“Outstanding people in Iowa. Very down-to-earth people in Iowa. It was a great place to be.”

American college football coach

Mike Leach was an American college football coach, active mainly at the NCAA Division I FBS level, from 2000 to 2022. Nicknamed “the Pirate,” he is best known for building the air raid offense and for a coaching career that spanned Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State. At Texas Tech, where he coached from 2000 to 2009, he became the winningest coach in the school’s history. He later led Washington State from 2012 to 2019, finishing with the third-most wins by any coach there, and coached Mississippi State from 2020 until his death in 2022. He was named national coach of the year twice and conference coach of the year three times.