50 Mike Leach Quotes about Life, Football, and Coaching

By Stephanie Kirby | Published April 29, 2021

These Mike Leach quotes and sayings from the American college football coach will motivate you into action.

Share the one that inspired you the most in the comments.

While Mike Leach is undoubtedly a talented football coach, there seems to be controversy that constantly follows him.

He is one of few NCAA Division I coaches who didn’t play college football himself.

However, he has proven himself to be successful time and time again.

At Texas Tech University, he was the winningest coach in the school history and at Washington State University, he had the third-most wins.

He currently coaches at Mississippi State University.

He is a three-time conference coach of the year and a two-time national coach of the year.

He is one of the creators behind the Air Raid offense while working as offensive coordinator under head coach Hal Mumme.

Don’t forget to also check out these Lou Holtz quotes on football and life.

If you enjoy this article, check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily motivation.

If you want more motivational quotes, check out our motivational quotes category page.

Best Mike Leach quotes and sayings to motivate you

1. “You can just tell they’ve played a lot of football and have a lot of confidence.” ― Mike Leach

2. “Well, you’re going to be dead in a hundred years anyway, so live dangerously.” ― Mike Leach

You will also enjoy our article on Ted Lasso quotes.

3. “If you get into a fight, don’t take your helmet off. We’re looking for smart football players, not dumb ones.” ― Mike Leach

4. “If you’re not loaded down with reasons why something won’t work, the reasons why it can work become much clearer.” ― Mike Leach

5. “I think they realize I’ve done a good job for them, and they wanted to reward me and make sure I’m here for a few years. It’s not a lottery deal, but I’m happy with it.” ― Mike Leach

6. “Enjoy what you do, though, is an oversimplification. If you’re ever really good at anything, you don’t enjoy it all of the time because there’s a chase and a challenge to it that goes beyond enjoyment.” ― Mike Leach

7. “The most important quality in a recruiter is persistence. You want a guy who is willing to make hundreds of phone calls, who is a good conversationalist and has the ability to establish relationships with people.” ― Mike Leach

8. “There’s going to be times a guy’s having a tough day or tough series or something like that, but you’re not going to have the ability to develop through it unless you stick with it, … There’s times where you’ve got to make a change, but I don’t think changing for the sake of changing is necessarily the (proper approach). You’ve invested a certain amount of time in developing a guy, in giving him reps, so I think generally the thing to do if he’s having a bad day is to settle him down, not switch him out.” ― Mike Leach

Funny Mike Leach quotes

9. “You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen.” ― Mike Leach

10. “There’s some teams – the Cubs are one of them – where there’s just too many fans.” ― Mike Leach

11. “You know, I’ll tell who’s really embraced football is Austria. Austria’s really embraced football.” ― Mike Leach

12. “There’s nothing balanced about the 50 percent run, 50 percent pass because that’s 50 percent stupid.” ― Mike Leach

13. “Never confuse activity with results. However, when we do have staff meetings, we go as long as it takes to accomplish the task.” ― Mike Leach

14. “Therapeutic milieu, which is more than worrying about the patient, the medicines, and the surgeries; it’s about creating the environment around the patient to be able to maximize their health.” ― Mike Leach

15. “It’s not just a bowl that your players have heard about for a long, long time, but their parents and their grandparents have. There isn’t any place in America that’s insulated from the Cotton Bowl and its tradition.” ― Mike Leach

16. “There’s shouting, there’s blood, there’s boogers, there’s a whole thing. I mean, there’s spitting, there’s fighting, there’s ripped jerseys. There’s someone grabbing someone’s throat. I mean, it’s why you have football.” ― Mike Leach

17. “I don’t care about the negative attention, … I did feel that some of our players played like the media view of how we’re supposed to play when you’re ahead. I don’t happen to subscribe to that view, and I’ll address it with them (today).” ― Mike Leach

Mike Leach quotes that will encourage you

18. “I’ve said this one time before? if anybody could do it, we wouldn’t go around the country recruiting these guys to play quarterback. We’d just go to 7-Eleven and pull the guys out of there. There’s a lot of guys at 7-Eleven who’d like to play quarterback.” ― Mike Leach

19. “I feel like a caffeine addict.” ― Mike Leach

Mike Leach quotes about I feel like a caffeine addict

20. “I’m a big fan of pirates in general.” ― Mike Leach

Mike Leach quotes about I’m a big fan of pirates in general

21. “I think they’re going to be really good.” ― Mike Leach

Mike Leach quotes about I think they’re going to be really good

22. “I’ve always been insecure about dancing. I was when I was in high school.” ― Mike Leach

23. “I’m a thin-crust pizza guy. I respect people who like thick crust, but in my view, it’s mostly bread.” ― Mike Leach

24. “I always thought it was incredibly ridiculous, … The notion of artificially shortening games is crazy.” ― Mike Leach

25. “I want to go to a place that’s undervalued, where the potential is great, a place that wants to win, not just participate, in football.” ― Mike Leach

26. “I enjoy coming back to these breakfasts every year, … They help you focus on community and things you might not always focus on.” ― Mike Leach

27. “I thought on both sides of the ball we were sloppy to start this game. My guess would be we were trying to make too much happen on any given play, rather than try to make routine plays.” ― Mike Leach

28. “I would like to be coaching in the right situation if it’s a team effort and doesn’t have a bunch of mini-agendas. I want something where the school wants to win and values graduation and everybody wants to work together.” ― Mike Leach

More Mike Leach quotes

29. “LSU would be a good place to stand during a lightning storm.” ― Mike Leach

30. “It’s indisputable that you’ll make way more money with a larger playoff.” ― Mike Leach

31. “Freedom of speech should be wide open as long as it doesn’t incite violence.” ― Mike Leach

32. “Moses was in high school the last time these guys lost a homecoming game.” ― Mike Leach

33. “Definitely, this is a great set of reinforcements and we’re excited to get them up here and get them to work.” ― Mike Leach

34. “When you have five skill positions, if all five of them are contributing to the offensive effort, then that’s balanced.” ― Mike Leach

35. “We’re older on defense than we’ve been the last couple years. We had been playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Now we’re predominantly juniors.” ― Mike Leach

36. “We had a few mental lapses and errors that cost us in the fifth and sixth innings, but we were able to get the win. As you can tell, we hit the ball really well.” ― Mike Leach

37. “They challenged us. They said, ‘Here, try to run past us, try to run inside us.’ And they were better at preventing that than we were throwing and catching it.” ― Mike Leach

38. “No one wants police brutality. No one wants inequality. But what I worry about it is when a protest becomes so large and the noise takes over that the original motivation for the protest and the conversation that should go with that protest gets lost.” ― Mike Leach

39. “I’ve actually seen guys who I considered relatively stupid college coaches, then go to the NFL, and sanctimoniously think they understand that something the rest of us couldn’t perceive. They’re an idiot before, they’re an idiot now, and they’ll be an idiot afterwords. It’s mind-numbing.” ― Mike Leach

40. “I think the legal profession is getting somewhat corrupted. When it comes to lawyers, I think it’s kind of a Catch-22. On one hand, there’s so much process, procedure, and mess caused by the legal profession. But on the other hand, the only way to sort through all that process, procedure, and mess is through the legal profession.” ― Mike Leach

Mike Leach quotes about players and the game

41. “On that play, we had a return on, … I thought (Douglas) did a tremendous job.” ― Mike Leach

42. “There was Lance Funderburk, … He’s got big hands like Lance. He does have these mitts. The Hodges have big hands and feet.” ― Mike Leach

43. “I thought he was steady, … There’s always a level of jitters that goes on with a guy that’s starting his first game. He hid it well. I’m sure he had some.” ― Mike Leach

44. “I don’t feel like it’s fair to the other players and I don’t think it’s the right way to do business to allow influence and position to dictate when you play a young man.” ― Mike Leach

45. “Defensively, I think this is the most impressive group of guys able to respond to play after play. Overall, they did a great job making big plays and working well together.” ― Mike Leach

46. “I thought he was pretty good. We contained him for a period of time but he is very explosive and can go off at any given moment. He is a great player and he commands as much attention as any player in the conference.” ― Mike Leach

47. “It’s the toughest position in our offense to play, … You’re called on to rush the ball, to catch the ball, and to block and protect. That can be tough to sort out because he has to make reads on his own. He’s given us the versatility to do all that.” ― Mike Leach

48. “I think they have a really good running back, and they have a few quarterbacks that both offer a variety of things. The quarterbacks have different skills that account for a wide variety of things. But then the running back is a really good player.” ― Mike Leach

49. “It’s pretty difficult for me to try him any more than he’s already been tried. I don’t feel particularly good about denying a guy an opportunity on a misdemeanor alone. If he’d had a couple of misdemeanors or a pattern of them, that’s different.” ― Mike Leach

50. “I’m not sure that the first drive of the second half isn’t the most significant drive in the game in a lot of cases. That was a drive that where, if you dominate that drive, you get the upper hand. They dominated that drive, and they got the upper hand.” ― Mike Leach

What did you learn from these Mike Leach quotes?

There’s no denying that Mike Leach knows how to win as a coach, however, there has been some controversy in the past over his treatment of players.

Specifically, one player at Texas Tech University.

The player’s parent claims that he was mistreated when he suffered from a concussion.

While he did lose his coaching position and his reputation took damage, there were many that stood up for him and spoke out against the character of the player.

Leach also took heat after the end of the 2020 season at Mississippi State University.

The team made it to a bowl game where they broke into a fight with the other team on the field after the game ended.

Leach blew off the fight and many criticized his response for not being strong enough.

Whether you agree with this stance or not, there’s not denying that he’s a coach who knows how to win.