Archbishop Murphy grad Lucas recalls time with Leach at WSU

Published 1:30 am Thursday, December 15, 2022

By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times

RENTON — Easop Winston Jr. and Abraham Lucas could at least look a few feet across the Seahawks locker room Tuesday and find some comfort in a shared story or two about the coach who helped lead them to the greatest season in Washington State University football history.

“I’m very saddened today,” said Winston, a practice squad receiver for the Seahawks who had 52 catches and eight touchdowns for the 2018 Cougars, whom Mike Leach guided to an 11-2 record, the school’s best ever.

After two days monitoring the health of Leach, who on Sunday was reported to have been transported to a hospital due to a medical emergency, Winston woke up to the news Tuesday that Leach had died at the age of 61.

“Today’s been hard,” said Winston, who arrived at WSU in 2017 as a transfer from City College of San Francisco and scored 19 touchdowns in the 2018 and 2019 seasons as a key part of Leach’s famed Air Raid offense. “When I woke up and heard the news, it was definitely tough. But talking to other players that I played with at Wazzu, and just different guys that I played with and being able to share experiences, has kind of just been helping along with the process.”

One of those teammates is Lucas, Seattle’s third-round pick last spring who was recruited by Leach out of Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett, arriving the same year Winston did in 2017, each redshirting their first season.

Lucas went on to start the 2018 and 2019 seasons at right tackle under Leach and then two more after Leach left for Mississippi State.

“What didn’t I learn from him?” Lucas said in response to a question. “He was an interesting guy. They called him the most interesting man in college football for a reason. He certainly was. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I actually learned from him.

“On the football side of things he was a mastermind and unique in the way that he approached things, and just from the weird stories that you heard about him coming out late to practice because he was talking to Donald Trump for two-and-a-half hours.”

Lucas recalled his recruiting visit when Leach ended up spending most of his time talking to Lucas’ mother, Julie.

“We talked about everything but football,” Lucas said. “Him and my mom really hit it off, I do remember that. They talked about politics, history, where they were from, where they grew up. I just kind of sat and listened to it, to be honest. Just interesting things like that. In those moments I knew I was making the right choice to go to WSU and get coached by him.”

Lucas remembered Leach as being “hard core and old school” but said it was an approach he liked.

“I appreciated that about him,” Lucas said. “I learned a lot about just brutal honesty from him and just kind of how he took a no-nonsense approach to things.”

Winston remembered that he was committed to Eastern Michigan before WSU and Leach offered a scholarship — the Cougars had signed Winston’s QB at City College of San Francisco, Anthony Gordon, the year before.

“He had a great impact on me,” said Winston, who signed to Seattle’s practice squad on Oct. 19 but has yet to play in a game with the Seahawks after playing three games with the Saints last year. “He was the only coach that believed in me coming out of junior college. … I’ll never take that for granted, him taking a chance on me.”

Winston recalled that he thought he’d had a good training camp in 2017 and wanted to play that season before Leach told him he would be redshirted, instead.

“I was a little disappointed,” Winston said.

But he said Leach told him, “We’re going to develop you, so just come ready to practice hard every day.”

Winston said the highlight of that 2017 season was what he said the team called Thursday Night Football when redshirting players and others not expected to play that week would have a game against each other.

“That was a great thing because it put that game time scenario in your head even though you weren’t playing that season, so when the next season came, games were pretty much like practice because we were already prepared for that,” said Winston, who scored a TD in what might have been Leach’s greatest moment at WSU, a 34-20 win over Oregon on the night ESPN’s “College GameDay” show originated from Pullman in 2018. “So it was great.”

And Winston couldn’t help but laugh a little when asked about Leach’s famed reputation for eccentricities.

“He was who he was,” Winston said. “The stories about him walking to campus from his house, like things that head coaches wouldn’t normally be doing. They’d be driving. He was a head coach that walked to practice.

“The thing about coach Leach, he got along with everybody, so if a person seen him walking to campus they would come to me in class and be like, ‘You play football?’ And they’d be like, ‘I think I seen your coach today walking to campus.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah. That’s Leach. That’s just how he is.’ But there are a lot of funny stories. Before every team meeting, he just had something to tell us. He got us going. It was always interesting.”