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Southern Cal to honor Mike Leach during Cotton Bowl against Tulane

Andrew Peters

By Andrew Peters

Published:

Southern Cal will honor the late Mike Leach in its Cotton Bowl game against Tulane on Monday afternoon.

USC’s helmets will include a helmet sticker on the back with “ML” and pirate swords. Leach earned the nickname “The Pirate” while at Texas Tech. The legendary coach was known to love pirates and encouraged players to “swing your sword.” In the weeks since Leach’s passing, many teams have honored Leach with pirate flags and swords.

Leach died of heart complications in December at the 61. He coached at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State.

The Trojans will also honor Dave Nichol, who died at the age of 45 in March after battling cancer. He was a wide receivers coach at USC.

Nichol spent most of his coaching career under Leach. He got his first job as a student assistant at Texas Tech.

Trojan’s head coach Lincoln Riley had a deep connection with Leach as he got his first coaching job under Leach at Texas Tech.

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