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Play The Next Play: How Mike Leach Influenced Many Across The Nation

Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach's life had an impact on thousands worldwide.
Crissy Froyd|
Play The Next Play: How Mike Leach Influenced Many Across The Nation
Play The Next Play: How Mike Leach Influenced Many Across The Nation

In this story:

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach was known for a lot of things. One of the biggest was the Air Raid offense mantra of "play the next play."

The essence of what that means is to forget what just happened, good or bad, and move forward as if it did not exist to have influence over your next move. While the recent unexpected event of his death is not what myself or any of us had on the horizon, I am convinced based off of the couple of years of him I am honored to have been afforded, that he would all want us to pick things up and move forward.

I have done so as best as I personally can, but before I fully go into that, I want to take time to remember the influence Leach had. And, to be perfectly honest, it is something I will continue to do and spend the rest of my life doing. 

Here's a look at just some of the stories of the lives Leach had a touch on, some of which are simple, and some of which are more elaborate. But depth doesn't matter, because Mike Leach was someone to everyone -- something that is hard to find these days.

Leach wasn't traditional by any means, but was a direct reflection of being free, audacious and straight up not caring what anyone thought about anything in a way that I have never seen anyone parallel.

These are a mixture of direct submissions and our favorites we found online:

Will Rogers:

What Mike Leach said in anticipation of this exact moment:

Trey Tinsley (played with Anthony Gordon and unbelievably did not even know what a Rolo was when I met him in one of Mike's offensive meetings):

Dave Emerick:

Eric Mele:

We had a lot of coach turnover after the 2017 season. So there was a bunch of interest for the open positions. I was getting ready to go to bed a little early (10pm) since I needed to catch a redeye in the am for our kicker Erik Powell’s wedding. Just as I was going to put the phone down on the nightstand it lit up…Coach Leach.

Figured it had to be about some of the potential candidates and filling the staff which we had discussed earlier so I unwisely answered. It actually started off just as I thought but about an hour in I heard a couple ice cubes hit the bottom of a glass on the other end. Oh shit…

Long story short I sat in the kitchen with the lights off, my girls all asleep upstairs and a beer in my hand. When the conversation hit 3:45 I told Mike I had to go. He asked why and I told him that I had to be at the Pullman airport at 4:30 for Powell’s wedding. Tell him congrats he said. I didn’t sleep for 40 straight hours.

Wish I could do it with him one more time

Mele

Tres Cleveland:

Crissy,

Like millions of guys across the country I am in a fantasy football league and we get together annually to draft our respective teams. But our draft has had a unique guest the last few years - Coach Leach. It truly is an interesting story on how Coach became on honorary member of our league, and more importantly, our friend.

Our league is made up of 12 State graduates and we all reside across the South. One of our members, Kane Overstreet, is a real estate professional/contractor in Starkville who sold Mike his current house (and even built Coach a treehouse, but that is another story). Mike and Kane became friends. Of course we were all envious of Kane‘s relationship with Coach and wanted to meet Mike.

Our draft is every August and is held at a member’s deer camp near Macon, MS. While we do draft fantasy teams, “the draft weekend” is more about getting together, telling old stories, cooking good food and maintaining our close friendships. Kane suggested that our draft weekend would be the ideal outing to meet Coach because it fit his personality perfectly.

To cut to the chase, Coach agreed to attend the Friday night cookout of draft weekend. Friday night is the first night we all get together so everyone ends up staying up too late and having a bit too much fun. Each year we would pick up Coach directly from practice and bring him to the camp. Coach could not have fit better with our group. He is everything you would expect - hilarious, interesting, inquisitive, and mostly a people person that is more interested in hearing about the small details in your life.

If you would like to hear more we have some “outstanding” stories (outstanding is a word that Coach loved to say and is a great description of him). We also have some great photos. I will give you one good story. Every year we would play trivial pursuit with Coach. Playing trivial pursuit with Mike is like playing basketball with Jordan. Coach literally knows the answer to every question – it was utterly amazing. Well early in the night the second year we got together one of our league members asked Coach if we could beat Bama this year. Coach said “ if only it were that easy.” Mike went on to complement Saban and talk about how great of a coach and program leader he is. Now fast forward to our trivial pursuit game. After getting his 100th question in a row right, Mike declared, “I am not sure if we will beat Bama this year or not, but I know one thing, I would kick Saban‘s ass in trivial pursuit.”

We have more stories like this. So let me know if you want anymore information about how Coach befriended a random group of State fans for no reason that befitted someone of his stature other than he like to hang out and shoot the breeze with us.

Sammy Lemonis:

In Feb. of 20, I was flying from Jackson to Atlanta, and I arrived at my gate about an hour before my flight. I sit down, pull out my phone and start reading, barely looking up. When they start the boarding process, I see Mike Leach walk by in front of me. I immediately start kicking myself for having my head in my phone. I've never been one who was star struck, but I would have approached Coach Leach because I had heard he was so approachable.

 As I got on the plane, and was walking down the aisle to my seat, I see him up ahead seated, and he had to be very close to seat. No such luck. But i was sitting directly behind him. A young lady boards and sits next to him. I could tell by the look on her face that she knew who he was, but seemed reluctant to ask. She finally asked "are you Mike Leach?", he confirmed, and she asked for a picture. He obliged and for the next 30 minutes, he asked her question after question. Before it was over, he knew where she was from, where her husband was from, all about their kids, etc.... When the questioning ceased, he fell fast asleep, and if his head wasn't on her shoulder, it was extremely close.

When we deboarded, he got in front of me, but when i walked out into the terminal I saw him looking up at the board, checking on his next gate. I stopped and said hi, and introduced myself, and showed him the direction of the train. I walked with him, and asked him if he was going to Key West, and he said he was. We talked about Key West, and how nice it was in the winter, when you leave with frost on the ground and get there and change into shorts and flip flops. Chatted about the ATL airport and wondered how many countries were represented in that airport at any given time.

He was just genuinely nice. And the rumors about him being so approachable were certainly true. I would have loved to spend more time with him. Unfortunately, that was my only encounter.

Warren May:

Coach Leach had some friends in town from overseas. He entered the facility and I held the door to the coaches' hall so he could walk through. Who would’ve known that I’d get caught in a full conversation walking down the hallway with him to his office as he voluntarily started explaining the difference between American and European football.

Adam Boedeker:

A thread on Mike Leach: https://twitter.com/aboedeker/status/1602675097369804801?s=42&t=RrwJlrr4ldIDkHcBMwmSJw

Brady Kruse:

I’m a recent Mississippi State alumn who went to the State Capitol a few years ago to petition for the flag to change. My friend and I were at the Capitol speaking to representatives on the same day that several coaches from Mississippi institutions went to speak as well, including Mike Leach.

As we’re walking around, we bump into Coach Leach and the assistant AD who was clearly trying to keep him on schedule. My friend and I, diehard MSU fans, shyly say hello and ask him to sign the back of one of the letters we were handing out. As he signs, completely out of the blue, he asks “you guys ever been to the Golden Corral in McComb?”

For the next 5 minutes, we had an in-depth discussion on the best Golden Corral in the state of Mississippi, all while poor assistant AD Leah Beasley is pulling at his arm to hurry him up and glaring at us to stop distracting him. We just kept egging him on and smiling like idiots.

Mike had very strong opinions on buffets. I wish I remember more of his direct quotes, but it was such a bizarre and fascinating experience. My friend and I loved every moment of it. He took such a genuine interest in two random MSU students. Then he shook our hands, wished us well, and went along his way.

Paige Long:

Hi Crissy,

My fun story is about my baseball cap.

At the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Conerly Trophy presentation last December, I had my brand new Mississippi State Football cap. Stark white with letters in maroon!

I asked Coach to sign it, expecting him to flip it over and sign the under side of the bill. He proceeded to write Hailstate in large letters, and his name across the bill of the hat in Sharpie. I haven’t worn it a lot, thinking that a bit odd, since I’m not exactly a kid.

I wore that hat with great pride to the gym last night. I may frame it!

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Crissy Froyd
CRISSY FROYD

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