Mike Leach, a longtime college football coach with Texas Tech, Washington State and most recently Mississippi State, died Monday night at 61 years old due to complications from a heart condition.
Buy Chiefs TicketsMSU Bulldog family, college football community mourns the death of Coach Mike Leachhttps://t.co/LzWyLyX3xM
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) December 13, 2022
An affable character with a monumental impact on both college and professional football, Leach was an innovator of the Air Raid offense. Since his passing, there has been an outpouring of support from those who knew him and those who appreciated him from afar. A number of Kansas City Chiefs players took to Twitter to pay homage to Leach and pray for his family.
Patrick Mahomes
Prayers to the Leach family!🙏🏽🙏🏽 True legend of the game!
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) December 13, 2022
Leach coached at Texas Tech from 2000-2009, actually coaching Cardinals HC Kliff Kingsbury, who was Patrick Mahomes’ head coach when he was with the Red Raiders. Texas Tech is also where Leach earned his nickname “Pirate.”
Chris Jones
Prayers for the Leach family! #HailstateForever
— Chris Jones (@StoneColdJones) December 13, 2022
Mike Leach took over as the head coach at Mississippi State in 2020, which was after Chris Jones’ time with the Bulldogs. He still had an appreciation for Leach and what he had done for the Mississippi State program.
Trey Smith
https://t.co/GiurDEOEbb pic.twitter.com/SgwACXBrqy
— Trey Smith (@treysmith) December 13, 2022
Many are flying the jolly roger in honor of Leach’s “Pirate” nickname, including Chiefs RG Trey Smith. Smith also retweeted the following video of Leach talking about offensive line play and coaching. I think it’s a safe bet that Smith shares this opinion.
“I always thought to be an O-Line coach was fantastic… every practice is great because there’s gonna be some level of violence and getting after somebody…”
RIP Mike Leach 🙁pic.twitter.com/WSvR6w2Frd
— WeAreBigGuys (@WeAreBigGuys) December 13, 2022
