Goodbye Dear Pirate, You Will Be Missed

R.I.P. Mike Leach 1961–2022

Photo courtesy of the Mississippi State University Athletic Department

Today has been one of the saddest days for many people in a long time. Many of us didn’t “know” Mike Leach personally per say, but I feel like all of us “knew” Mike Leach. That was the kind of character and personality that he had.

The man was also pivotal in the major shift towards offense in college football — before the air raid offense, I remember the only way you’d see a team score more than 60 points was when a blue blood would play a nobody or Mike Leach’s Texas Tech team was wingin’ the ball around everywhere. He sure loved coming to play in Lincoln:

https://www.si.com/college/nebraska/football/mike-leach-vs-huskers-games-and-what-he-said-afterward

My experience with Mike Leach was he once called into the Nebraska Football radio show one evening after I did in the off season (this was like February or March) to talk about how much he loved Lincoln and he even said I sounded like a nice young man.

I’m sure there’s countless others who have stories of how Mike Leach impacted their lives and he didn’t even know it. He was a great man, a dryer than life sense of humor, and one of the finest to ever grace the game of college football.

We’ll miss you, ol’ air-raid pirate.