Remembering Mike Leach – Mississippi State

STARKVILLE – Where do you start?

No, seriously. If you were to sit down at a keyboard and attempt to put the life and impact of Mike Leach into words, where would you start?

Leach passed away on Monday night at the age of 61, nearly three full years into his tenure as Mississippi State’s head football coach. He left behind his wife, Sharon, his kids, Janeen, Kimberly, Cody and Kiersten, as well as an entire country full of friends, players, fans and admirers whose support, adoration or amusement (or some combination of the three) were fitting for maybe the most fascinating man to ever coach football or do anything else under the sun.

But again, how does one begin to encapsulate everything that turned Leach into the national treasure he was? 

Any of us can try all we want, but any of our verbiage is sure to come up short. Maybe, just maybe, there’s one man who can paint the picture. That man just so happens to be Leach himself.

“You might be the luckiest man alive and not even know it.”

Those words were spoken by Leach in his cameo appearance on the television show Friday Night Lights back in 2009. Some 13 years later, now that Leach’s time in this life is through, the line might well be suited to reverberate in the minds of those who watched on, rooted for or loved Leach. Whether we knew it in the moment or not, with Leach, we were all lucky to have gotten the chance to experience true, unmatched greatness. 

It’s rare in life to fully appreciate what’s right in front of you. Oftentimes, human beings’ greatest appreciation for something comes once it’s lost. When a void appears, people’s minds seem to be wired to finally completely recognize exactly what was before them.

In some way, that might sum up where we are now with the loss of Leach. Because right here, right now – in Starkville, Mississippi, in Pullman, Washington, in Lubbock, Texas, and all across America – there’s a gaping hole in the college football landscape that no one will ever be able to fill. Never.

Never is a long time of course. Yet it seems incredibly safe to say that not again will there be a coach that is as captivating and entertaining off the field as he is incredibly successful on it.