forums

RIP Coach Leach

Advertisement
As someone that is just a huge fan of this sport overall, regardless of who is playing, it was great watching this guy coach.

There’s nothing out there that can compare to the magic that is college football. And this guy was a huge part of what makes this sport so unique.

His personality and uniqueness made him one of the all time greats. RIP coach. Thank you for giving all of us fans some amazing memories.
 
Advertisement
Canedude08 said:
A little story.

When I finished law school, I moved to Tucson, Arizona to take a job down there. As a little bit of a hobby(Plus, I had weekends free for some reason), I ended up picking up some freelance journalism work for the paper down there and was assigned to the UA football beat. To create more content, and take advantage of Facebook Live, we started doing a little pregame show for people where we really dug into concepts and whatnot. It was a pregame show for the hardcore football nerd and it did really well, mostly through word of mouth.

When Arizona played Wazzu, I was doing the pregame show and explaining the mesh concept, even had a dry erase board on the field to illustrate the concept. I was talking, my co host was holding his camera, and look who comes walking by during pregame, Mike Leach. He walked past us, stopped and watched me finish the explanation. We wrapped(Had to get up to the press box before the game to get set up), but before we walked away, Coach asked to speak to me. He said he enjoyed the explanation, and the fact that we actually talked a little about the history of the air-raid and the different permutations. He also pointed to my dry erase board and said that he used visual aids when teaching the concept to young players. Amazing how much passion he had for a simple route concept, he talked nonstop for 10 minutes, before going and finishing his pregame stuff.

After the game, we crossed paths at the press conference, where I asked him a couple of questions, and he made a quip about me singlehandedly buying every dry erase board in Tucson. What's hilarious is that when I made the return trip to Pullman the next year, I ended up running into Coach Leach at a media scrum, and the first thing he said to me was "I don't know if we have enough dry erase boards for you here, I already bought a ton. Hope you packed a couple".

I may have had my personal misgivings about Coach Leach and his philosophy, whether it could actually work at a high level at a place like Miami, but he had a colorful career, he found his niche and stuck to it. None of us are perfect, and there are things I'm sure he regretted doing, things that he may have said and done to players that weren't his best work. That said, I'll never forget the kindness he showed to a kid fresh out of law school, moonlighting as a journalist. RIP Coach.
Click to expand...



Great stuff.

Thanks for sharing this.
 
BoxingRobes said:
In another timeline or simulation...Mike Leach comes to Miami and wins us more national titles. We are still as great as we ever were.

It would have been great to be apart of.

The Prince that was Promised.

ghows-LK-bd37e2a7-b173-4de2-b7c1-c2d198ea4614-c7a246f0.jpeg
Click to expand...
OK not sure how I missed this whole thing but who is that writing from?
 
Advertisement
This is tough news. Leach was extremely bright and a highly innovative offensive mind, but more than that he made life & the game fun. In this age of multi-million-dollar coaches who are *** tight & act like every day is life or death, Leach was refreshingly glib, entertaining & without a programmed filter. The game is better when it has a few peculiar characters like Leach, Lane Kiffin, Coach O, etc. RIP The Pirate
 
Advertisement
Canedude08 said:
A little story.

When I finished law school, I moved to Tucson, Arizona to take a job down there. As a little bit of a hobby(Plus, I had weekends free for some reason), I ended up picking up some freelance journalism work for the paper down there and was assigned to the UA football beat. To create more content, and take advantage of Facebook Live, we started doing a little pregame show for people where we really dug into concepts and whatnot. It was a pregame show for the hardcore football nerd and it did really well, mostly through word of mouth.

When Arizona played Wazzu, I was doing the pregame show and explaining the mesh concept, even had a dry erase board on the field to illustrate the concept. I was talking, my co host was holding his camera, and look who comes walking by during pregame, Mike Leach. He walked past us, stopped and watched me finish the explanation. We wrapped(Had to get up to the press box before the game to get set up), but before we walked away, Coach asked to speak to me. He said he enjoyed the explanation, and the fact that we actually talked a little about the history of the air-raid and the different permutations. He also pointed to my dry erase board and said that he used visual aids when teaching the concept to young players. Amazing how much passion he had for a simple route concept, he talked nonstop for 10 minutes, before going and finishing his pregame stuff.

After the game, we crossed paths at the press conference, where I asked him a couple of questions, and he made a quip about me singlehandedly buying every dry erase board in Tucson. What's hilarious is that when I made the return trip to Pullman the next year, I ended up running into Coach Leach at a media scrum, and the first thing he said to me was "I don't know if we have enough dry erase boards for you here, I already bought a ton. Hope you packed a couple".

I may have had my personal misgivings about Coach Leach and his philosophy, whether it could actually work at a high level at a place like Miami, but he had a colorful career, he found his niche and stuck to it. None of us are perfect, and there are things I'm sure he regretted doing, things that he may have said and done to players that weren't his best work. That said, I'll never forget the kindness he showed to a kid fresh out of law school, moonlighting as a journalist. RIP Coach.
Click to expand...
Great stuff man

RIP Coach 🙏🏾
 
What he & Hal Mumme did at Valdosta ST & Kentucky revolutionized the game & then what Leach went on to do at Oklahoma & TTech changed College Football forever.

Legitimately the most innovative & evolutionary/revolutionary Coach the modern game has ever seen, his passing concepts have pretty much been ingrained in the fabric of CFB Offense for the last two decades, to the point that even Offenses that don’t run his style still incorporate what he taught in their system, that’s monumental.

How you leave this world your works & your legacy is what speaks for you & the fact that Leach has arguably the greatest & without question the most vast Coaching tree in College Football history speaks volumes in itself & represents the impact he had on the game.

Even more importantly, Leach gave a wide array of Coaches a chance, he gave them an opportunity to progress forward & accomplish their goals & dreams as Coaches, which gave them the same power to give others opportunities just like they had gotten from Leach. He opened the door for a number of High School coaches down in Texas to get the chance to display their coaching acumen, which thus then opened the floodgates for dozens & dozens of other programs to follow suit & do the same. He created bridge where conventional wisdom would normally block, because that was the kind of Coach he was, unorthodox, quirky, even could be categorized as “crazy”, but that was his special weapon that made him who he was; when everyone went Right he went Left, which made everyone go Left & follow behind him, but little did they know he was showing them the best pathway is to simply create your own.

No, he never won a National Championship & I personally never wanted him as a HC, but his students the Mike Leach disciples are without doubt some of the best coaches in the game today & have taken the sacred science & evolved it into what has become what the modern game is; Mike Leach left the game better than how he found it & for that alone he deserves all the credit in the world, but even more so, his legacy will last a lifetime because he changed College Football history & the numerous Coaches that came from under his tutelage are his Championship.

You never want to go in that way, but when it’s your time its your time & all you can hope for is that your loved ones get to make peace & say their goodbyes...

God rest his soul, RIP to Mike Leach
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
Memnon said:
What he & Hal Mumme did at Valdosta ST & Kentucky revolutionized the game & then what Leach went on to do at Oklahoma & TTech changed College Football forever.

Legitimately the most innovative & evolutionary/revolutionary Coach the modern game has ever seen, his passing concepts have pretty much been ingrained in the fabric of CFB Offense for the last two decades, to the point that even Offenses that don’t run his style still incorporate what he taught in their system, that’s monumental.

Hohenzollern you leave this world your works & your legacy is what speaks for you & the fact that Leach has arguably the greatest & without question the most vast Coaching tree in College Football history speaks volumes in itself & represents the impact he had on the game.

Even more importantly, Leach gave a wide array of Coaches a chance, he gave them an opportunity to progress forward & accomplish their goals & dreams as Coaches, which gave them the same power to give others opportunities just like they had gotten from Leach. He opened the door for a number of High School coaches down in Texas to get the chance to display their coaching acumen, which thus then opened the floodgates for dozens & dozens of other programs to follow suit & do the same. He created bridge where conventional wisdom would normally block, because that was the kind of Coach he was, unorthodox, quirky, even could be categorized as “crazy”, but that was his special weapon that made him who he was; when everyone went Right he went Left, which made everyone go Left & follow behind him, but little did they know he was showing them the best pathway is to simply create your own.

No, he never won a National Championship & I personally never wanted him as a HC, but his students the Mike Leach disciples are without doubt some of the best coaches in the game today & have taken the sacred science & evolved it into what has become what the modern game is; Mike Leach left the game better than how he found it & for that alone he deserves all the credit in the world, but even more so, his legacy will last a lifetime because he changed College Football history & the numerous Coaches that came from under his tutelage are his Championship.

You never want to go in that way, but when it’s your time its your time & all you can hope for is that your loved ones get to make peace & say their goodbyes...

God rest his soul, RIP to Mike Leach
Click to expand...
The only part I disagree with is that I wanted him as head coach, but for the reasons you stated. He did things his own way. That is what made Miami great in the first place, a coach doing things his way, and differently. Miami needs innovators, not people who rely on the history of UM to do it for them.
 
RIP Pirate! Man I'm sad about this one, he was so innovative and such a character. He was a great part of CFB, definitely a legend.

It really would have been something had he been given the opportunity to walk the sidelines here, who knows how it would have turned out, but I know we would have had plenty of legendary videos.

RIP :(
 
Advertisement
Back
Top