His press conferences were legendary and he could go off in any direction at any time. A true original and he will be sadly missed - there are far too few of his type of coach left now.
I can’t say I’d want Mike Leach coaching MY team - maybe, maybe not - but I absolutely loved what he brought to the game and every quirky thing he did outside of it. Of all the Mike Leach interviews, oddities, stories, etc. my absolute favorite - by far - is the story of the 1999 Red River Shootout (back when you could still call it that). If you’ve never heard this one, it’s worth a read. The untold story of Mike Leach's 'lost' OU play script that fooled Texas if you don’t feel like clicking links or reading article, I can’t blame you there. Short version - Leach was the OC at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops, and the Sooners were going into The Shootout as huge underdogs. So, Leach wrote up a fake play sheet and had someone drop it where it would find its way into the hands of the Texas coaching staff. The plan worked to perfection. At least for a while. Texas players were running in all the wrong directions and Oklahoma stormed out to a 17-0 first quarter lead. Until the Texas DC eventually figured out that he’d been punked and trashed the fake play sheet.
