'He left an impact on people': Lane Kiffin remembers Mike Leach

There is a bond and brotherhood between coaches but when it came to Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach it went deeper than a professional respect.

On Tuesday the college football world was rocked to its core with the news of Leach’s death, succumbing to complications from a heart condition. Leach was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson on Sunday from his home in Starkville.

For the past three seasons the state of Mississippi had been at the center of the sport with the hiring of both Kiffin and Leach ahead of the 2020 season. Friends off the field but more so their larger-than-life personalities that drew them into the other’s orbit.

Moments after Ole Miss wrapped up its practice and preparation on Tuesday for the Texas Bowl Kiffin took to the podium and his thoughts immediately went back to the loss Leach.

“Tragic loss. Someone who was very close. Awesome person,” Kiffin said. “I was thinking there’s not too many people that when you meet him, no matter who you are, when you met Mike Leach you remember meeting him because he left an impact on people. It’s crazy to think just a couple weeks ago hugging him and watching him walk off as a winner and would’ve never thought it was his last game.”

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

Kiffin and Leach came to Mississippi within weeks of each other and instantly altered the dynamic of the Egg Bowl rivalry.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State head football coaches are not supposed to speak to each other, let alone be buddies.

But it was Kiffin and Leach that broke that mold head on and never looked back. Two personalities who thrived in the media spotlight and always equipped with the one-liners and anecdotes that usually pertained to anything but football.

All of the toxicity that permeated between the Ole Miss and Mississippi State fan bases did not completely dissolve but Kiffin and Leach dulled the edges. The last three editions of the Egg Bowl felt more like two teams trying to end the regular season with a victory over its rival than another chapter of the Hatfields and McCoys.

“We didn’t call (each other) and say how are we going to do this thing,” Kiffin said of his and Leach’s initial conversations. “If you know our personalities then you could have guessed how it would be that we wouldn’t fall into this, ‘Oh, now we’re going to change and dislike each other.'”

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— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 13, 2022

The pregame tradition of head coaches meeting at the 50 yard-line to get the obligatory photo and shot for the television cameras is one of the things coaches do.

Usually those are not the most anticipated moments to a coach’s day when preparing for another run through the Southeastern Conference gauntlet hours later. But when it came to Kiffin and Leach it was one the third-year Rebel coach enjoyed.

“You don’t always look forward to every coach meeting before games but I always did (with) him,” Kiffin said. “He was just always amazing and I always had to say, ‘Okay, I have to go now, coach.’ Because he was going to keep talking forever and it was always unique. Every conversation I’d always say to myself or I’d come back to a coach that played for him and say, ‘Somehow we started here and I have no idea how we got over here in the conversation.’ But that was just him.”

Prior to the three years as head coaches in the SEC together, both Kiffin and Leach crossed paths as head coaches in the Pac-12 when Kiffin coached Southern California and Leach heading up the Washington State program.