Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach suffered a massive heart attack Sunday in Starkville and was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where he is still being treated Monday.
According to multiple sources, Leach, 61, collapsed at his home in Starkville but received no medical attention for 10 to 15 minutes. EMTs used a defibrillator machine and delivered multiple shocks to restore normal heart rhythm.
After stabilizing him at the Oktibbeha County Hospital, he was airlifted to UMMC.
Sources said two of her four children are already in Jackson and the other two are on the way.
It appears, according to the sources, that Leach may have suffered seizures with the possibility of brain damage. The sources said the situation is serious.
Filter is in his third season with the Bulldogs and guided Mississippi State to a 24-22 victory over Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl on November 24. He is 19-17 in three seasons with the Bulldogs.
Defensive coordinator Zach Arnett is “in charge of the MSU football team” until Leach returns, school president Mark E. Keenum and interim athletic director Bracky Brett said.
After the regular season, Leach told ESPN he had battled pneumonia all season, but was feeling better.
Sid Salter, Mississippi State’s director of communications, told WLBT that any rumors suggesting Leach’s death “should be ignored.”
“Coach Leach is a fighter and he’s fighting,” Salter told the television station.
The Bulldogs (8-4, 4-4 SEC) will take on Illinois (8-4, 5-4 Big 10) in the ReliaQuest Bowl on January 2 (11 am, ESPN) in Tampa, Florida.
Before coming to Mississippi State, Leach was the head coach at Washington State from 2012 to 2019. He compiled a 55-47 record at Pullman. The Cougars went 6-7 in 2019 after an 11-2 season in 2018, which marked the most wins in program history in which former Brandon High School standout Gardner Minshew was their quarterback. field.
replaced leach joe moorhead, who was fired after two seasons at Starkville. Moorhead went 14-12 at Mississippi State.
Leach has a 158-107 overall record in head coaching stops at MSU, Texas Tech and Washington State. Leach took the Texas Tech and Washington State programs to unprecedented heights. He also led Tech to its only 11-win season in program history in 2008.
Known for his offensive passing system, Leach has coached some of the best offenses in college football over the past two decades. His quarterback in 2019 at Washington State, Anthony Gordon, led the country in passing yards per game.
Gordon passed for 429.2 yards per game. The second man on that list was 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow, who passed for 372 yards per game. Gordon also threw 48 touchdown passes this season, second only to Burrow’s 55.
Leach is known for his comedic antics at press conferences, such as arguing which Pac 12 mascot would win in hand-to-hand combat. He is one of the most recognizable faces and voices in college football.
Leach was controversially fired from Texas Tech on legal grounds in 2009 for an incident involving a player who suffered a concussion on December 16 of that year. The player was Adam James, son of former SMU standout running back Craig James.
According to USA Today SportsThe older James told then-Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance in an email that Leach grounded his son for sustaining the injury and that he was locked in a closet for hours while the rest of the team went about their daily routines. in preparation for the Alamo Bowl, which would be played two weeks later.
Leach strongly denied the allegations, but was suspended by the university on December 28. He was fired on December 30.
Leach’s first public comments after his firing came in a interview with the New York Times which was released on January 1, 2010. In the interview, Leach denied mistreating James. She said she ordered James taken “out of the light.”
This article originally appeared on the Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mike Leach suffers a heart attack, a serious situation for the Mississippi State coach