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No, Mike Leach, YOU'RE awesome! [Pirates Last Voyage]

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Kavinsky
Kavinsky

It was spring semester of my soph year at tech and I was at the rec center swimming laps.  I pulled up the deck, sat up and removed my goggles. Then the guy in the lane next to me asks "how far d

strangulation!
strangulation!

you have over 26,000 posts on a message board

SamMan
SamMan

This is fucking sad. I’ve always respected Coach Leach for what he has achieved on and off the field; his willingness to speak his mind; his aversion to what everybody else would deem “normal” for a m

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28713

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37 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

I was watching this game at a Twin Cities sports bar. When the first drive of the 3rd quarter stalled and the Gophers kicked a FG to go up 38-7, everyone at my table looked at each other and said, at the same time, "This isn't enough." Sure as shit, it wasn't. Rumor has it that the president of the University ordered the firing on the way home from Phoenix. The firing was announced on New Years Eve, and I vaguely remember getting very drunk celebrating. 

RIP ya pirate. College football is a much less fun place today. 

Isn’t celebrating the firing of Glen Mason a little like Nebraska fans celebrating the firing of Frank Solich? Was the program better off without him?

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msucolt45

msucolt45 3998

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Good Lord, Aggies. Show some respect. At least quote the man correctly…….
“It's one of the greatest places to play on earth,” Leach said at SEC Media Days. “That stadium — when I was at Tech — that's one of the Carnegie Halls of football there. Kyle Field, first of all, is gigantic and holds a ton of people. The grass is impeccable. The Aggies are always highly motivated. It's a fun place to play. I've got some great memories of our games at Kyle Field over the years.
Then Leach offered up a bit of a parting shot. “It was a fantastic experience,” Leach said. “It helped that we won most of them.”
   
https://247sports.com/Article/Mississippi-State-football-Mike-Leach-sounds-off-on-playing-at-Texas-AM-Kyle-Field-168074839/

Aggy would like to put that quote next to the Fish Tale quote from General Patton during WWII.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5911

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Someone has to be writing a 30 for 30 or movie about Mike Leach. He’s too much of a polarizing character not too. Adversaries hated him because he was honest and went for the jugular, while others loved him because he seemed genuine, and was interested in life. Id think that money helped fuel his curiosities but it probably didn’t change him. He seems like he prob was pretty easy going no matter where he was and who he was entertaining or around. But from reading thoughts and emotions today, he was an extremely interesting person to let this subject matter not become a feature.  There’s even spectacular titles floating in the webs all day attributing to his character.  Sad day knowing that football and the world lost an interesting larger than life figure. But I look forward to seeing his legacy revived on a screen somewhere soon. 

Edited by Mdhorn
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OWLVIS

OWLVIS 557

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13 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

like others, I dont understand why this hurts so bad.

He was the pain in the ass team you had to play every year, and you knew every 4 years or so his team was going to take you to the fucking last second, and you would lose a game you shouldnt.

maybe its because he hated aggy just as much as us, maybe it was the pirate stuff... or maybe because the dude could turn around any piss poor college football team and make them a 7,8,9 win team in just a few years

that takes real fucking talent.

 

RIP Pirate... I will make sure to pour one out in your honor.

he was an authentic man something that is so rare so unique that it sticks with you as a person.

 

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jinx

jinx 2635

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13 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Anybody have the story about how his players dreaded player meetings because when they’re ready to leave, a player could ask a question that could turn into a 45 min answer about something totally irrelevant to the question?


That was a classic

Page 28 near the bottom. I asked the same thing yesterday 

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Tex Pete

Tex Pete 20179

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2 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

Someone has to be writing a 30 for 30 or movie about Mike Leach. He’s too much of a polarizing character not too. Adversaries hated him because he was honest and went for the jugular, while others loved him because he seemed genuine, and was interested in life. 

I really don’t think there were many that hated Leach. He definitely annoyed people at times, but he was an open book, and he threw the kitchen sink at opponents on the field. Most people appreciated that. Even Aggie fans have been praising him, and he tormented and tweaked them like no other team and fan base. He was like the class clown- he’d get in trouble and the teacher would get angry, but he’d always say something so funny afterward that it was hard to stay mad at him. 

I never met Leach, but I know quite a few guys who played for and coached with him. To a man, they talk about how fun it was to spend time with him, whether football related or not, and that he took a genuine interest in people and their lives and kept up with them for years, calling and texting randomly to check on them or congratulate them on their accomplishments. See Dana Holgerson’s tweets or Lincoln Riley’s tweet. Leach wanted to help people develop into the best people they could become. He took being a teacher and mentor very seriously and was great at it.

The man loved life and he loved people, and he loved to be friends with as many people as he could. He was the kind of guy who made everyone feel like his best friend or like the most important person in the world. We’ll miss Mike Leach the football coach and personality a ton. The loss of Mike Leach the human is the much bigger loss.

 

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notre dame joe

notre dame joe 172

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14 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

 

You make me feel like a heel.  I mean it's one thing to hear that Harry Morgan had been alive 30 years after you'd guess he died, and we could have awkwardly asked the caretaker to shake his hand, maybe. But now I'm learning that anyone could approach Leach and get him for 5 to 45 minutes. 

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Guest

Guest

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If anything else, the last 48 hours have shown me I wasn't the only one who loved what Mike Leach brought to the table of life. His impact on the game of football at all levels is immeasurable, but more of the stories coming out are focused upon his humanity, and love for others- without having to tell someone how much he cares for others.  I respect that a lot.

His intellectual curiosity made him a trail blazer in many directions, but that paled in comparison with his willingness to visit with any man and get to know what makes them tick, or what was important to them.  A big insight into someone's character is how a man treats someone from whom he can gain nothing. Well, The Pirate was seeking understanding or shared experience, but he would engage anyone in conversation just to take that journey with them. He cared a lot.

Mike Leach was not perfect and he certainly has his detractors.  I understand it, but it also makes somebody very suspect in my mind when they shared what they disliked about him.  It almost always ended up with "He didn't conform.  He should have not made  people so uncomfortable."   SMDH.  These folks couldn't acknowledge or accept the very thing that made Mike Leach special-  his unapologetic commitment to being himself, and being honest with you.

I count my mom, my grandparents, my wife, and my sons as my true heroes/ inspirations in this life. If there is a public figure, with whose philosophies towards leadership and people and endeavors I agree, it would be Mike Leach.  He would be the first to say he is no damned hero, but he sure as hell made this world and a crapton of people's lives better.  We should all be so fortunate to be able to say that.

RIP Mike Leach.  You were and always will be one of a kind.

 

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Nicole44

Nicole44 22027

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On 12/14/2022 at 2:39 AM, notre dame joe said:

You make me feel like a heel.  I mean it's one thing to hear that Harry Morgan had been alive 30 years after you'd guess he died, and we could have awkwardly asked the caretaker to shake his hand, maybe. But now I'm learning that anyone could approach Leach and get him for 5 to 45 minutes. 

That’s to me what is so amazing about Leach. That anyone could approach him and he always had anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes or sometimes even 90 for a wrong number (story up thread.)

I’m sure his staff and others (family) knew he could go on and on…no doubt much to their consternation. But I bet they look at it now and wish they had those 5 more or so minutes. I was shocked to hear he went to a Christmas party the night before he died. And then after, he was lying on the couch feeling awful bc he couldn’t sleep texting friends. Selfishly I wish maybe he had gone to the hospital…gotten checked out…but maybe that doesn’t save him. 

When someone dies naturally we all want those 5 more minutes. The passing of Leach hurts because I think if the man could have given everyone 5 minutes he would have. I think he was spread too thin with his mounting health issues (fluid around his heart and lungs that he’d been dealing with for the bulk of the season) but I don’t think that would have stopped him from giving anyone who asked those 5 minutes.

I am particularly drawn to him because my father passed away at 62. My dad and I lived in separate cities and I had called to talk to mom…he had picked up and I said, “hey dad, can I talk to mom real quick?” And he said in his enigmatic way, “sure.” That was it. He died in his sleep that night from an unexpected heart attack. (By that I mean he hadn’t been sick—no health issues we knew about.) No warning. Just gone. I think about those 5 minutes a lot. 

If I take anything away from Mike Leach to pass on: always be yourself. Make time for those people in your orbit. Try to mentor someone. Swing your sword. Leave nothing on the table. Plunder life like a pirate. Those aren’t bad lessons and whether you liked Leach or not (politics and some of his opinions aside) he was a damn fine role model. This one just hurts. Also, he was one of the most interesting men in the universe…so there is that. 

First tweet is outstanding:

 

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Bama Llama

Bama Llama 1447

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Finally found it. Glasses will be raised to Mike Leach at Flora-Bama for many, many nights to come. 

From AL.com-

Mike Leach once raved Flora-Bama ‘tough to beat’ for best party of his life

By Howard Koplowitz | hkoplowitz@al.com

Out of every corner of the country Mike Leach had been to in a life that spanned several college coaching stops, the late Mississippi State coach once said it was a beachside institution straddling Alabama and Florida that was “tough to beat” for the best party he had ever been to.

“The place is called Flora-Bama … right on the border of Alabama and Florida, and you could go in there and there’d be like three different bands playing, one band slightly different from the next,” Leach said in a 2017 clip shared on social media after his death Monday at 61. 

“You could get one of those sawed-off boxes like they put the case of beer in, heaping with crawfish.. for like five bucks,” Leach continued in the clip as he raved about the Flora-Bama.

“And then they had this triple-level deck out there overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the night all the stars, of course the band playing, all the people hanging around all day,” he said. “Fantastic people watching, plus you had crawfish, plus you’re out there on the end of that deck and it’s just gorgeous.

“That’d be tough to beat, on the right night, which I actually like weeknights better because [it’s] too slammed on the weekends, but I’d have to say a really good weeknight at Flora-Bama,” the coach said.

Leach was known for his pass-happy Air Raid offenses, wide-ranging interests — he wrote a book about Native American leader Geronimo, had a passion for pirates, taught a class about insurgent warfare — andrambling, off-the-cuff news conferences -- including being asked about candy corn, hypothetical mascot fights and the best party he’s ever been to.

Edited by Bama Llama
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PTINS

PTINS 3442

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Repost from Jjdoc on SEC Rant...

 

Quote

Everyone who knew Coach Leach has a story. Usually a funny one. Everyone who knew of him has a favorite press conference or a quote or a favorite memorable air raid moment from his career.

I’m no different. I have a couple of really funny ones, that maybe I’ll share one day, but today I think my friends need to know this one.

Christmas day 2021. We leave as a team and family and travel to Memphis for our upcoming Bowl Game at the liberty bowl.

Most of my friends know my connection to St Jude and my sweet little friend Londyn Perry, and I was so excited when her dad Justin Perry text me to tell me that St Jude was the charity partner for the Bowl and that they were going to be special guests of the Liberty Bowl president and that they were coming to sit some of the game with me.

What I didn’t know is that in passing while Justin was getting game day info from the bowl organizers he mentioned how much they love the dawgs and that they were so excited when their good friend Manda married one of Leach’s assistants, Coach Traver. That small comment, made it from there to Coach Leach upon arriving at the Bowl hotel which then led to a “somebody go find me Traver” to “Traver, I hear there’s a little girl with cancer coming to the game from St Jude and she knows you guys. Give her whatever she wants”.


Which then led to me sitting down and blubbering at his table while he and Mrs Sharon were trying to enjoy their dinner, thanking him over and over again for being so gracious to a child that meant so much to me and him asking me why I loved St Jude so much and how that all came to be. He asked about about a million questions and I was so excited and honored to answer them all because if you know anything about Leach he loves knowledge and if you know anything about me I love to talk, especially about St Jude.


Fast forward to gameday: Coach treated my girl like bulldog royalty! Pregame hugs autographs and some quality time with some of her favorite players, but the absolute best part of this story, The part that shows the truest part of his heart came after the game.


We lost the game to Texas Tech. Coach’s first match up with them since leaving there as head coach in 2009.
Everyone was sad, mad, or disappointed.

Fans. Players. Coaches, and I’m sure that included Leach. No one likes losing.

All the dawgs coaches and players headed into the locker room and as the security went to slam the doors behind them to keep unwanted fans out Leach screamed “STOP OPEN THAT DOOR and let them in!”

You see he promised Londyn she could have a hug and one last visit after the game. She didn’t care that the dawgs lost. He was still a hero and awesome to her, and she intended on cashing in on his promise. He put his disappointment and his own feelings aside to honor that promise to her. In that moment, that was more important and bigger than football and wins and losses.

Just a few short months later Londyn, passed away.
I will never forget her excitement when she got to my section and climbed in my lap.

“Manda! Coach Leach is SO niiicee! He gave me this ball and told me to come find him after the game, this is the BEST night ever!”

So Coach Leach, thank you for everything.

Thank you for bringing Chad to Mississippi with you. Without you, I would not get to be the wife to Chad and mother to Tate that I am today. Your coaching tree is so much bigger than just football, it’s my family.

Thank you for loving on Londyn when you didn’t have to. You gave her one of the best nights of her short but meaningful life.

Give her a hug for me today, and tell her I miss her sweet face.

See you both again one day.

🖤💕🏴‍☠️🐶

- Manda Traver

 

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Tommy Shelby

Tommy Shelby 188

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1 hour ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Lol might as well be right? 

Another point in that is that Lincoln told Leach to pass altogether on Adam James...

Both Lincoln and Bennie Wylie did. Leach was the only one that I read about who tried to get him. I think he saw the potential of ESPN exposure, but it blew up in spectacular fashion when the BoR wanted to oust him before the bonus. I still think Tech wins at least a conference championship if Kent Hance and the rest could've learned to just STFU. 

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Nivek

Nivek 16860

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11 minutes ago, Tommy Shelby said:

Both Lincoln and Bennie Wylie did. Leach was the only one that I read about who tried to get him. I think he saw the potential of ESPN exposure, but it blew up in spectacular fashion when the BoR wanted to oust him before the bonus. I still think Tech wins at least a conference championship if Kent Hance and the rest could've learned to just STFU. 

He was more popular than they were.  They resented him for that.  Also, Art Briles stood up on a table and pleaded for Leach to take Wes Welker.  Win some, lose some.

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orangebird

orangebird 1079

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Leach was one of a kind.  I used to dread the week Texas would play Tech every year when he was coaching there.  He truly was a mad genius, and he almost single-handedly made football more entertaining with his innovations.  Sad I never made it down to Key West to perhaps randomly bump into him at some bar down there.  He seemed like he would have been an amazing person to talk to.  His quotes and takes were legendary.  He will definitely be missed.  Pour one out for the Pirate.

🤘

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Deej

Deej 76568

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2 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

At least they didn’t publicly celebrate that Leach won’t be around to beat their fake army asses for another decade. 

They are high fiving each other and whooping in private, at the moment. They think it means they might finally beat Mississippi State regularly. 

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