Swing Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life

Mike Leach's story seems almost too normal for the "Pirate". He does tell the story of how he got his nickname by animating his team. There is a long discussion of the time his Texas Tech team was able to beat Texas. (And he did bring up the important part of not looking down on competition.)

He was born in California, but raised mostly in rural Wyoming. He had some sports experiences, then went to BYU where he was on the rebellious side. After graduating from law school at Pepperdine, he decided he wanted to try coaching. He made a number of sacrifices to work at small schools, then eventually rose up the College Football ranks.

He spends the end of the book excoriating the Texas Tech administration. There was plenty of incompetency and dysfunctionality to go around. Some people wanted him out, and managed to do it under a number of false pretensions.  Leach's side of the argument is very compelling. The biggest concern was that of Tech hiding behind sovereign immunity and refuses to even let Leach litigate his side of the story.