How Mississippi State feels Mike Leach’s presence, even though the Bulldogs moved forward

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Will Rogers doesn’t intend to repeat the phrases Mike Leach used so often, but they pop into his brain anyway.

Play the next play. Be the best at doing your job. Don’t listen to the noise.

“You catch yourself saying them in the back of your head,” Rogers said.

Leach has been gone since Dec. 12, but Mississippi State still feels the late coach’s presence, an idea reinforced this week at Southeastern Conference media days.

No one else handled the stage like Leach, with his quirky commentaries on anything from Halloween candy to hypothetical fights between mascots. In SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s address Monday, he did not wear a tie in honor of Leach.

“Last year in Atlanta, one of my backstage conversations was about the uselessness of neckties,” Sankey said. “It was a conversation that went much longer than I anticipated and ended in the rhetorical question of why neckties survived but powder wigs went away. That conversation was with Mike Leach.”

Leach was an odd and opinionated original whose offensive concepts spread throughout football. He died at 61 from complications related to a heart condition, and the team wants to honor him.

But Mississippi State has followed a fine line between remembrance and getting stuck. The Bulldogs want to contend after winning nine games last year. They have a new coach and a different offensive scheme. They feel like they have to move forward.

Still, Leach’s sudden death created an unprecedented situation. A sitting SEC football coach had not died since Bo Rein in 1980, and Rein had been LSU’s head coach for 42 days before he died in a plane crash.

Leach was three years into his Mississippi State tenure. Players saw him smiling the day before his death at bowl practices.

“It was heartbreaking from there,” senior running back Jo’Quavious Marks said.

Much has changed around the program since then, starting with head coach Zach Arnett. After serving as the team’s defensive coordinator the last three seasons, he was thrust into the top job at 36 years old, making him the youngest head coach in the conference.

As Arnett searched for an offensive coordinator, he asked candidates what their scheme would look like. Appalachian State offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay told him: “I can’t tell you that until we figure out who the best 11 players are.”

That answer fit Arnett’s philosophy.

“That was refreshing to hear that level of humility, because that’s how I was brought up in this business,” Arnett said. “The guys I learned from on the other side of the ball was, you don’t determine what your scheme is on defense, who you line up there, until you figure out who your best players are.”

After running Leach’s pass-heavy Air Raid the past three years, Barbay will move Mississippi State to a pro-style scheme with play-action throws, more designed runs and run-pass options that did not exist before. The Bulldogs ranked last in the SEC three straight years in yards rushing per game.

But within the different presentation, Arnett wants to maintain an identity that came up in his interview with Leach. As much as Leach was known for finesse passing concepts, he pushed his team. He and Arnett talked that day about building a program on effort and physicality, traits Arnett hopes to continue to foster.

“When you line up against Mississippi State, you’d better pack your lunch box and hardhat, because it’s going to be a physical game,” Arnett said. “That’s what Mike Leach wanted.

“I hope it’s a continuation of that identity, because if we can ensure those things as we get through training camp, if we can have a football team who lines up excited to play with a physicality and a determination and a disciplined football team, you’ve got a chance in every game. Regardless of scheme.”

Arnett has his own style. He sports a buzz cut. He throws “right?” at the end of sentences. He spent his entire coaching career at San Diego State before Mississippi State. His players described him as fiery.

On Tuesday, Arnett mentioned Leach’s famous seven-word opening statement the year before at SEC media days.

“I’ve already said too much,” Arnett said, “and that combined with wearing a tie, I’m sure I’ve disappointed him a little bit.”

But in subtle ways, Arnett has continued Leach’s approach at Mississippi State. They shared beliefs about what it takes to win football games.

And the phrases Leach used still appear throughout the building, words of a man no longer with them embedded in the foundation of the program.

“We repeat a lot of the same things,” Arnett said. “There is a lot that I have taken from Mike Leach and will continue to be an influence on our program moving forward.”