WVU HC Neal Brown Talks About Late Mentor Mike Leach

The Mike Leah coaching tree is a long one and it’s going to keep living on, even with Leach himself now gone.

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown, a member of the Leach tree himself, spoke about the type of person his mentor was on the College Sports channel of Sirius XM just a day after the Mississippi State head coach passed away.

Brown offered a story about how Leach ended up talking to a guy who called him accidentally as a wrong number as an example of how he would talk to anybody. The WVU head coach explained how Leach’s ability to connect with people was one of his best attributes, not only as a coach, but as a person.

"At all the places he's been he's always let people come in."

Former player under Mike Leach and now @WVUfootball Head Coach @NealBrown_WVU shared with @colecubelic & @HorowitzJason what made him so unique. #RIPMikeLeach pic.twitter.com/h3wrOvgx7D

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) December 13, 2022

Brown can claim to be a Leach disciple thanks to an overlap of his playing days while Leach was offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach at Kentucky in 1998. Brown also coached at Texas Tech, the place Leach first became famous, but got there the year after Leach left.

The football world reacted with sadness and fond memories after learning of Leach’s death. That included reaction from former West Virginia head coach and Brown’s predecessor Dana Holgorsen, who coached under Leach for seven seasons with the Red Raiders.