Last night, the college football world was left in shock after it was revealed that legendary college football coach, and current head coach at Mississippi State Mike Leach had to be airlifted to the hospital after suffering a massive heart attack.
Leach is currently in critical condition, and according to Robbie Faulk, he’s going to need a miracle to survive:
Needless to say, judging by the responses of his fellow football coaches, along with the rest of college football media, it’s easy to see how much the guy is loved, and always has been.
I can’t help but think of all the best moments I’ve seen from Leach, whether it stems from coaching, or hilarious postgame interviews.
With that being said, I can’t stop thinking about this hilarious story told by current USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
Leach hired Riley onto his staff at Texas Tech when he was only 23-years-old, taking a gamble on a young guy with little to no experience coaching.
Riley shared a story to The Players’ Tribune back in 2017, one of his best memories working with Leach at Texas Tech.
The story is about a phone conversation Riley overheard between Leach and somebody:
“He picked it up and said, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And then he listened for a second and asked, ‘Where ya calling from?’
He kept talking on the phone and I eventually sort of tuned out. Now, a short phone conversation for Coach Leach is an hour.
So he was talking about this and that, and I was kind of hunkered down working on my own stuff. At some point, the call got dropped. They must have lost reception. Coach said, “Can you hear me? Are you there?”
Then he closed his old-school flip phone, swung it back open and redialed. He said, ‘Hey, sorry I lost you.’ And then they resumed their conversation for another 30 minutes or so before Coach finally hung up.
After he was done, we started talking and I said, ‘Hey Coach, who was that on the phone?’
And he said, ‘Oh, they had the wrong number.'”
LEGEND.
Although it’s a hilarious story about Coach Leach talking to a complete stranger for 90 minutes, and even lost service and called them back again, it perfectly reflects the type of guy he is.
Just an all-around classic act, kind soul, and great person.
Our thoughts and prayers remain with Coach Leach and his family, and hope he is able to pull through this one.
