RIP Mike Leach - dead at 61

[TheMarylandGator]

 

[TheMarylandGator]

 

[Gatorraid81]

I saw a tweet by the old K-State coach Snyder, that said he died. Haven’t seen it confirmed yet though.

 

[Pablos Tunnel]

God bless.

 

[MJMGator]

 

[GatorJ]

I saw a tweet by the old K-State coach Snyder, that said he died. Haven’t seen it confirmed yet though.

Yeah. I don’t know why he’s tweeted that. There’s been no official news yet.

 

[aka]

Man, so sad. Shock for the family and the university.

 

[Detroitgator]

My Dad passed on this day 10 years ago, praying for his family. It's tough to this day, I wasn't ready to become the Patriarch of the family, don't think anyone is ready for that.

Same... 35 years tomorrow.

 

[Zambo]

Damn.

 

[URGatorBait]

Still seems like it is just a matter of time though

 

[URGatorBait]

 

[FlyingGator]

 

[Gatordiddy]

Great story (click thru the thread)

 

[TN G8tr]

this one?

OH MY GOSH. That was classisc. I would have loved to play for him. "last time I checked we paid the f-kin bills around here." Absolute HOF ass chewing there.

Not a good day and still praying for a Miracle for him. God please bless him.

 

[soflagator]

Twitter police are the worst. You think Snyder, who has a personal history with Leech, has any malice in posting that? Maybe he was given some bad info and obviously would take it down once that was discovered. But where are we at in life where accidentally tweeting a heartfelt tribute to someone is some horrific crime? And honestly, what does it matter? Are people really hinging their next decisions on Snyder’s updates, or will the tweet somehow impede Leech’s ability to come out of this? This Davis Hookstead sounds like a complete tool.

 

[URGatorBait]

Twitter police are the worst. You think Snyder, who has a personal history with Leech, has any malice in posting that? Maybe he was given some bad info and obviously would take it down once that was discovered. But where are we at in life where accidentally tweeting a heartfelt tribute to someone is some horrific crime? And honestly, what does it matter? Are people really hinging their next decisions on Snyder’s updates, or will the tweet somehow impede Leech’s ability to come out of this? This Davis Hookstead sounds like a complete tool.

I think his point was that Snyder recognized his mistake but still left the first post up.

That said, looks like he deleted both of those posts now

 

[soflagator]

I think his point was that Snyder recognized his mistake but still left the first post up.

That said, looks like he deleted both of those posts now

Snyder just celebrated his 113th birthday. Maybe we could let him slide on his technology gaffe. The point is one guy lost a former assistant and friend. The other guy’s scanning the web for people to correct. If this is really him, he should be arrested.

 

[I Have No Friends :(]

Snyder just celebrated his 113th birthday. Maybe we could let him slide on his technology gaffe. The point is one guy lost a former assistant and friend. The other guy’s scanning the web for people to correct. If this is really him, he should be arrested.

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Can smell the soy from here. What a tool.

 

[PCGatorAlum]

The untold story of Mike Leach's 'lost' OU play script that fooled Texas​

1532 days ago​

Jake Trotter​

ESPN.com​

Photo: Ryan Inzana
Few rivalries in sports fuel as much hostility and pressure to win like college football's annual Red River Showdown between Oklahoma and Texas.

And through the years, those monumental stakes have led to some serious skullduggery. The most notable example came in 1972, when the Sooners spied on Texas' practices, allowing them to block a quick kick the Longhorns had secretly been working on en route to a victory.

Now, thanks to Mike Leach, the 1999 game can officially be added to that same legacy.



During pregame warm-ups of that year's Red River Showdown, an underhanded script outlining OU's opening offensive plays was spotted on the field by one of Texas' student assistants, who scooped it up and took it to Longhorns defensive coordinator Carl Reese. To the heavily favored Longhorns, it seemed as if they'd caught an enormous break.

"We were trying to figure out if it was authentic," Reese said. "We were in this state of, 'Can we believe this?'"

They shouldn't have.

It was a fake, part of a plot hatched by Leach, the Sooners' offensive coordinator, and consulted by the Longhorns, who quickly fell behind 17-0 before realizing they'd been duped.

"That does sound like Mike," said former Texas coach Mack Brown, unaware of the script at the time. "I do know this: Offensive coordinators are so careful with those scripts they wouldn't be losing them. Those things are valuable. Only Mike would think to lay one out there as a decoy."

In his 2011 book "Swing Your Sword," Leach briefly mentioned the lark. But he never knew for sure just how seriously the Longhorns had taken it, how often they'd referenced it or just how effective it had been.

He was elated to learn recently that they had fallen for it so hard.

"These things evolve and become somewhat legendary," Leach said.



Leading up to the game, Leach didn't tell OU coach Bob Stoops he was planting it, and Reese didn't inform Brown he had it. As a result, few people on either side knew of the decoy script's existence. And yet, it nearly propelled the underdog Sooners, with Stoops in his first year and OU coming off a 5-6 season, to a victory.

"That game might've been the most bizarre experience I ever had as a college football player," said Ahmad Brooks, a starting defensive back for the Longhorns. "I can't tell you how wrong we were in the first three or four minutes with every playcall we had. I've never seen anything like it.

"It was complete pandemonium, and it was complete confusion."

Reese finally trashed the script, and Texas settled back into its game plan to rally and roll 38-28.

But not before Leach unleashed pandemonium upon the Longhorns for a quarter.

"It was a decent effort," Leach said. "But it would even be more legendary if we had won the sucker."

A decent effort, fit for such a heated rivalry.

"Yeah, it was kind of shady," said former OU tight end Trent Smith, whom Leach drafted to "accidentally" drop the sheet in front of the Texas coaches.

"But it's OU-Texas. There are no rules."