What made Mike Leach so special was that he was not only unique but also incredibly genuine, take it or leave it.
Like the times RedRaiderSports.com publisher Chris Level, who basically started his website around the same time Leach took the job in Lubbock, hosted Leach’s radio show … and the coach was late.
Or never showed up at all.
“We would host it and he’d show up to his own show 20 to 30 minutes late sometimes and we’d have to do talk radio,” Level said. “There was one time he didn’t show up for his show so we just signed off and said, ‘We hope coach will be with us next week.’ That was kind of normal with him.
“He didn’t really respect the headphones, if that makes sense. He kind of acted the same off the air as he did on. When I saw him in Memphis last year he hadn’t changed a bit.”
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RELATED: Leach’s impact on coaching, playing careers will live on
Leach’s death was announced Tuesday following a reported massive heart attack at his home over the weekend. He had been dealing with health issues through the season.
Level remembers the guy who would rather talk books or the enchiladas he had eaten for lunch rather than football. Leach didn’t have an on-air and off-air persona. He was genuinely himself, like it or not.
“The best stuff you’d always get when it was organic,” Level said. “He’s going to be known for the funny lines and the stories and his takes on certain things, but the football part of it – he’s a genius. He changed the way high school football in the state of Texas is played now.
“He gets a lot of credit for his coaching tree, and it’s one of the best in existence at any level. You just go on and on and on, but the way he ran offense in its simplicity, it wasn’t as simple as everyone thought but it kind of was. There are so many of those principles still in high school, still in the Big 12 and now at the NFL level. He never got enough credit for the football part of it.”
Lost in Leach’s comical opinions about hot dogs or preparing for a wedding or breaking down which Pac-12 mascot would win a fight or doing the weather report in Lubbock and telling people to just go outside and check themselves or his various sidebar interests in pirates, whales, grizzly bears, chimpanzees, sharks, Australia, Daniel Boone, Geronimo, Apache Indians, Vikings – or whatever else – is the fact that he was something of a football savant.
With Hal Mumme, Leach devised the Air Raid offense, and with some tweaks and adjustments he ran it for his entire career. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who considered Leach both a friend and competitor, said on ESPN on Tuesday that in the Egg Bowl a few weeks ago the Rebels knew a play was coming and still could not stop it.
More than anything, though, Kiffin remembered the genuine article when it came to his coaching companion.
“I was just amazed by how brilliant he was and his stories and to think I was just hugging him a couple weeks ago,” Kiffin said on ESPN. “I knew something was off in pregame, and I’m glad he won his last game and had that last hug with him and I’ll really miss his stories. You go out pregame and a lot of coaches don’t want to talk to you and they just say, ‘Good luck.’
“I looked forward to it every year. He would never stop. I would finally have to say, ‘Hey Coach, we have to go play the game.’ He was like, ‘OK, well we’re going to meet in Key West, right? Whoever wins the game has to buy the flight down.’ That’s what he would say every year, so I will miss him … a wonderful person. For those of you who didn’t get to know him, a wonderful person, a big heart and will really be missed.”
Recruits loved him, too.
For his quirky personality and all his unique opinions, Leach had a way with kids. Players rallied around him – watch him try to dance with his Mississippi State players after beating Ole Miss – and he resonated with top prospects as well.
Four-star safety Isaac Smith from Fulton (Miss.) Itawamba Agricultural was with him over the weekend shortly before Leach passed.
“He meant a lot to me,” Smith said. “He was the one head coach that texted me every single day – morning, day and night. I went to watch practice Saturday and I took some buddies with me and they talked about the person he was the whole time back home. It saddens me to see this. Will forever be remembered by me.”
Top 2025 athlete Jarcoby Hopson from Lake Cormorant, Miss., felt the same way.
“Mike Leach meant so much to me,” Hopson said. “He was a great guy. He always was so genuine, and I got a chance to sit with him for hours at my house and talk about life, not only football. He was so smart in everything.”
And that’s the part Level wants to remember. Leach was his unique self and never one to hold back an opinion – especially when asked – but he was also incredibly intelligent in both life and as a football mind.
“Most coaches don’t have a hobby, and if they do it’s golf,” Level said. “He was not going to be pinned down. He was all over the map. What was he interested in? Everything. History, pirates … candy and wedding takes. That’s the beauty of it. You never knew what you were going to get into and you always felt like you came away learning something.
“He was the opposite of coach speak. That’s what made him so great and so refreshing.”
And so missed.
