How Greg Sankey honored Mississippi State football's Mike Leach at 2023 SEC Media Days

At SEC Media Days in 2022, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey found himself in a signature random conversation with Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach at SEC Media Days a year ago. 

Leach, as he often did during the annual event, was expressing his displeasure with neckties.

“It was a conversation that went much longer than anticipated, and it ended in the rhetorical question of why neckties survived when powder wigs went away,” Sankey recalled Monday. 

To open 2023 SEC Media Days in Nashville, Sankey took the podium with no tie — a tribute to the legendary coach who died in December after three seasons with the Bulldogs.

“He was fascinating and impacted the lives of thousands of people across the college football spectrum and across his life,” Sankey said. “He provided wedding advice, evaluated Halloween candy and if you ended up in a phone call talking about history, you better have scheduled a great deal of time as he recited his historical knowledge.”

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Despite his short tenure in the SEC, Leach become a favorite for those attending media days. His knack for taking press conferences down a route no other coach would take often brought laughter to any room and quickly went viral on social media.

He always started his time at the podium with no opening statements. He ventured into deeper conversations about Netflix than football schemes. He took shots at Oklahoma and Texas − schools he faced in the Big 12 during his Texas Tech tenure − as the programs began the move to the SEC.

“He also observed the world from a perspective that made you think, often made you laugh and sometimes made you just perplexed,” Sankey said. “It’s important we remember people who have contributed, be it for the short term or the long term, to this wonderful conference. We’re going to miss Mike, but he’s not going to be forgotten.”

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.