Washington State Cougars: Former Head Coach Mike Leach Passes Away at 61 – The Coach, The Man, The Legacy
Ed Stein
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Mike at the Mike
Then there were his press conferences. Generally, these are pretty dull affairs. There is an occasional nugget or two of information buried within a coach’s rambling.
But not with Mike Leach at the podium. These were 20-30 minutes of must-watch streaming every week.
On the football side, he was opinionated and informative. I remember watching one press conference that almost had me choking on a donut.
The Washington State Cougars beat Utah 28-24 on September 29, 2018, despite 0 yards rushing for the game. Leach was asked about a balanced offense in his Monday presser. His answer was priceless.
“I want all the positions to touch it. There’s nothing balanced about 50 percent run and 50 percent pass. Because that’s 50 percent stupid. Now what is balanced is when you have five skill positions and all five are contributing to the offensive effort in a somewhat equal fashion, then that’s balanced. But this notion that if you hand it to one guy 50 percent of the time and you throw it to a combination of two guys the other 50 percent of the time and you’re balanced and you proudly pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that — and people have been doing that for decades — well you’re delusional.”
Mike Leach, November 1, 2018 Press Conference, h/t Nick Bromberg, Yahoo Sports.
If there was ever one statement that summed up Leach as a coach, that was it. But there was more to his press conferences than football.
From his worst date to wedding advice to golf apparel to Halloween costumes to bigfoot, there wasn’t much Leach wouldn’t talk about. That’s what made him so much fun to watch week in and week out.
I could go on about his love of history, especially pirates, or which college mascots would win in a mythical fight. Just thinking about that puts a smile on my face.