NC State fans are all too familiar with second-year Mississippi State coach Mike Leach, even if Saturday will be the first time the air-raiding will face the Wolfpack in front of the home-standing cowbell-ringers at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi.
Leach has been an outspoken national lightning rod in his more than two decades in the limelight that has sometimes turned sour through successes, controversies and national conversations.
Some of that even started way back when Leach and NC State’s Chuck Amato both began their head coaching careers in 2000. Leach took over at Texas Tech, and Amato was hired for his dream job with his alma mater.
Forget Leach’s history with current members of the Wolfpack’s staff. Special assistant Ruffin McNeill, who was on Texas Tech’s staff throughout Leach’s tenure there, took over as interim head coach of the Red Raiders when Leach was fired after the 2009 regular season. Current Wolfpack cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell worked for Leach at Texas Tech from 2007-09.
“Oh, Brian’s there now?” Leach said Monday at his weekly press conference.
Memories, however, remain clear for long-term fans. They can recall Leach’s first meetings with the Wolfpack, during the heyday of the Philip Rivers’ years and the start of the thinly veiled insults of the coach and his Red Raiders for being a “system program” with an offense that threw up inflated numbers because of its pass-happy attitude.
State and Texas Tech met in back-to-back-games in 2002 and 2003, when Leach was establishing a successful program and Amato was radiating with four consecutive bowl teams. They both had Heisman-caliber quarterbacks in the first game, Rivers and Kliff Kingsbury.
The entire pregame hype revolved around how two of the NCAA’s top passers would square off on the artificial turf of Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Leach eschewed that characterization, and he turned out to be correct.
“I think it is way overblown and oversimplifying it,” Leach said way back then.
“They are never going to be on the field at the same time. They will try to attack the other team’s defenses and make what plays they can for their teams. They won’t even see each other until after the game is over.”
And what they talked about was not necessarily either of their performances, but the break-out day had by freshman running back T.A. McLendon.
The scoring sensation from Albemarle, North Carolina, who liked to call himself “Touchdown Anytime,” ran for five touchdowns in what was supposed to be his first career start. That didn’t happen because McLendon overslept on the morning of the game and was late for the Wolfpack’s pre-game meal.
Turns out, he needed the extra rest to get through the first big game of his career, carrying the ball 32 times for 150 yards and tying 30-year-old NC State and Atlantic Coast Conference records held by Stan Fritts with five touchdowns in the 51-48 overtime victory for Amato and NC State, win number five in the Wolfpack’s record 9-0 start to the season.
McLendon carried the ball on every play of the Wolfpack’s overtime possession, providing the game-winner for Rivers and the offense on an 8-yard run.
“They couldn’t tackle him,” Amato said after that game, “or he just wouldn’t let them tackle him. He was like Ted Brown, who used to get mad anytime he got tackled and would run harder the next time.”
McLendon explained his performance in simple terms: “I like touchdowns. I can’t really explain the feeling, but it is a good, good feeling.”
The next year, Leach and the Red Raiders came to Raleigh, hoping to pile on the preseason Top 25 Wolfpack’s distress after losing 44-38 in triple overtime at Ohio State the week before.
McLendon, however, had another big day — though he managed to play just half the game. With the Wolfpack leading 21-0 early in the second half, McLendon broke free on a 67-yard run.
On about the 35-yard line, he felt a cramp-like pain in his leg and hobbled as far as he could, finally being run out of bounds on the 1-yard-line. That play ended his day with 115 yards on 10 attempts.
The Wolfpack scored again, and Rivers led his team to a relatively smooth 49-21 victory, even though Texas Tech’s quarterback B.J. Symons, Kingsbury’s successor, threw for 586 yards, which set records for both Texas Tech (passing yards gained in a game) and NC State (passing yards allowed in a game).
All told, the Red Raiders piled up 681 yards of total offense in Leach’s Air Raid offense against a defense that included freshman defensive lineman Mario Williams, but made only a few trips to the end zone, long after they were needed.
The Wolfpack scored on an interception return, a blocked punt, a McLendon 29-yard run, two rushing scores by Josh Brown, another by Cotra Jackson and a 25-yard pass from Rivers to Richard Washington.
“We certainly provided them with enough turning points,” Leach said. “I’ve never seen this much offensive production [by Texas Tech] with so little production. You won’t see that for the rest of your lifetime, I suspect.”
And, as was his fashion, Amato reveled in the win, crumpling up the stat sheet in his postgame press conference in defiance of those who were critical of his defense’s performance.
“I don’t care,’’ Amato said after game. “I don’t care if they threw for a thousand yards. We had a heckuva lot more points on that scoreboard than they did. Nobody likes that, but you know what? What was the final score? 49-21.
“I love it, I love it.’’
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.
