Mississippi State aiming high in coaching search with Mike Leach interview
As Mississippi State undertakes a later than usual coaching search, they’re going after the biggest possible fish in Mike Leach.
Mississippi State fired head coach Joe Moorhead last Friday, with multiple candidates surfacing to replace him. But a very big name can now be added to the list. According to ESPN Radio host Bo Bounds, during a Wednesday appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen went to Key West, Florida this week to interview Mike Leach. Leach has a vacation home there.
Leach just completed his eighth season at Washington State, where he has a 55-47 record with five straight bowl appearances. He’s also well-remembered for his time at Texas Tech, where he had an 84-43 record over 10 seasons, and of course his Air Raid offense and quirky personality make him stand out as well.
The early list of rumored candidates to replace Moorhead has included Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun, Army head coach Jeff Monken, Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Billy Napier, Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz and Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. But Leach is in a different stratosphere, in terms of cache and the idea of bringing him to the SEC.
Leach is in no danger of losing his job at Washington State, but he has appeared open to leaving for the right opportunity. He interviewed for the job at Tennessee a couple years ago, with later indications he would have taken the job if then-athletic director John Currie had offered it (or been allowed to offer it to anyone before he was fired the next day).
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It takes two to tango, and if Leach wasn’t still open to leaving Washington State he wouldn’t have taken a visit from Cohen at his vacation home to talk about the job in Starkville. But credit really goes to Mississippi State, for aiming high in their later than typical search to find a new football coach and not ruling someone like Leach out before making an effort to talk to him.