Mike Leach Gives Take On Marcus Smart Incident

Former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach has always been known as a no-nonsense coach that has a proven track record of winning.

Part I: Mike Leach on Marcus Smart Situation

While at Texas Tech in 2007, the university put together a "Raider Power" campaign to promote "healthy sportsmanship across the university campus".

When asked about it at a press conference, Leach made light of it, saying, "Lubbock, Texas is a bad place ... we can't grantee your safety."

Leach was fired by Tech in 2008 during an investigation regarding his treatment of a player with a concussion.

Part II: Mike Leach on WSU, Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury and more

Heading into his third season now at Washington State, I gave Leach a call to ask him his reaction to the Marcus Smart incident when the Oklahoma State player went into the stands and shoved a fan on Saturday night.

While Leach said he had not seen the video, he offered a few words of advice to those affected:

"I tell my team this all the time, it doesn't matter what they say in the stands," said Leach. "You already know they don’t like you. It doesn't matter what they say about you, your family or any of that. I want my players disciplined enough where they don’t go in the stands.

"In the end, it’s all just name-calling and both parties need to control themselves from name-calling. This has been going on since the playground. I learned about name-calling in Kindergarten.

"Really what we’re talking about here is bad manners. With all the political correct crap we have going on in this country, we’re trying to figure out where a line is so everybody’s entitled to be ridiculously touchy about everything.

"Words are just words and that’s always been in the case. Someone says, ‘well, they hurt my feelings’. Well too bad, be tougher than that and have self esteem that’s not going to get your feelings hurt."

With a 3-9 season at Washington State in 2012, Leach's squad was 6-7 last year after finishing with a loss to Colorado State in the New Mexico Bowl.

"We're sophomores and freshmen and we need to get on a run where we go to bowls virtually every year. I'm really proud of our players, proud of our team and proud of the work and improvement we've had ... We have to keep getting better though."

Leach received a two-year contract extension from Wazzou last year.