Somehow, the Mississippi State Bulldogs have managed to forge a 5-3 record at this point in the 2021 season, after they beat the fading Kentucky Wildcats yesterday. Kentucky, overrated like most SEC teams usually are, started the season 6-0, but the Wildcats have now lost back-to-back games, including a beatdown from No. 1 Georgia. Bulldogs Head Coach Mike Leach had a lucky bit of scheduling there to catch Kentucky subsequently licking its wounds.

But this is all you need to know about Leach: With two weeks to prepare for Alabama this season, his team lost, 49-9. This reminds us of the 2017 season when Leach was at Washington State University, and he had two weeks to prepare for the University of Washington, with a Pac-12 North Division crown on the line. WSU fell behind, 34-0, by the third quarter. That’s the kind of coach Mike Leach truly is, no matter what his stupid quips to the media or the fancy statistics might try to cover up.

We admit we are using extreme examples: We know ‘Bama often rolls a lot of bad teams, and we know that 2017 Huskies team was coached by Chris Petersen, one of the best coaches this century the sport has had to offer. What this tells us is that Leach is clearly nowhere near that level of coaching ability, despite all the press he gets—and all the money he basically steals from schools foolish enough to hire him. And he never will be … Leach gets some surprise wins here and there, but he doesn’t get the big ones.

Currently, the Bulldogs’ offense, running Leach’s predictably stupid schemes that any defensive coordinator with a brain can stop, is ranked 75th nationally in scoring, managing just 28 points per game. But the press would have you believe his Air Raid offense is really successful. With 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, you can see Leach’s offense is actually below average in scoring. Facts matter, after all.

With five wins now, the Bulldogs will get to six wins for a crappy bowl invite, since they still have cupcake Tennessee State on the schedule. But with road games coming up the next two weeks at Arkansas and Auburn, we still expect Mississippi State to lose both of them. The imminent win over Tennessee State, a non-FBS school, will get the Bulldogs six wins, and then there is the Egg Bowl to close the season at home for Mississippi State, and Ole Miss looks stronger this year than Leach’s squad.

But generally, this is Mike Leach’s baseline: mediocrity. We wonder how much longer his act will last in college football, especially when he shows he just has no capability of beating the big boys when it matters.