Mike Leach has become well-known for his out-of-the-ordinary press conferences and interviews, and these are the five best snippets we’ve heard yet.
If Mississippi State football fans know anything about new head coach Mike Leach, it’s that he can be a hell of a lot of fun to listen to in an interview. No topic is off-topic for the Bulldogs head football coach, and he never pulls his punches.
Like anyone who finds themselves in front of the microphone often, Leach has some great soundbites and quotes that will live on long after he’s finished his coaching career. His voice has been immortalized more than once.
If you think “You play to win the game” or “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs” or even “I’m a man! I’m 40!” are some great coaching quotes, wait until you’ve seen these doozies from the Mad Scientist himself.
Mike Leach on Marriage
In 2017, the then-Washington State head coach gave a few of his musings on the oldest institution in the world – marriage.
“My wisdom would be,” Leach hesitantly says. “You have to stay out of the way…when it comes to marriages, the women lose their mind.”
He then runs down the entire list of female relatives that will “lose their minds” when it comes to the wedding nuptials. Priceless Mike Leach at his best.
Mike Leach on Bigfoot and Aliens
Leach had a great tradition of answering at least one fan question every week. In 2017, one fan asked the Cougars head coach if he believed in bigfoot. The answer was vintage Leach.
He said he hoped their was Bigfoot but didn’t think there was because “We’ve found bones of dinosaurs and everything else, but we haven’t found bones — that I’ve heard of — of Bigfoot”.
Aliens? Coach Leach is a believer.
“I suspect that there is, and I don’t know that they’re little green men, and I don’t know that they are specifically in our galaxy.”
Far out, coach.
Mike Leach on Looney Tunes
We all love the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, but only Mike Leach could figure a way to work them into a post-game press conference.
“There’s a lot of ’em in your industry that thinks this is an episode of the Road Runner,” Leach tangented oddly “It’s all Wile E. Coyote going back there and reinventing something to see if it will drop on the Road Runner and mash him, you know?”
OK. Dead.
Mike Leach on the Media
Every head football coach likes to take pot-shots at the media from time to time, but in this case Mike Leach took a few swings at his least favorite questions of all time.
This one is so disjointed and out there it’s hard to pull a good quote, but it’s a few minutes of your time well worth watching.
Take notes, reporters, because Mike Leach is.
Mike Leach on Obituaries
In what may be the most Mike Leach quote of all Mike Leach quotes, he was asked by ESPN reporter Jeremy Schapp what he’d like to have written for his own obituary.
The answer came back as deadpan as the corpse he will one day become.
Jeremy Schaap: "When people write the Mike Leach obituary, how do you want to be remembered?"
— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson_SR) July 18, 2019
Mike Leach: "Well that's their problem ... what do I care, I'm dead."
I get the sense this Mike Leach E:60 feature (Sunday, 6 a.m. PT, ESPN) will be pretty good. pic.twitter.com/91zEUibhw0
It probably won’t be long until we have a list of Leach’s best soundbites and quotes as the Mississippi State head coach, but for now, we can just enjoy these and think of what’s to come.