Mike Leach mentions paying possible fine in discussing onside kick penalty

Mike Leach had a predictable response following Mississippi State’s narrow loss to Memphis on Saturday in a game that included several botched or controversial calls in the fourth quarter.

Leach referred to an illegal touching call on an onside kick that the Bulldogs recovered late in the game. That came after a 94-yard touchdown on a punt return where State didn’t properly down the ball.

Here is some of what Mike Leach told the media:

Leach on the onside kick: Don’t even get me started. I’ll have to decide whether I want to spend some money before I get into that too much.

— Theo DeRosa (@Theo_DeRosa) September 19, 2021

Leach (paraphrased): Sometimes morale doesn’t need to be boosted. Says they’ll boost something, but it may not be morale

— Theo DeRosa (@Theo_DeRosa) September 19, 2021

Leach on bad snap on 4th and goal: We had 83 plays, and we had 82 good snaps.

— Theo DeRosa (@Theo_DeRosa) September 19, 2021

Mike Leach: The ball’s live. We’ve got to pick it up and hand it to the ref.
Said he didn’t see one ref call the play dead* and said they got no explanation

— Theo DeRosa (@Theo_DeRosa) September 19, 2021

Mike Leach: They played smarter than we did. We made one dumb glaring mistake after the next and couldn’t overcome them.

— Theo DeRosa (@Theo_DeRosa) September 19, 2021