Let’s go down memory lane and highlight Mississippi State football’s best moments under Mike Leach, shall we?
The college football universe was rocked when we lost Mike Leach last December. “The Pirate” was amongst the most beloved and influential figures in the sport. His goofy mannerisms, quips in sideline interviews, and seemingly never-ending rants in press conferences about anything but the game of football made him one of the most celebrated coaches in the game.
Furthermore, his offensive philosophy forever changed the way the sport is played. Leach’s Air Raid attack revolutionized offensive football and spread from the high school ranks all the way to the NFL. Every team has Air Raid passing concepts in their arsenal these days. Traditional power-running programs have embraced the “spread to pass” mentality. And Leach is responsible for one of college football’s most expansive and successful coaching trees with the likes of Lincoln Riley, Sonny Dykes, and Dana Holgorsen learning under him.
We only got three seasons of the Pirate in Starkville, but those three years certainly encapsulated the full experience of having Mike Leach as your head coach. From the roller coaster results that the Air Raid can bring to rants about candy corn and the evolution of dinosaur hands, State fans got the unadulterated Leach experience.
It’s unfortunate that it didn’t get to continue.
Though Leach’s State teams improved their record each year, winning nine games in his final season, they were still in the process of building up the program before he passed. We never got to see a fully established Mike Leach program like the ones he had at Texas Tech and Washington State at MSU.
Ranking the best Mississippi State football wins under Mike Leach
Those who’ve interacted with me on social media know that I’ve become quite the Air Raid enthusiast over the past few years. I’ve always been interested in the schematic side of football, and when we hired Leach, I wanted to know everything I could about his offense. The Air Raid was and still is fascinating to me. I find the simplicity and structure of the offense in it’s purest form and how it attacks defenses appealing.
And I’m going to miss seeing it run by Mississippi State. I know that’s very much an unpopular opinion amongst our fanbase, as many simply couldn’t get on board with that style of play given the inconsistencies through three seasons. But I genuinely believe that had Mike Leach remained our coach, we were going to see the offense take off like it had at his prior stops.
Sadly, we’ll never get the opportunity to see that play out. We’ll no longer see the character that was the Pirate and his aerial assault take the field on fall Saturdays. It’s a loss for more than Mississippi State. It’s a loss for the sport of football.
However, we can still reminisce on the time we did have with him. Mike Leach may have only coached in Starkville for three years, but in that short time, he delivered on some of the most exciting victories in Bulldog history.
Let’s look back on the top games during the Pirate’s tenure in Starkville.