Top 5 Mike Leach moments during his time with OU football

Mike Leach left an indelible mark on the game of football.

Not just because of his Air Raid offense either.

The Mississippi State head coach and former OU offensive coordinator who died Monday night had a quirky personality rarely seen from major college football coaches. Most in his position played things close to the chest. Few jokes. No shenanigans.

Leach was the exact opposite.

He could turn a mundane press conference into must-see TV. A pedestrian question about the offensive line or the kicking game might suddenly spur a diatribe about pirates or Geronimo or grizzly bears.

Leach was unique.

Here are a few fun stories from his one season with the Sooners.

More:Longtime football head coach and former OU offensive coordinator Mike Leach dies at 61

Good times at the Residence Inn

Bob Stoops’ first coaching staff had to jump quickly into the work of building a program, and that meant few had a chance to buy houses or rent housing right away.

So, most of the coaches lived at a Residence Inn in Norman.

“One of our first staff meetings back in 1999, we were at the Residence Inn,” current OU head coach Brent Venables recalled earlier this year; he was co-defensive coordinator back then. “We had some good times at the Residence Inn.”

The coaches often gathered there because OU’s football facilities were being renovated and space was limited.

“Our first staff meeting here at Oklahoma … this was the first time Mike Leach and (Mark) Mangino were talking ‘ball,’” Venables said. “And you know, Leach, he’s a man of few words, and Coach Stoops is introducing everybody. He introduced Coach Mangino as the run game coordinator and co-offensive coordinator, and somehow, someway, we got on the ball plays. And one of the staples of Mark Mangino’s offense is to run the power, to block down and double and kick out and pull the guard around.

“The power was not in Mike Leach's offensive playbook. And so after Mangino tells him what he's going to practice and can't wait to put that in and out of a spread concept, you know, Leach is standing with his coffee and he says, 'You can practice it all you want, I'm not calling it in a game.’”

Venables laughed.

“That didn't go off very well,” he said. “But as y'all know, we ended up pretty good. One year later, we win the national championship.”

More:Oklahoma's high school football coaches have message about title games at UCO: 'This is the best place'

Surprise at the Switzer Center

In those early days of the Stoops era, the coaches often stayed up all night calling recruits or planning strategy.

Once offices at the Switzer Center were ready, Leach and some of his offensive assistants bought air mattresses to sleep on once their late-night work was done.

“It was actually a pretty fun time,” Leach recalled a couple years ago.

Funny, too.

“The cleaning lady got there real early,” Leach said. “Like 6. Mine was the first office. I don’t know how she didn’t get this sorted. I should have had a do-not-disturb thing or whatever.

“All of a sudden, she’d open the door every day and scream. Every day. Every single day, there was somebody sprawled out on the air mattress there, and she’d say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here.’

“After about three days of that, I said, ‘You know, I’ll be here tomorrow.’ But it didn’t make any difference.”

More:'There’s nobody like him': Mike Leach is one of a kind – take it from Bob Stoops | Toppmeyer

Carpooling with Leach

Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel did a big story on Leach’s law background during his lone season in Norman.

Leach agreed to do a photoshoot after practice one day.

“OU that day practiced at the intramural fields, about four blocks southeast of Owen Field,” Tramel wrote a year ago. “An Oklahoman photographer joined us to shoot the photos. Leach asked where we wanted to snap the picture. I told him the law-school angle, and he suggested the OU Law School. Said the mock courtroom probably would be open."

But then Leach said he’d walked to practice and that he’d just hop in with Tramel and the photographer.

“My mind started racing,” Tramel wrote. “The photographer had parked far off. I was driving my old Ford truck that was only a cab-and-a-half, with those facing seats in a cramped second row.”

Tramel gave his car keys to the photographer and told her she could drive and he’d climb in the back so Leach could ride in the passenger’s seat.

“We got to my truck, and before I could even organize things, Leach had the door open, the seat pushed forward and he was climbing in the back seat,” Tramel wrote.

“I remember thinking, this is the guy who is helping Bob Stoops turn around OU football, and I’ve got him eating his knees as he rides across campus to do a photo shoot for us.”

More:Tramel: Mike Gundy, Brent Venables must embrace college football's transfer portal

Mike Leach's Red River Rivalry scheme

Leach only coached once in the Red River Rivalry, but his impact on that 1999 game is the stuff of legend.

During pregame warm-ups, a Texas student assistant found a copy of OU’s script of opening offensive plays. The student assistant took it to the Texas defensive coordinator.

Texas was already a big favorite in the game, and the Longhorns thought they’d caught a big break before the game even started.

But the script was a fake.

Leach decided to drop the paper in hopes someone from the Texas side would find it and believe it. The Longhorns did — and the Sooners took a quick 17-0 lead.

Texas eventually recovered, winning 38-28.

“It was a decent effort,” Leach told ESPN.com in 2018. “But it would even be more legendary if we had won the sucker.”

More:USC quarterback Caleb Williams wins Heisman Trophy, capping electric sophomore season

How Mike Leach found Josh Heupel

When Leach arrived at OU, the Sooners didn’t have a quarterback capable of running the Air Raid offense he was bringing from Kentucky. He had to go and find one. He had to look all over the country.

His search led to tiny Ephraim, Utah.

That’s where Josh Heupel was playing for Snow Junior College. Leach convinced Heupel to come to Norman for an official visit, and the two holded up in Leach’s office watching game film.

“All the cuts of Kentucky, talking about what the quarterback does here, what that guy does, what this guy does, what the reads are, things of that nature,” Leach said back in 1999. “And I mean, through every play, one reel after another.”

They did that for seven hours.

“Usually (recruits) want to see girls and buildings and things like that,” Leach said.

More:OU football: Who are the Sooners targeting in the transfer portal?

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Top 5 Mike Leach moments during his time with OU football