Mike Leach Taught Us An Important Lesson
Be willing to break the mold.
Mike Leach was as interesting of a character as you will find. He was well-known for his quirks and interesting interview responses.
Off the football field, he was friendly and loved talking with people who came to see him. I even read that he once spent hours talking on the phone to someone who called him - and it was the wrong number!
Mike Leach was well-known on the football field for his “Air-Raid” offense. He didn’t run the ball much; his teams were built around passing the ball efficiently. For example, his Mississippi State Bulldogs threw the ball 68% of the time this season. Conventional wisdom is that a team should be more balanced to be successful - but Mike Leach proved conventional wisdom wrong more often than not.
Mike Leach was pretty successful as a football coach. His career record over 21 seasons was 158-107, with a winning percentage of .596. A whole lot of football coaches have done much, much worse.
So why am I writing about Mike Leach?
As an Ole Miss fan, Mike Leach was the head coach of Mississippi State - our biggest rival. While Ole Miss always wants to beat Mississippi State, the sudden death of our rival’s head coach is not something we rejoice over. It’s tragic, and the whole state of Mississippi mourns his passing.
I’ve always enjoyed studying and reading about people who succeeded at something and went against conventional wisdom to do it. As I thought about Mike Leach, I realized he fit that bill perfectly.
To bring in a spiritual application here, I’m reminded of what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)
Not being conformed to the world is the idea of not being molded to the same pattern as the world. Essentially, Paul tells Christians to “break the mold of the world. Don’t follow the world’s wisdom; rather, follow God’s wisdom.”
Mike Leach provides us with a valuable illustration of this. He was not molded into what college football said you have to be to be successful.
As Christians, we cannot expect to be pleasing to God if we mold ourselves after the pattern of this world (1 John 2:15-17). To be transformed to be like God, we must “break the mold” of this world.
To have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11), we cannot have the mind of this world.
Mike Leach “broke the mold” in college football by running his Air Raid offense.
As Christians, we “break the mold” of this world by refusing to pattern our lives after this world and its wisdom.
Instead, we pattern our lives after Christ.