Why Mike Leach got passed over as head coach of Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The holiday season was in the air and the world was abuzz about the new Frozen 2 movie and the promise of a fresh, positive start in 2020.

However, in Arkansas, everyone was primarily focused on their dream list of possible replacements for the horribly failed Chad Morris era with the Razorbacks. They tried to ignore all the negative behind the scenes chatter while tracking planes and scanning TV for anyone wearing Razorback red ties that might bear some cryptic clue as to who might be coming to the rescue.

These innocent people knew nothing of COVID, the transfer portal, nor NIL. All they knew is their Hogs had been a Top 5 team at the end of the season earlier that decade and they could see no reason the nation's top names wouldn't fall all over themselves to bring Arkansas to those heights again.

However, per a story he shared earlier this week on 103.7 The Buzz. Pulaski Academy coach Kevin Kelly had a feeling things weren't going so smooth with the coaching search, so he decided to make a phone call to see if he could open the back door to a quality candidate he saw as someone who could dig the program out of the district.

So, the coach who was known nationally for always taking a risk by never punting did just that. He pulled out his phone and took a big risk on behalf of his favorite college football team.

"Hey, are you interested in the Arkansas job at all?" Kelly texted long time buddy Mike Leach who was head coach at Washington State.

It took almost no time for Leach to respond with a yes, so the two got on the phone to talk it out and gauge for sure how serious the man known as the Pirate and master of the air raid offense truly was.

It didn't take Kelly long to determine Leach was serious, so he offered to reach out to his various contacts behind the scenes and grease the wheels for Leach to return back south from the Pacific Northwest.

"He was in," Kelly said. "He was in. We got a little momentum. Got a couple of board members, good guys that I had known, and he developed a couple more. Thought we had a shot."

The board members began having what Kelly described as their little club meetings to see if they could muster the votes before the actual vote and he was getting positive feedback. It reached a point where he believed Leach was going to get the job.

However, things took an abrupt shift to the point that, much to Kelly's dismay, it was decided there wasn't even a need to talk with Leach.

"I was like 'Why? Y'all seemed excited about it,'" Kelly said. "He was like, 'There was some concern that they were worried that at the press conference, he might say something stupid.'"

Kelly said he felt like much of America grew to feel. Of course Leach, who was known for addressing things beyond running and tackling at his press conferences in addition to being a lawyer, was going to say something off the beaten path at some point.

That's part of the quirkiness that made him so beloved.

His mind was so high end when it came to plays, he would have gone so deep normal people couldn't have followed if that had been all he was about.

What they could follow was giving a young person marriage advice when asked, unique stories about dinosaurs and his love of pirates. The rally cry when he passed that drug his team to an emotional victory in Mississippi State's bowl game wasn't "Run the perfect slant!"

It was "Swing your sword!" because that's what endeared him to the players and allowed him to be the special genius he was.

Kelly's story supports behind the scenes rumors that went around during the search, although that seemed too absurd to take as truth without official confirmation at the time. The air raid was the one offense that works everywhere regardless of personnel and Leach had proven he could drive outposts like Texas Tech, Washington State and Arkansas that aren't highly desired jobs to beyond their perceived potential.

Yes, it kept a state and group of players from having to directly experience the tragedy that would soon follow with his untimely death, but it's disappointing to know a press conference is why Arkansas fans didn't get to participate in his magic at least for a short while.

Hopefully, this search won't get highjacked by someone being so short sighted. Arkansas could use such magic going forward.