Miss. St. honors Leach with pirate flag on helmet

Mississippi State set aside its conventional school logo designs in order to honor former coach Mike Leach during the ReliaQuest Bowl on Monday versus Illinois.The Bulldogs unveiled an unique helmet design, which includes a pirate flag on the side, on Monday morning.Leach, who was nicknamed “The Pirate,”died Dec. 12 from a heart condition. He was 61. ℎ. #HailState pic.twitter.com/FeGdryJQQa!.?.!— Mississippi State Sports(@HailState) January

2, 2023 The Bulldogs ended up beating the Illini 19-10, and Leach stayed on their minds later.”Obviously, Mike Leach has actually been leading this program for three years, and he was out there leading us today,”stated Zach Arnett, who was promoted from defensive planner to head coach three days after Leach’s death.”Psychological game, obviously.”Will Rogers was 29 of 44 backyards for 261 lawns and one touchdown for Mississippi State in the win. “Football isn’t constantly a pretty game,” Rogers stated.”I know Coach Leach would probably be a little upset at a few of the decisions, however we combated

difficult and stayed together as a team. He was with us all the way. He’s been with me all the way.

I really, actually miss him.” Leach coached three seasons at Mississippi State. He had 2 previous stops as a head coach, at Texas Tech(2000-09 )and Washington State (2012-19). He was the American Football Coaches Association national coach of the year in 2018

. His 158 profession wins were the fifth most among active FBS coaches this season.But his tradition went far beyond wins and losses. His coaching tree spread far and wide, consisting of Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, TCU coach Sonny Dykes, USC coach Lincoln Riley, Baylor coach Dave Aranda, Houston coach Dana Holgorsen, North Texas coach Seth Littrell and

Nevada coach Ken Wilson.

1 Associated Many schools completing in bowl games, consisting of some that had no direct connections to Leach, used helmet stickers to commemorate the coach who helped change the game by spreading out the appeal of the Air Raid offense.As a nod to its former coach, Texas Tech lined up in the Air Raid development– four receivers, one tailback and large divides amongst the offensive linemen– at the start of its Texas Championship game against Ole Miss.Last month, numerous existing and former FBS coaches took a trip to Starkville, Mississippi, on signing day for Leach’s memorial service.Dykes, a Leach disciple whose Horned Frogs were preparing to play in the College

Football Playoff, made the trip too. His team wore a Jolly Roger sticker on its helmets when it beat Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday.Information from The Associated Press was utilized in this report.