Mike Leach channels his inner grandpa in E:60 feature

On Sunday, ESPN’s E:60 ran an in-depth interview with Washington State’s Mike Leach. While it wasn’t the first look into Mike Leach’s head, it was nonetheless revealing.

Mike Leach is known as being a bit of an eccentric. He has embraced the idea of the swashbuckling pirate that we learned was part of one of his motivational speeches, which could be about almost anything. The guy is interested in absolutely everything, which makes sense since he earned a law degree.

It would be easy to say Leach is just a brilliant, but offbeat, guy. However, after watching that episode of E:60, it becomes clear that Mike Leach is part grandpa. Case-in-point: we learn from Wes Welker that, while motivating, Leach’s all-over-the-map speeches are Abe Simpson come to life.

Let’s find out how grandpa Leach is by using a simple rubric. We will grade coach Leach 1-10 in each of four categories, and tally it up at the end. The four categories are:

1. Living space: does Leach live and work in a grandpa-esque space?
2. Interests: do the things that interest Leach sound like they are in a grandpa’s wheelhouse?
3. Social media use: does Leach fall into the traps that grandpas fall into?
4. Lifestyle: is Leach living the grandpa life?

Living space

Leach has a lot of stuff, so that’s some points towards grandpadom. The more collectibles you have, the more grandpa you are. It’s reflective of a lifetime of collecting cool stuff. On the other hand, the stuff Leach has is decidedly not grandpa related stuff. Football paraphernalia. Tons and tons of pirate stuff. And let’s take a minute to appreciate the George Costanza picture with Leach’s mug on it.

Seriously. A-plus move. It’s a flex on top of a flex. Not only does he have a picture of himself, like some kind of duke of football, but it’s also a callback to a sitcom that a lot of recruits probably don’t remember. He’s making them work for it. This is not a grandpa move.

Leach gets a 5/10 on the grandpa scale here.

Interests

Leach is really into history and pioneer stories. Maybe guess growing up in Cody, Wyoming instills a sense of the pioneer mentality and appreciate that type of living. Growing up in suburban Virginia definitely does not.

Leach is interested in so much more than just the pioneer days (*cough* pirates *cough*). He also is interested in the law. Grandpa is deeply interested in two, maybe three things. Leach has such a broader range of interests. But when was the last time you and your friends were going on and on about their appreciation for Daniel Boone and Geronimo? Grandpa.

7/10 grandpa points here.

Social media use

Woof. Leach is more grandpa than grandpa here. But look. He’s not like Paterno, who evidently didn’t know what social media was. Leach uses Twitter, and for the most part, it’s pretty innocuous. A cute animal here. An inspirational story there.

But last year, Leach fell for the old fake video trick. Oops. All the credit for trying to start a dialogue. Zero credit for being to smart to fall for that.

You get 12/10 grandpas when you get punked by a fake political video.

Lifestyle

This one is tricky. The E:60 segment starts by telling us that Leach walks 4 miles to and from work every day. He and anchor Jeremy Schaap trek over terrain that seems unnecessarily rugged. So we are left with the following facts:

• Walking is a grandpa activity
• 4 miles each way is a non-grandpa distance
• It is hilarious that Leach made Schaap traverse hills and brush in his suit

We’ll give this one 3/10 grandpas. He didn’t talk about how tough his 4-mile walk is, or how it is up-hill both ways.

And so, Leach gets a 27/40, making him 67.5 percent grandpa. He isn’t a Paterno (or low-key Jim Harbaugh), but he definitely isn’t Lincoln Riley.

Mike Leach is a revolutionary, ingenious football coach. His programs have continually overachieved (by national expectations). More importantly, his offenses have completely changed the sport.