Remembering Mike Leach through his best quotes

You’ve no doubt heard the tragic news about Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach, who passed away at the age of 61 after suffering a heart attack on Sunday evening. Our thoughts are with his family, his friends and the MSU community as their grieve his loss. But at the same time, we want to remember what we loved most about Coach Leach: his wit and candor.

Below are some of our favorite Leach-isms from other the years. While he may be gone, I hope the fun that Coach Leach brought to college football endures.

“It’s a little like breakfast; you eat ham and eggs. As coaches and players, we’re like the ham. You see, the chicken’s involved but the pig’s committed. We’re like the pig, they’re like the chicken. They’re involved, but everything we have rides on this.”

“It’s kind of like doing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel. We had pieces and parts flying everywhere. It turned out in our favor. We’ve just got to clean it up the next time around.”

Pirates or Vikings?

“Some player comes frantically to the sideline, ‘Okay, they did this. Well, okay they did this. The cheerleader ran around the stadium three times and then the Shetland pony came out and ate a hot dog on the 50-yard line, so now what do I do?’”

“Tracked a raccoon one time in the snow. I was in a neighborhood, and I was curious where this raccoon lived. There was fresh raccoon tracks. He’d been digging in somebody’s garbage. I followed the tracks, and I don’t even know if these people know it, but he lives right in the back of their house. [Continues to answer the question, which was about animals he’s seen while on walks, by listing a huge owl, hawks, foxes, a coyote in his neighbor’s front yard, surprising quail, herds of deer, pheasants rarely, and a lotta rabbits. Then he gets back to talking about “sorting out” where the raccoon lived.]”

‘Fat little girlfriends’

“If you get into a fight, don’t take your helmet off...We’re looking for smart football players, not dumb ones. In the interest of time, don’t get into any more fights today.”

“I’ve always liked Lane — and I know you’re not supposed to like anything from Ole Miss — but I’ve always liked him, kind of an entertaining guy.”

On weddings

“I’m a thin-crust pizza guy. I respect people who like thick crust, but in my view it’s mostly bread.”

“I’m 47, I still haven’t made man.”

“Sometimes a pirate can beat a solider.”

Candy recs

“Well, you’re going to be dead in a hundred years anyway, so live dangerously.”

“I don’t even remember what I said. I hope whatever I said was cute and clever, and maybe even a tiny bit humorous. I hope it wasn’t mindless babble, and if it was, hopefully everyone will forget about it pretty quick.”

Mike Leach never coached at Texas A&M, but thanks to his 9-4 record against us during stops at Texas Tech and Mississippi State, you can’t write the story of Aggie football this century without him. We won’t miss playing you, Coach, but we sure will miss you. Rest in peace.