Mississippi State coach Mike Leach’s passing hits home for NC State’s Ruffin McNeill

Ruffin McNeill had a hard time believing it, accepting it.

Mike Leach, gone? Dead at age 61?

“It’s a tough day, man,” McNeill said Tuesday. “It came out of nowhere.”

Leach suffered a serious medical emergency, since reported to be a heart attack, this past weekend. The Mississippi State football coach, one of McNeill’s closest coaching friends, died Monday night in a Jackson, Mississippi, hospital, surrounded by family.

McNeill, now a special assistant to N.C. State coach Dave Doeren, was with Leach for 10 years at Texas Tech. That’s where Leach, ever the offensive tinkerer, installed his “Air Raid” passing attack that McNeill once described as the “wishbone in reverse,” with ball distribution to many players capable of making plays.

“That was as long as I coached anywhere or my family has been in any one place in my 43 years of coaching,” McNeill said. “One thing about Mike, he was always relentless. He was relentless about his beliefs, on the offense and on other things.”

It rubbed off on his assistant coaches. McNeill rattled off those who worked for Leach and became head coaches — Lincoln Riley, Sonny Dykes and Dana Holgosen among them — and Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, who played quarterback for Leach at Texas Tech.

And McNeill, head coach at East Carolina.

“What made Mike a good coach is he had a philosophy and had the answer about anything that comes up about the philosophy,” McNeill said. “That’s the sign of a good coach. He’s a coach who knows his philosophy and knows what he wants to do, and then within that philosophy be able to have answers and the ability to correct anything within that philosophy on the field.”

That’s a profound description of Leach, the coach, and almost sounds like Mike Leach talking about himself.

Leach could be profound, said those who knew him best. He was unpredictable, quotable, humorous, blunt.

He offered up advice on weddings (“Always elope”) and Halloween candy (“I hate candy corn”) and the possibility of life on other planets (“Everyone wants us to be special and I don’t think we’re that special”).

“He always spoke the truth,” McNeill said. “He was not afraid to tell you exactly how he felt and I always appreciated that. What you saw is what you got.”

One of his personal mottos was, “Swing your sword, no hesitation,” according to McNeill, who said Leach had a fascination with pirates likely stemming from the run of “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

Leach never failed to swing his sword. And his public persona didn’t differ that much from what his staff saw and heard behind closed doors, in meeting rooms with a Texas or Alabama to play, McNeill said.

“It was the same way and the public got a good dose of it,” McNeill said.

McNeill noted that Leach held a law degree from Pepperdine as well as other advanced degrees. He once authored a book about Geronimo.

Although he did not play college football while an undergraduate at BYU, Leach was influenced by the passing philosophy of longtime Cougars coach LaVell Edwards. He was further influenced, McNeill said, as an assistant to Hal Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan, developing the Air Raid schemes he would later install and tweak.

“He was a very brilliant guy,” McNeill. “To me, ‘brilliance’ is the first thing that comes to mind. And not just that. He had a stick-to-it-ness and that unbending belief in his philosophy on the field.

“When you win everywhere you go …”

Leach, coaching at Texas Tech, Washington State and then Mississippi State, had a record of 158-107. His final game was against Ole Miss in this year’s Egg Bowl, the Bulldogs winning a thriller, 24-22.

While at Texas Tech, Leach had two memorable games against N.C. State, losing a 51-48 overtime game in Lubbock in 2002 and then 48-21 the next season in Raleigh, despite passing for a school-record 586 yards. Leach did beat the Wolfpack in 2021, his Mississippi State team winning a 24-10 home game.

The news of Leach’s sudden hospitalization and then his passing created a sense of sadness among his peers.

UNC coach Mack Brown, who faced Leach’s Texas Tech teams while at Texas, tweeted that Leach was “an innovative football mind, who kept us on our toes.”

Doeren, during a Monday press conference, spoke of Leach, saying he was a “mentor” to many young coaches.

Leach is survived by his wife, Sharon, and four children.

“Mike was an original, he really was,” McNeill said. “Mike was a great coach and on top of that was a great family man.”