Coach Leach
The sheer number of amazing Leach stories I’ve seen in the last 24 hours is staggering, and so many of them are ones I’ve somehow never heard before. Most of them aren’t even football related. The respect and admiration that so many coaches, players, and fans have shown is really awesome to see, but it breaks my heart that Leach won’t ever see it. Not that he’d probably give a shit anyway. Probably the most underrated coach since I started watching football in the late 80s, and one of the few in all that time who ever had something interesting to say in an interview or press conference. I’m just stunned, and surprised that this is hitting me the way it is. Fucking sucks.
When a Legend leaves us too early, it hits hard. Always ran the program his way. And always cared about making Men and not just Football players. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of Tea. But he won at least 25 games in his career that He had no business winning and graduated his players. There were never any questions about the integrity of his programs after the James bullshit.
He changed the game of Football multiple times. With the last being going on 4th down when other coaches wouldn’t and making it more often than not. That is now the standard in College and the NFL. At his time at WSU, He would walk the 3 miles to work everyday. Not sure if that continued in Starkville. He did battle pneumonia for awhile before this.
Leach and WSU were the best of fits. And we will always hold him in the highest regard. 2015-2018, with most of those games ending around 11:30pm were magic for Cougar nation. He deserves a statue outside of Martin.