It’s been nearly four years since legendary college football coach Mike Leach passed, and yet his legacy is still growing to this very day. To put it simply, there was no one out there quite like Mike and probably never will be.
Earlier this week, we got another great story about him thanks to Pardon My Take’s interview with USC head coach Lincoln Riley. For those who don’t know, Riley played for Leach and was on Texas Tech’s staff from 2003 to 2009.
When asked about some of his favorite Mike Leach stories, Riley gave us a good one.
“Like I said, the Top 10 I can’t tell you,” Riley said. “He’s just a beauty. I know I told the one before my first position meeting there where, I mean, I’m from Muleshoe, Texas; I’ve seen guys put in big dips before, but he put in the biggest dip any human being has ever put in ever. I mean, I was just blown away. He had so much. He had it all over his face, you know, number one, and then he had so much in his mouth he couldn’t like really talk.
“Like he couldn’t get the words out, and so I’m sitting there thinking it was day one, I just walked on, I’m thinking, ‘I have to learn this offense that’s revolutionizing football.’ And he starts telling us where dip’s made and how they cut it and different kinds of tobacco and how you pack the can and if you drink lemon juice or lime juice after, it’ll help bring your lip back so that you can keep putting it in. And it’s an hour-and-a-half meeting and all he talks about is dip. And he’s like, ‘All right, time to go to practice.’ [There was] not one word—you think I’m kidding—not one word in 90 minutes about football, not one word.
“We go out there to practice, and I had to go ask B.J. [Symons] and some of those guys like, ‘What the hell are we doing?’ So yeah, that was just another normal day with Mike.”
Even though I never had the pleasure of meeting Mike Leach, that story sums him up well as a person. He was a great coach and an even more interesting person. Mike was never shy to share his opinions and was one of the smartest people the sport has ever seen.
It’s a shame that he went so soon, but I can promise you that while he is gone, he will never be forgotten. I just hope that we can continue to hear more great stories from former coaches and players for years to come.
