The passing of Mike Leach far too soon will reverberate throughout college football. But one place where the shock waves probably hit a bit harder than normal was Kentucky. Long before he was the boss at Mississippi State, Leach, in conjunction with his friend Hal Mumme, first gained national prominence as the offensive coordinator at Kentucky.

When Leach and Mumme joined forces, Leach had coached 3 seasons, 1 as an offensive line coach at Cal Poly, 1 as a linebacker coach at a JUCO, College of the Desert, and 1 as the head coach of the Pori Bears of the American Football Association of Finland. Not exactly a typical resume for a future SEC head coach. But then, that was always part of Leach’s charm — no collegiate playing experience, a law degree from Pepperdine, and a tendency toward utter randomness and hilarity.

Leach coached with Mumme for 3 years at Iowa Wesleyan and 5 more at Valdosta State. When Kentucky athletic director CM Newton, desperate to rebuild the long-dormant Kentucky football program, took a flyer on Mumme, a Division II coach, he also got a hell of an offensive coordinator in the bargain.

Mumme and Leach inherited a 4-7 Kentucky team that had averaged 12.6 points and 217.8 yards per game in 1996. Forget a 3,000-yard passer, Kentucky had never had a 2,000-yard passer. The Wildcats hadn’t won more than 6 games since 1984. They weren’t just bad, they were boring.

In 2 seasons together, before Leach moved on to Oklahoma for a year as a coordinator and then became a head coach, Mumme and Leach set the UK record book on fire and laughed at the ashes, with help from standout QB Tim Couch, who had spent his freshman season trying to run the option under Bill Curry.

Couch broke UK’s single-game passing yards record in their first game together in 1997. Couch passed for 3,884 yards that season and then 4,275 in 1998, an SEC mark that stood until Joe Burrow broke it in 2019. In 1998, Kentucky scored 37.9 points and gained 534.2 yards per game. Behind Couch, a Heisman finalist in 1998, the Wildcats also became must-see TV, even if the lack of a defense never moved the Wildcats beyond 7-5.

But there’s a good argument that any good thing that came after — like the best years of Rich Brooks’ tenure in the late 2000s and Mark Stoops’ in the late 2010s — were built on the foundation of Mumme, Leach, Couch, and Air Raid.

It’s not just the points and yards that people remember. It’s the fun, and that goes from fans who mourned Leach’s passing on social media to his players.

Early in the pandemic, I spoke to several dozen former UK players, and almost all of them had a Mike Leach story or three to share. Here are a few of those memories that provide an insight into more than the statistics — into the sheer unpredictability, uniqueness, and greatness of Mike Leach.

Dusty Bonner

Couch’s backup at Kentucky, Bonner had observed the Leach/Mumme tandem growing up in Valdosta.

“I remember Mike Leach from Valdosta,” Bonner said. “You’d see him roller-blading around town all the time, with his sunglasses on, he’d be roller-blading with his shirt tucked into his shorts.”

All odds sight aside, Bonner left no doubt how he felt about his former coach.

“Leach was just a ton of fun. Players loved him,” said Bonner, describing his former coach as “so brilliant and so funny, all at the same time.” Bonner also noted that Leach’s hang-loose attitude was a perfect fit at UK.

“It kind of went with what we were doing and how we were playing. You couldn’t have guys who were way too tight to go out there and do that.”

James Whalen

A former walk-on, Whalen used to infuriate Leach to the extent that Leach was rumored to refer to Whalen only by his uniform number “85” rather than his name. Whalen confirmed that story, and talked of his post-playing friendship with Leach. But he did tell a story of the all-business side of Mike Leach.

“He was a little bit more fiery,” Whalen said. “When I first go there, I hadn’t been in all the off-season stuff and I wasn’t in the best shape. We’re playing a game and I caught a ball and this guy comes up and hits me. They called it a fumble and I go over to the sideline and Leach is just ripping my ass. And I looked at him — and here’s my immaturity coming out — and said, ‘Coach, Rome wasn’t built in a day.’ He looked at me and said, ‘If we were in Rome, I’d send you to the (expletive) lions.’”

Whalen jokingly noted that Leach’s habit of calling the former All-American tight end “85” had spread to their mutual friends in Key West, who also used Leach’s nickname for Whalen.

Tim Couch

Couch, coached from an option benchwarmer to the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, might get the final word on Leach. Looking back on his career with Leach and Mumme, Couch admitted, “Those guys were so confident and they were such great teachers.”

But when asked for a story about his quirkiest teacher, Couch laughed and recalled, “The biggest thing I remember about Mike is that he would get up in front of the team and we’d be supposed to be going over film and he would start talking about everything but football. He’d want to talk about some war or pirates or just any topic, and we’re all sitting around like, ‘Who in the world is this guy?’

“We had come from Coach Curry’s staff that was just so buttoned up and so strict and serious about the game. And now Leach is in there talking about pirates and God knows what. It was such a shock to us, and then we got to know Mike and realized he was a brilliant guy.”

Couch then summed up a football legend and a unique coach: “The biggest thing I remember about Mike was how funny he was, how sharp he was, and how you never knew what you were going to get when you asked him a question.”

COVER PHOTO: Mike Leach, right, and Hal Mumme led Kentucky’s offense to historic heights in the late 1990s. Photo courtesy of University of Kentucky athletics.