Bananas, Belts and B12 shots: The Pregame Routines of Mike Leach Through the Years
Perhaps Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach could identify with a line from Steve Carell's character, Michael Scott, in the television show The Office – Leach might not be superstitious, but it appears he might be at least a little stitious.
OK, to hear Leach tell it, he's not superstitious. He just has had certain pregame routines through the years. You might've caught a few shots of one of those on Thursday when Leach's Chief of Staff, Dave Emerick, tweeted out a few pics of Leach previously enjoying pregame bananas while he was the coach at Washington State.
Well Emerick's tweet was followed up on Thursday night by a curious caller on Leach's weekly call-in show. It all led to Leach explaining his pregame fruit choice before describing a few of his other superstit....I mean, routines:
On the bananas: "I actually don’t like bananas but they’re loaded with potassium. They kind of hydrate you a little bit. They’re supposed to be good for you. I kind of gag it down actually. But I do like it pregame and just kind of finish it off. And of course you can find some nice fellow out there (on the field) and hand him a banana peel. I don’t know – (maybe hand it to) an official or an opposing player. I’ve never done that. But no, if I’m mid-banana, it’s going to make its way to the field. And it’s kind of funny because, it’s not superstition. It’s more of a routine. You become kind of locked into your routine and over the years it seems like there are always times you do certain things at a certain time. So it has developed into a bit of a habit."
Leach then went on to discuss another routine he had in the past, and one he still has currently. First, Leach is a stickler for having a comfortable belt to wear on game day.
On his belts: "I try to always wear my belt. Because I don’t want to break in a new belt when you’re hanging the headset on there – the control thing. I don’t want to break in a new belt. You’re already messing with the pants you have. That’s why I spent a lot of games in black pants and a brown belt over the years. I’ve got a black belt now so people will be glad to hear that. I wear the same belt...They’d even complain (in the past), the equipment guy (saying), 'No. We’re wearing this belt.' I’ve got this belt broken in. This brown belt. For whatever reason we had black pants. Now we’ll probably have khaki pants and now I’ve got a black belt. I’m not sure what color our pants are (this year) but I’ve got a black belt one way or another."
And speaking of belts and pants, one of Leach's more out-there past routines came when he chose to slide that belt and pants down just a bit in order to get a Vitamin B12 shot before every game while he was the head coach at Texas Tech.
On the B12 shot: "Oh, at Texas Tech, I got a B12 shot. Our strength and conditioning coach was into B12 shots. And I said, ‘Sure, I’ll take one.’ The doctor happened to be there and had the B12 shot. So you know, down there in the coaches’ locker room, I dropped my pants, got my B12 shot. We went out and we beat A&M and then each week thereafter, I had to get a B12 shot before the game. But to be perfectly honest, we didn’t do it for me as much as I did for several of my assistants who were superstitious and felt like that was a part of the secret ingredient to it. So as a courtesy, I got my B12 shot every game, which is probably a little more often than you need a B12 shot...Here’s the other thing, the weirdest thing about it is some of them were determined to witness it because they were afraid I wouldn’t do it. So they wanted to witness it. So he started to work his way higher on the hip so that they didn’t get a full moon going there. So yeah, I took my B12 shot and we did win quite a few games. Maybe I ought to take a B12 shot (now)."
No word on if Leach indeed plans to take a needle to the backside before the season opener at LSU on Saturday. As for the banana eating and sticking to his own belt, those habits seem like safe bets to continue.
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