Breaking News Legendary Coach Mike Leach Has Passed Away

According to ESPN legendary coach, Mike Leach has passed away at the age of 61.

"Mike is a guy who's been in the limelight for 15 or 20 years, in the Big 12, the Pac-12, the SEC," Mumme said in a recent interview with ESPN. "So he's the guy who everybody has looked to. He's won football games at places you're not supposed to win."

Bob Stoops on Mike Leach:

Mike Leach does not do brief phone calls. Bob Stoops learned this years ago.

When Leach calls, inevitably late at night, Stoops knows what awaits on the other end of that line: Answer the phone, and be entertained into the wee hours with conversation about who knows what.

Answer that phone, and Leach will talk … and talk some more – about anything.

“Buddies that know him and love him, he’ll call you at midnight, and sometimes you answer, you don’t get off the phone until 1:30 in the morning,” Stoops, the former longtime Oklahoma coach, told me Monday, “and then, sometimes, if you’re too tired, you don’t answer, because you know it’s going to be 1:30 or 2. It’s going to be an hour and a half conversation.”

Leach is survived by his wife, Sharon; children Janeen, Kim, Cody, and Kiersten; and three grandchildren.

As we reported to you yesterday

former Texas Tech head football coach and current coach at Mississippi State was airlifted to a hospital in Jackson with an unknown medical condition. We now know that his condition has worsened and he has been taken off life support.

According to KCBD Lubbock, Steve Robertson, an insider for Mississippi State posted the following:

I wish I had better news at this point, UMMC has transitioned into comfort care measures for Coach Mike Leach. It's essentially hospice care at this point.

I am told he is largely nonresponsive since the cardiac event yesterday morning. It appears to simply be a matter of time now. It all seems so unfair. Life is fleeting. Tell those you love how much you love them. Forgive, forgive, forgive.

We will not be working to break the final story. We will be working with the family's time with all of that. Yes, we have a story ready to roll but we will now wait for the official and unfortunate work from the university.

I can't believe we are even having these discussions. It's so unreal. He isn't just our football coach. He's Mike Leach, a national treasure. I am honored to say he was our coach for three seasons. It's nice to remember he is going out a winner.

Defensive coordinator Zach Arnett has been placed in charge of the Mississippi State football team after head coach Mike Leach was airlifted to a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.

On Sunday (yesterday) Mississippi head football coach, Mike Leach was taken to a local hospital after what is being called "a personal health issue, that happened at his home in Starkville, Mississippi. After arriving at the hospital in Starkville, Coach Leach was airlifted to a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, which is about 125 miles away.

Marc Rolph a representative of the UMMC said, Leach was listed as a patient at the hospital but had no information regarding the coach’s condition.

Mississippi athletic director Keith Carter posted on Twitter: “Prayers for Coach Leach and family. We’re all on the same team tonight,”

A representative for Mississippi State said in a statement: it would have no further comment on Leach’s condition, adding “that the thoughts and prayers of the university are with Mike and (wife) Sharon and their family.”