'The Pirate' Is Used to Shots Across His Bow, SEC Coaches Rankings Won't Sink Him Now

CBS Sports ranked Leach at No. 9 of 14 coaches ahead of the season.

When Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports released his rankings of SEC head coaches ahead of the 2021 season, he put Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach at No. 9 on the list. That's behind Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and ahead of Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz.

Leach ranked eighth overall in the SEC on the same list last year. Here's a look at the complete rankings.

1. Nick Saban, Alabama (No. 1 overall)
2. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (No. 6)
3. Kirby Smart, Georgia (No. 7)
4. Dan Mullen, Florida (No. 10)
5. Ed Orgeron, LSU (No. 11)
6. Mark Stoops, Kentucky (No. 22)
7. Bryan Harsin, Auburn (No. 27)
8. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (No. 30)
9. Mike Leach, Mississippi State (No. 33)
10. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri (No. 43)
11. Sam Pittman, Arkansas (No. 50)
12. Josh Heupel, Tennessee (No. 52)
13. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt (No. 63)
14. Shane Beamer, South Carolina (No. 65)

Leach is one of the most well-known and respected people to ever do the job -- he and Hal Mumme did revolutionize the game of football, after all.

Known by many as the "architect" of the Air Raid offense, Leach is now going into his second season with the Bulldogs after finishing his first season with a 4-7 record between the regular season and a bowl game appearance.

For starters, looking at this list, multiple coaches ranked above Leach haven't put together the same body of work that he has.

Note that Bryan Harsin, who is above Leach in the rankings, has yet to coach his first game as an SEC head coach. His 69-19 overall record at Boise State is impressive, but we still haven't seen how things will shake out for him in a new conference.

Also note that Kentucky, while on the up now, has only contended for an SEC East title once during Mark Stoops' eight years with the Wildcats.

"The pirate had an up-and-down season in Starkville in 2020," Sallee wrote. "It started out with a bang in the big win over defending national champion LSU, cratered when the Bulldogs lost seven of the next eight games and gained some steam at the end with back-to-back wins to close things out -- including the win over Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl. Leach brought Washington State and Texas Tech to not only national relevance, but legitimate threats to college football's best. That's nothing to scoff at."

Sure, a 3-7 regular-season record is nothing to write home about. But consider that it's from an SEC-only schedule under adverse circumstances -- and it's not nearly as bad as it looks.

Leach had a hard job to do in Starkville last year, with a limited offseason because of restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In an offense based on repetition and execution -- quite literally doing the same thing over and over again until you're so good at it that no one can stop it -- a limited offseason is far from ideal.

MSU ran an entirely different offensive scheme with running quarterbacks before Leach under Joe Moorhead, so not all the players on the roster that the former Washington State head coach inherited may have been fit for the scheme. In a situation like that, there's also very much the possibility players who are used to the old way of doing things may prefer to transfer to a place that runs a system they'd rather be in (hence the fact that several players transferred out of MSU last season).

The Bulldogs opened the 2020 season with an upset win over the defending national champion LSU Tigers, then fell into a bit of a slump before they seemed to find their footing toward the end of the season.

State finished off the season with two consecutive wins against Missouri and Tulsa. In its previous three losses, MSU came within a touchdown of its opponent in two of the games (Georgia and Ole Miss). 

Mike Leach has continued to reiterate to us that the Bulldogs are a work in progress -- because they are. It takes time to build up a program when you're one of the youngest of them all, especially competing in the SEC West.

But Leach has found no issue elevating programs from the very bottom throughout his coaching career.

Over 10 seasons at Texas Tech, Leach led the Red Raiders to an overall record of 84-43, a bowl game appearance in every one of those 10 seasons and had five national rankings.

This is a far cry from when he first got to Lubbock. When looking back at the 10 seasons before, Texas Tech had a 59-65 record and went to just five bowl games. They weren't in the top-25 rankings, either.

Then at Washington State, Leach finished with a 55-47 overall record in eight seasons, helping the team to six bowl games and a national ranking. In the eight years before Leach, the Cougars had a 29-66 overall record with no bowl appearances and no national rankings.

It didn't happen overnight though, as the Cougars went 3-9 in their first season under Leach before steadily gaining success and recognition.

See a pattern here?  

Expect steady upward momentum from the Bulldogs as this program progresses under Leach's guidance.