5 most memorable press conference moments by former Mississippi State HC Mike Leach

Legendary college football head coach Mike Leach recently passed away after suffering sudden complications due to a heart condition. He most recently served as the head coach for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, while previously spending time as the head coach for the Washington State Cougars and Texas Tech Red Raiders. He found success at every stop during his coaching career.

Leach is credited with being one of the inventors of the popular 'air raid' offensive system used by many college football programs. In addition to being an offensive genius, he was also one of the most popular personalities in all of college football.

The late football coach was notorious for his epic press conferences, filled with his own brand of humor. Here are five of the best press conference moments of his career.

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#5 - Mike Leach has advice for cardboard cutouts

Washington State HC Mike Leach

During the pandemic-hit 2020 college football season, many college stadiums filled their seats with cardboard cutouts of fans. This was to make the stadium appear less empty, especially from a television perspective.

Leach offered solid advice to anyone aspiring to become a cardboard cutout one day following a game against the LSU Tigers.

“Live clean, live smart, and maybe when you become a fake person, you'll get good seats at the LSU game."

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#4 - Leach explains who college head coaches are truly competing against

One of the most infamous press conferences of Mike Leach's career occurred in 2010 when he was still with Texas Tech at his first head coaching gig. Speaking on the challenges of getting through to his players, he had an epic explanation for who he believed he was battling with for their attention.

"As coaches, we fail to get through to them. As coaches, we fail to make our points more compelling than their fat little girlfriends."

He continued to use the phrase "fat little girlfriends" throughout the interview.

#3 - Mike Leach shares his unique thoughts on zombies

Mississippi State HC Mike Leach

In November 2019, shortly following Halloween, Mike Leach was asked during a press conference if he did anything for the holiday. This eventually led to Leach sharing his thoughts on zombies in general and what he thinks would happen in case of a zombie apocalypse.

“It’s almost like a disease, so I guess it’s sort of like AIDS for dead bodies, except for they live instead of die or something. I don’t know. But I don’t fully understand the zombie thing... I actually think, in a zombie apocalypse, I would die of boredom before anything else... I’ve been kind of waiting for the zombie thing to run its course, go back to vampires or something that’s far more captivating."

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#2 - Leach believes technology will cause human extinction

Mike Leach went off on one of his trademark tangents during a press conference in 2014 when he was still the head coach of Washington State. He shared his dislike of technology and how it may end the human race.

“I’m not really good with technology. All this button pushing and whatnot. I mean, you can just imagine, based on what’s happened in the last 15 years, conversations won’t happen 10 years from now. There aren’t going to be people to talk to, it’s going to be just pushing buttons... That’s true, and in the end, it’s going to be tough to perpetuate the species. There’s no question about that. So, we’re all going to look in this box and eventually be extinct. That’s how it ends.”

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#1 - Leach breaks down a potential college mascot battle

One of the most memorable rants of Mike Leach's career occurred in 2019 with Washington State. He talked about an interesting idea - for all of the mascots to take part in an epic battle. He went into extreme detail when analyzing how things could play out.

“What kind of mythical powers does a Sun Devil have? We gotta consider that. You’d have to get one of those Harry Potter activists to read up on how you kill a Sun Devil, because there’s a lot of outside stuff there.”

For anyone wondering, Mike Leach would likely favor his all-time favorite mascot in the epic battle. He claims he's a huge fan of Ralphie, the mascot for the Colorado Buffaloes.