Mike Leach in the SEC? Talk about interesting

Driving through the Flint Hills of Kansas, the news came across the car radio.

Tennessee had fired its football coach.

It was a Sunday. Nov. 12, 2017. The day before, Scott Wright and I had covered Oklahoma State's game at Iowa State, and as we headed home the next morning, we heard about Butch Jones' firing. Tennessee was a wreck, and Scott and I started talking about who might take over.

First was Mike Gundy; the Cowboy coach played footsie with the Vols before.

But my pick was Mike Leach. I always wanted to see how he'd fare in the SEC as a head coach.

Now, we get that chance.

Leach is the new coach at Mississippi State. As the coaching carousel slows — Baylor choosing LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda may well be the last major-college hire this year — no head coaching move is more interesting than Leach's.

The only one that's close happens to be in the same state. Who isn't going to be watching how things go with Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss?

But Leach at Mississippi State will be absolutely fascinating.

The reason?

His offense. Oklahomans are keenly aware of the Air Raid since Leach was Bob Stoops' first offensive coordinator in 1999. Leach not only brought the offense to Norman but also had such success that when Stoops wanted to pump life back into his offense 16 years later, he went and hired a Leach disciple, Lincoln Riley.

The offense has been a boon in Norman, but it's continued to serve Leach pretty well, too.

In 18 seasons as head coach, his overall record is 139-90. That might not get Leach, 58, into the College Football Hall of Fame, but then again, it might. He is 49 games over .500 even though his headcoaching stops consist of Texas Tech and Washington State.

Neither is in the top half of their conference.

Winning that many games in those two programs? You might never be able to find another coach who could match what Leach did.

It's because of his offense. It doesn't require a bunch of four- and five-star recruits, and that comes in handy in places like Lubbock, Texas, and Pullman, Washington.

Sure, he needs certain skills to make his Air Raid work. His quarterback, for example, has to be able to see the entire field, read defenses and make adjustments. Being able to get the ball where it needs to go is crucial with a premium on accuracy.

Leach won a lot of games with a lot of teams that had a fraction of their opponent's talent. That's why I've always wanted to see what he could do with SEC talent.

Now, Mississippi State isn't going to get as many great players as the blue bloods, but Leach should have as much talent in Starkville as any of his head-coaching stops. The pool of talent is deepest in the South, so even if Leach doesn't get those four- and five-star recruits, the two- and threestar guys will be better than the ones he's had in the past.

The sad thing is, Leach's offense won't be as foreign in the SEC today as it would've been once upon a time. In the past few years, teams moved away from 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offenses and starting throwing it around a lot more. Even Alabama does it now.

Leach's Air Raid will still be a different animal, but it would've been like aliens landing a few years ago.

That's why I was hoping Leach would get the Tennessee job a couple years ago. Truth is, I knew it wasn't going to happen. Even though Leach could've won there, he couldn't have worked there.

Tennessee is a button-down place.

Leach isn't a button-down coach.

He happened to be on Al Eschbach's radio show Thursday night. Leach talked about team mascots. Music. Writing books. But he spent the most time talking about a rift with a newspaper columnist that bubbled over this past season. After a game, Leach called him a sanctimonious troll, and Thursday, Leach said the columnist was “a total frontrunner” and “pointless anyway.” It was fascinating radio. But then you step back and remember Leach isn't some fan calling in to poke fun. He's a major-college head coach.

He doesn't always play well with others, and that doesn't play well at blue-blood programs like Tennessee. Even Florida and Texas A&M, places that also had headcoach openings a couple years ago, are probably too straight-laced for Leach.

Mississippi State, though, is a good fit. It's a smaller university in an out-of-the-way place everyone there calls StarkVegas. It's an outlier trying to upend the hierarchy of the SEC. It sees itself as a renegade. So does Mike Leach. Can't wait to see The Pirate navigate the SEC seas.