Johnathan Walker:One year after death, Mike Leach remembered as coach who loved Mississippi State back

The Johnathan WalkerNeshoba County fair appealed to Mike Leach’s sense of wonder.

With its colorful cabins that awaken one week every summer, full of Mississippi food, culture and life, Leach found the fair to be “addicting.”

"It’s like Key West in that you just walk around and you'll meet good people and smell great food cooking," Leach once told a Mississippi State athletics staffer.

Leach was not native to Mississippi. He grew up in Cody, Wyoming. Most of his career, he coached outside of the SEC’s footprint. His possession of a law degree from Pepperdine in Malibu, California, seemed almost antithetical to him becoming Mississippi State’s football coach.

In actuality, Leach was about as State as one gets. He made himself a man of Mississippi people.

For a program that often gets cast as a little brother, Leach was no one’s subjugate.

Remember when Leach took his fingers and playfully tugged Lane Kiffin’s mask, so that it popped over the Ole Miss coach's eyes, amid a visit to the state capitol during the height of COVID?

Leach made Mississippi State feel like it could be big brother.

He was a career winner. He was a polarizing contrarian who lacked a filter while brimming with opinions. Best of all, for the Bulldogs, he was theirs. And they were his people.

"He pretty quickly became our guy,' said Joel Coleman, a native Mississippian and Mississippi State alumnus who is a senior writer for the school's athletics department.

"He loved being here, and folks loved having a legend as their head coach."

Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary since Leach died of heart complications at 61. State’s Egg Bowl victory just 2½ weeks before Leach’s death became his final game.

Leach’s legacy at Mississippi State looms large for a coach who won 19 games throughout three seasons. He had the program trending up. Fans were excited for what might be possible for the 2023 season, with a proven coach on the sideline, a veteran quarterback returning and a blue-collar defense.

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But, the enduring affection for Leach extends beyond his performance.

"He was able to fit in here like a chameleon," said Robbie Faulk, a Mississippi native and Mississippi State alumnus who covers the school for 247Sports and the Starkville Daily News.

Dan Mullen won with the Bulldogs at a level not seen before or since, but Mississippi State fans’ feelings about Mullen are a mixed bag.

Although Mullen stayed for nine seasons, he ultimately departed for Florida’s greener pastures, only to be fired during his fourth season in Gainesville. For some around Mississippi State, Mullen always will be the turncoat who left for what he perceived as a prettier bride.

In Leach, the school found a winning coach who loved them back.

"He was probably going to finish his career here," Faulk said. "I think that means a lot to Mississippi State fans, that you’re not looking for the next big thing."

The next big thing for Leach on Dec. 10, 2022, was a Christmas party. After bowl practice that day, he swung by the holiday gathering hosted by Brian Hadad, a radio and podcast host.

Several media members were there. Faulk remembers Leach being in good spirits at the party. He had a few treats. He posed for photos. He chatted up the partygoers.

The news the following day of Leach’s hospitalization rocked Starkville and the college football community.

"It was jolting," Faulk said.

After Leach died, a pirate flag flew at half-mast in his honor at Davis Wade Stadium. Flowers accumulated outside the stadium gates, along with treats, a cowbell and a Copenhagen tin – Leach’s preferred chewing tobacco.

The coach who reinvigorated a proud program and helped it once again punch above its weight class was gone.

Michael Baumgartner, a former Washington state senator, befriended Leach while he coached Washington State. They remained close and traveled the globe on offseason trips.

Baumgartner enjoys a gift for colorful analogies. When we spoke a few days after Leach’s death, Baumgartner compared Alabama's Nick Saban to Gen. David Petraeus, crushing enemies with an overwhelming assemblage of firepower. Leach and his Air Raid offense were more like Ho Chi Minh or Lawrence of Arabia, in Baumgartner's analogy.

"Mike … he was the ultimate insurgent," Baumgartner told me. "How do you fight when you’re outnumbered? How do you outthink (your opponent)? How do you use asymmetric attacks?"

I think Mississippi State relishes being an insurgent force in the SEC. Leach restored State to that identity, and fans appreciated him for that. More, they loved that Leach loved them back.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.