Is MSU coach Mike Leach’s viral persona real? Don’t let his oddities fool you, NC State
If you have 10 minutes to spare, do yourself a favor and pull up ‘Mike Leach Being Mike Leach’ on YouTube.
Leach is the head coach at Mississippi State, N.C. State’s next opponent.
While Leach has been very successful at all his stops as a football coach, he’s probably just as popular for, well, being Mike Leach.
Leach is, as one person put it, different. His weekly press conferences can easily turn into a one-man comedy show if the right question is fired his way. Want advice on your upcoming wedding? Ask Mike Leach. Want to know which PAC-12 mascot would win in a fight? Ask Mike Leach. Bigfoot? Pirate swords? Card tricks? All up Mike Leach’s, alley if you catch him on the right day.
Ruffin McNeill, now a special assistant to head coach Dave Doeren at N.C. State, worked with Leach from 2000-2009 at Texas Tech. That’s the longest tenure in McNeill’s career. That’s a long time to get a front row seat for the Mike Leach show.
“It’s just like what you see and what people have seen (on television) and my time with him at Texas Tech, the same,” McNeill said about Leach’s on-camera persona. “It’s just like that. No different.”
Leach’s ability to go off script and talk about, well, sometimes anything but football, has made him almost legendary. From Texas Tech, to Washington State and now Mississippi State, his press conferences are must-see TV. Make no mistake about it, though, he can still coach football. Leach has won 144 games (97 loses) and taken his teams to 17 bowl games. Last season was his first in the SEC and the Bulldogs won the Armed Forces Bowl. The game was a black eye for Mississippi State because the Bulldogs and Tulsa got into a brawl on the field at the conclusion of the game. Where was Leach? In the stands posing for pictures with fans and security.
It’s almost like he was oblivious to what was going on, forgetting for a second that he’s a football coach.
A lawyer and a coach
Leach earned a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1986. Yes, the country’s most eccentric college football coach could have been a lawyer, had he chosen that career path.
It’s fair to say that he’s done just fine with football. As much as he’s known for his rants, Leach’s offenses are stuff legends are made of. It’s not fancy, but very effective. From Lubbock to Pullman and now Starkville, Leach finds the type of players he needs and makes the system work.
“When we got to Texas Tech it was brand new,” McNeill said. “That was my introduction to the offense. When we got there that’s when the quarterback list started.”
That list includes Kliff Kingsbury (over 10,000 career yards), Graham Harrell (multiple 5,000 yards seasons), B.J. Symons (owner of 11 NCAA FBS records).
“With that offense, it’s like wishbone in reverse,” McNeill explained. “I call it ball distribution because the ball is being distributed to a lot of receivers and runners. Everyone is touching the football.”
With more success came more eyes on Leach. During his time at Texas Tech he was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment. The offense was the show, but the star was Leach. Even to this day, when McNeill sees Leach on television, making another of his press conferences go viral, he can only shake his head and laugh.
He has plenty of soundbites that come to mind, but it’s the ability Leach has to touch on any subject that impresses McNeill.
“Any topic he’s ready to go on and have a filibuster about,” McNeill recalls. “It can be politics, it can be any subject you want to talk about. He’s a reader, he reads a lot and he’s from Wyoming so he has that outdoor part about him as well.”
The one that stands out the most, though, is Leach’s obsession with pirates that came during the height of their success at Texas Tech.
“He had a fascination with Pirates and swinging your sword and he really just ran with that,” McNeill said. “I think the Pirate (Of the Caribbeans) movies were out and it tied into what we did, ‘swing your sword, no hesitation’ a lot of it came from that, but that was one of the things that really took off.”
Don’t let the oddness fool you, McNeill warns. When it comes to the practice field, Leach is as locked in as any coach and that carries over to film and meetings. But if the opportunity presents itself, Leach won’t turn down a chance to be, as McNeill described him, different.
“You can pull up his name (on line) and what you see that’s exactly what happened, that’s what he is,” McNeill said. “Anytime you get a chance to change the conversation on any topic he’s able to go on about it in a filibuster type manner.”
How to watch
Teams: N.C. State at Mississippi State
When: Saturday, Sept. 11
Time: 7 p.m. EST
TV: ESPN2
Betting line: N.C. State is a 2-point favorite
Series history: The two teams have met six times and are dead even at 3-3. Mississippi State won the most recent matchup, 51-28, at the 2015 Belk Bowl in Charlotte.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 1:57 PM.
