The college football world is mourning the loss of not only one of the sport’s most innovative coaches but also perhaps its most eclectic personality.

Mike Leach died Monday night from complications related to a heart condition, Mississippi State University announced. Leach, who was 61 years old, was in his third season as the head coach of the Bulldogs.

Leach won nearly 60% of his games during his head coaching career, which included stints at Texas Tech and Washington State. But the man who rarely found a topic of conversation he didn’t like became as synonymous with his off-the-wall soundbites in interviews as he did his air-raid offenses.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he didn’t spend much time around Leach outside of some brief social settings. Their interactions were limited to the occasional crossing of paths on the recruiting trail, but that was enough for Swinney to get an idea of just how different yet authentic Leach was as a person.

“He was at a Nike school a couple of times and he was on a couple of Nike trips with other coaches, and that was really when I had the most opportunity to be around him,” Swinney recalled. “Just like you would perceive him: Hilarious and just a great perspective.”

A Hal Mumme disciple, Leach took the air-raid offense to new heights after honing the system he learned as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator in the late 1990s. He took Texas Tech to No. 2 in the country in 2008, won 11 games at Washington State in 2019 and went 19-17 in three seasons at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs’ eight wins this season were the most of his tenure.

Swinney said he’s always admired all parts of Leach’s career from afar.

“I know a lot of people who know him and who have worked with him,” Swinney said. “He’s a guy I’ve always respected because he’s one of the great innovators of the game and one of those guys who believed in how he did things. Didn’t really worry about what everybody else thought. He was kind of a pioneer in the way he believed things should be done and didn’t really waver from that.”

Leach’s career included one game coached against Clemson. That came at the end of the 2002 season when Leach’s third Texas Tech team raced past Clemson, 55-15, in the Tangerine Bowl, which is now known as the Citrus Bowl.

“College football and football in general will miss him,” Swinney said. “I know he had an impact on a lot of people’s lives. Really just want to lift up his family.”

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