Mike Leach Delivers Epic Rant About Arizona's Turnover Sword, How It Caused 'Safe Space Stress,' And Whether MSU Will Be Reimbursed
Mississippi State football pulled off a win against Arizona last weekend, but it didn't come without a cost. The Bulldogs saw three footballs meet their demise during the game and head coach Mike Leach wants the Wildcats to pay for them.
Mike Leach has hilarious reaction to Arizona destroying footballs(Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
So what happened to those footballs, you might wonder? They were stabbed. Literally.
During Jedd Fisch's second year in Tuscon, the Arizona head coach and his staff implemented one of college football's newest turnover props — The Turnover Sword.
The concept is simple. Whenever a Wildcats defender forces a turnover, he keeps the football, stabs it with the sword, and then show it to the fans. It's electric.
The goal, like with other turnover props, is to motivate the defense.
"It's a fun gimmick that seemed as if a lot of teams have started to incorporate," Fisch said about The Turnover Sword. "I appreciate that our guys find something to get excited about. It's a way for them to celebrate with the fans and themselves. I think it's fun and it seems to have worked so far. Hopefully we can continue that tradition of getting the ball away. That's a big part of it."
There is only one problem with the sword. The opponents, who commit the turnovers, lose their footballs to an untimely death.
On Saturday, Mississippi State turned the ball over three times. It lost three footballs.
In response to Arizona's Turnover Sword and its football-killing ways, Mike Leach delivered an incredible rant as only he can
Leach, a pirate enthusiast, is "jealous" that he didn't think of it first. He also joked that he hopes the Arizona program will reimburse Mississippi State for the balls.
"I would think we ought to send them an invoice and obviously they have to make us whole with the four balls they destroyed," he said. "One of them they weren't entitled to destroy. On top of that, I know there is a certain amount of Millennial safe space sort of stress with this thing. So they certainly owe us for that ... I say whine one, whine all and let's see what we can squeeze out of the University of Arizona since they destroyed our footballs."
As for how to stop the Wildcats from stabbing the footballs, Leach has a simple solution.
"If you want to end it, don't turn the ball over. I'm not terribly sympathetic to our side."
He, of course, was wearing cargo shorts and flip flops while discussing the sword. Here are Leach's incredible comments in full:
Will Arizona pay its opponents back for the balls it destroys this season? Maybe. Probably not. Who knows. Either way, the Wildcats' new tradition is a lot of fun and it led to an incredible rant from Leach, so it has more than served its purpose.