Ole Miss.

I’m glad he tasted victory the last time he was on the sidelines.

He deserved that.

RIP, Mike Leach.

College football will not be the same without you.