Mike Leach just died. And we’re sad.

“Mike Leach died”. I got the text message about 10 minutes ago, and I’m stunned.

It was weird, because it was coming. The updates from Steve Robertson at Mississippi State’s 247Sports indicated that he was going downhill fast, and then the skiing stopped, and Mike’s healed in Heaven.

‘The Pirate’, as he was affectionately know, was in charge of some of the most high-powered offenses college football ever seen. He made the ‘Air Raid’ offense so damned exciting, and prompted a whole new wave of people to get on board. Suddenly teams everywhere were dropped 40 or 50 points, going five wide, and making – to misquote Nick Saban – football as we would have all – secretly – like it to be.

As beloved were his long, meandering press conferences, where he seemed to say very little about the games, and more about just about anything. In fact, he made SEC Media Days worth the SEC Network broadcast money for 10 minutes of him mumbling about very little. He didn’t give sermons like Nick, say absolutely nothing like Kirby, or try and act like a ****ing school cheerleader like [add SEC coach here], he just talked….and talked…and talked.

Now, that’s gone, and we’re stuck with 14 very, very boring press conferences.

It was as though he was far too intellectual and well-read for the college football world.

And I also loved the fact that he wasn’t willing to take any high-and-mighty football player’s crap, either. That’s probably what’s made him so polarizing. In a world where players want fellatio from everybody, Mike wasn’t about to get on his knees.

Our favorite moment from Mike Leach’s career wasn’t at Washington State or at Mississippi State. It was at Texas Tech, when in 2008, College Gameday was in town, the place was nuts, and there was some guy called Michael Crabtree making history.

And of course, it had to be Brett Musberger on the call. If those two could have done a radio show together, I would have paid millions.

Anyway, see you later, Coach Leach. You will be missed.