Leading the Charge in Football and Life - Swing Your Sword

Coach Leach tells it like he sees it. Starting from funny stories of his childhood, up through law school, to starting to coach football. Highly entertaining book, I finished it on about 4 days, and I'm usually not a person who reads much.

We knew this would be an interesting read, but Swing Your Sword overachieves. What a great way to live a full life, at the pinnacle of achievement on the field and off, according to those that played for him and coached with him. This is a must read, giving insight into an extraordinary, almost heroic figure in an unlikely profession for such a curious mind. We learn he was not the only casualty, as this reveals documented evidence that chicanery threatens not only the game of college football, but academic integrity at the highest level. We learn that National Championship basketball coach Marsha Sharp was also sacrificed by those same "shadow" forces operating behind the scenes at the bidding of politician Kent Hance.

Yet, while it's undeniable that something terribly wrong was done at Texas Tech, (and that college football itself seems to have returned to the dark days of corruption and scandal), this book leaves us inspired. Coach Leach is a beacon for those who believe that education can coexist with excellence in football, that balance in life can still follow winning on the gridiron, and that no matter how unlikely, we can learn a lot from pirates.

Forget how Texas Tech brass handled Leach (laughable, but for serious...and possibly illegal...consequences). This book answers a lot of questions about the man and his methods...which, it turns out, aren't really mad at all. Can't imagine any coach of any sport at any level not benefiting from Leach's book...but it's also a think piece for lawyers, commentators and any underdog who's ever wondered "Why not me?". The lawyer turned coach turned author is most likely to succeed if he ever coaches again. If not, his innate curiosity, honesty and independence ensure he'll make the most of whatever he's doing. Leach won't be bored or bowed, and you can't put a price on that.

As a Tech fan and former student, I was interested in finally hearing Leach's side of the story. This book turned out to be so much more. I'm so glad that this is more of an autobiography, and that we learned more from Mike Leach's own pen about his life and his history. I agree completely with Donald Trump... Mike Leach was screwed... and the good 'ol boy network in Lubbock will continue to assassinate his character, lie about his actions, etc. in order to legitimize their screwing of Mike Leach. But in the end, Leach has won. He kept his honor, his principles, and his sense of humor about the whole thing. The scumbags in the bell tower have to live with themselves, and that can't be easy. Great book Mike, and I'm glad I actually purchased it and read it.

Leach is like a mad scientist on the sidelines. His football knowledge is incredible and his passion comes through in the book. Even his detractors must agree that the man knows football. I strongly recommend this book.

One of the more interesting, intelligent and insightful books on the coaching profession I have ever read. Coach Leach is a one of a kind with great story telling abilities and also the ability to get a point across in plain english. After reading this, I wanted to find out as much as I could on him. This is one hell of a book!

I asked for and received this book for Christmas. In the first day, I had cleared about 70 pages. Definitely more heavy on inspirational and leadership than I had expected, but it's good to see what led Leach into coaching and the path that took him through Texas Tech. Maybe there will be an updated version with his Washington State years down the road.

This is definitely a better read than typical coach speak. This guy clearly isn't a meathead like some other coaches out there now. I think I recently heard/read one say, "That guy's a football player." Dunce. Leach clearly is a smart guy, considering his outlook and educational background.

I stopped short of five stars for a couple reasons. First, it wasn't the best-written book I've picked up over the last few years. Leach made it through law school, so I expected the writing to be more polished. Although, I guess I can give him a break after being away from writing like that for a couple decades. Second, I expected to hear more about the wildcat Mike Leach, rather than the coach/offensive guru/philosopher Mike Leach. Sure, there's a story of him going to the bathroom on a dog, but I think I got a better idea of his uniqueness out of a New York Times article than I did this book.

Overall, definitely a good read. I'd certainly recommend it to coaches, managers, people looking for new perspective or simply someone looking for a fun book. With any luck, he'll come out with a book full of totally ridiculous information someday.

Swing Your Sword gives fantastic insight into one of the most unique personalities in sports. During his time at Tech, Mike Leach basically took the scraps of the Big 12 and built a winner. No major conference coach has done more with less than Leach. He also took a football program that was notorious for its academic failures and propelled it to the highest graduation rate among public schools. The achievments are one thing - but the best parts are the the stories along his road to success that relate to life as well as sports. Unfortunately since Leach's dismissal Texas Tech has fallen back into the morass of mediocrity. No longer will they compete with the likes of Texas, OU or A&M. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

I stumbled on this book just looking through the iBooks store. I've always loved coaches books from coaches who have really achieved something, not the one hit wonders who win a National title and then are going to tell us how to live. Coach Leach didn't even win a National title yet but his approach to people, the game, life are just fascinating. He is one who speaks his mind, lives by what he says and delivers on his promises. I found in his book much more than what I expected. His mind is fascinating and how it all plays out is more so. There is a lot in here about football but more I think about life. Great book!

From the first chapter, Leach had me cracking up. This book is more of an autobiography, and we get great insight into what made Leach the outgoing personality that he is today. The details about the Texas Tech-Adam James situation are there at the end, and while it is shocking how different the story is from what was put forward by the media at the time, this book is much more than that. Leach's story is a great one to read, his philosophy on coaching and life in general make this book absolutely worthwhile.

From the first chapter, Leach had me cracking up. This book is more of an autobiography, and we get great insight into what made Leach the outgoing personality that he is today. The details about the Texas Tech-Adam James situation are there at the end, and while it is shocking how different the story is from what was put forward by the media at the time, this book is much more than that. Leach's story is a great one to read, his philosophy on coaching and life in general make this book absolutely worthwhile.

I found the book to be an entertaining, educational read. For example, I didn't know Air Raid was the name of his offense before he even came to Texas Tech. Because it was hard to put down, it was also a quick read. I highly recommend it and plan to share my copy with others. I am clearly a fan of Coach Leach, and the read put a smile on my face. As to the harsh critics of Mike Leach that have posted here, I ask you to look at how many other books they have reviewed. Strange, so many would single out this one book for such harsh treatment. I find Coach's story of peeing on the dog so relevant to now. Pee on childhood Mike, he pees on you. It's in his character. He does not back down from a bully; he finds a way to win. I hope he finds the right spot back in coaching soon. He inspires pirate confidence in fans and players and brings excitement to offensive football. He even admitted that in his time away from football he has learned he should give defensive players more of his time although I believe he generally had more defensive players on scholarship at Texas Tech than offensive players. There is a reason Coach Leach was named Coach of the Year and Tech fans thought they really could beat anybody. For example, his teams beat Nebraska four consecutive times and evenly split the last four with Oklahoma. The Big 12 South is arguably the toughest in college football and nobody just assumed they were going to beat Tech. For those who do not understand the hype, there are some great You Tube videos of Texas Tech victories, e.g. vs Nebraska, California, Ole Miss, Texas, etc. It was a fun ride at Tech while it lasted and the book provides remarkable insight to the most interesting coach in football.

Mike Leach has always struck me as an interesting guy who possessed the courage to challenge football's status quo and the intelligence to really innovate the game. I started reading his memoir Swing Your Sword with the hope that he would provide a glimpse into his unconventional coaching methods and strategic philosophy in a readable package. And he certainly does offer up a good bit of insight into his views about football and running a program and it makes for generally entertaining fare. The book unfortunately veers from that subject matter halfway through and descends into a mess of damage control and finger-pointing regarding the Adam James incident that led to his ouster at Texas Tech. I found the book to be a worthwhile read despite its rather glaring flaws but the second half occasionally bordered on unreadable for me.

While Leach often takes an unorthodox approach to gridiron matters the book follows a rather tried-and-true template for coaching memoirs. He offers up some amusing anecdotes from childhood and college and describes how experiences such as coaching youth baseball fostered his passion for developing talent and creative strategies to outmaneuver more talented opponents. Leach's followed one of the more unlikely paths to football coaching, as he played rugby in college and entered Pepperdine Law School after graduating from Brigham Young University. He was likely the only member of his class at Pepperdine to pursue a football coaching job after graduating law school (though Rick Neuheisel and Marc Trestman are other coaches with law degrees) and he bounced around various small schools and even endured a stint coaching a Finnish team where players often smoked cigarettes on the sidelines.

Leach eventually ended up at Iowa Wesleyan under the tutelage of Hal Mumme and began to really establish the philosophical basis for his wide-open Air Raid offense at Texas Tech. He followed Mumme around various gigs and reached prominence after helping Tim Couch put up pinball numbers as offensive coordinator at Kentucky. He proceeded to run the offense for Bob Stoops at the University of Oklahoma before signing on as the head coach at Texas Tech.

Leach is refreshingly honest and open about most of his coaching experiences. His book is more insightful than other coaching memoirs I have read, and his musings on the game were definitely highlights for me. He mentions how coaches have more leeway to really stray from the norm in the lower levels of college football, where there is more freedom from fans and boosters, and he also makes a convincing case for abandoning common strategies such as having mirrors for all of your plays (players can specialize in and get more reps from having one responsibility on a play) and having receivers line up on both sides of the field (based on the benefits of specialization again. Maybe it is the economics major in me but Leach's argument certainly makes sense to me). Now Swing Your Sword doesn't contain any diagrams or get into the nitty-gritty of his scheme to the extent of something like Ron Jaworski's The Games That Changed the Game, which may disappoint some Leach fans, but I was impressed by the amount of strategic content offered by Leach for a memoir. I definitely learned more concepts about the game than I did from most other football books, such as how receivers on "go" routes are open several times during their route while those running "curls" and the like are only open at the end of the route.

Leach's chapters on his tenure at Texas Tech are initially fascinating. He outlines how he constructed his program and built his coaching staff. The coach put an emphasis on graduating players and ensuring reasonable academic performance through punishments such as "The Tower of London," where players would answer a gauntlet of scholarly questions while running around the school's campus carrying a cinder block over their head. He also occasionally played mind games against his opponents, such as intentionally dropping a fake play sheet on the field before a game against Texas. The chapters touch upon highlights such as the Red Raiders' 2008 upset victory over #1-ranked Texas and their 31-point comeback win against Minnesota in the 2006 Insight Bowl and such reflections make for decent reading.

Unfortunately, I read the pages with a sense of foreboding that is somewhat common in football memoirs. I had the same feeling reading recent books by Michael Strahan and Rex Ryan. I knew that at some point Strahan would discuss his divorce and probably regale me with tales about how horrendous his ex-wife was and that Rex would eventually stop telling his amusing anecdotes from his assistant coaching jobs (overall I really thought Play Like You Mean It was a fine read for the admittedly low standards of the genre) and draft Mark Sanchez, and then probably spend way too many pages justifying why his decision was the greatest thing to ever happen to the franchise. As Leach moved from the Kliff Kingsbury to Graham Harrell era I realized that there was still a good bit of dead tree matter between my current location and the back cover. Correctly assuming that Swing Your Sword did not contain a 150-page index, I braced myself for an inevitably exhaustive account of the Adam James affair and Leach's firing from Texas Tech.

I'm guessing you are at least somewhat aware of why Leach got fired if you are reading a review of the coach's book. Basically it stems from Adam Jones, a Red Raiders receiver and the son of Craig James claimed that he was put in a dark equipment closet after suffering from a concussion, which resulted in a media firestorm (at least on ESPN) that ruined many a campus meal at college dining halls across the country. According to Leach, the administration (who are not very scrupulous people) used the overblown incident to fire him and avoid paying him a completion clause and negotiating a new contract. Honestly it does appear that Leach got somewhat of a raw deal in the matter, and as a human being I sympathize with him for falling victim to university politics. But as a reader I do not want to slog through way too many pages outlining every reason why Leach is innocent, how Adam Jones is the worst person ever (except perhaps his father), and the pettiness of Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance. I can't imagine that my complaining about it all makes for very compelling reading material either. So unlike Leach, I'll show some restraint and just hope I've made my point. The book concludes with the fired coach discussing his life without football and excitement at obtaining a fresh start with Washington State, but Swing Your Sword's last 100 pages are mainly just him explaining how he was mistreated by Texas Tech.

In Sum

If you still haven't read the book at this point you probably aren't the biggest Mike Leach supporter in the world. You are more likely a football fan decently curious about whether his book is worth your time. And my answer to that is yes based on the strength of the first half, though you will be disappointed when it descends into damage control and complaining. Caveat emptor/library patron.

6/10

The first reviews were obviously by the University and their PR people or the ESPN folks. The book was interesting and well written about a specal and intelligent coach even before the Craig James expose. That just made it a must read. I only hope my son has a D1 coach that is as much of a man as Leach.
The Texan politicos that appointed Hance hate anything not UT or TAMU and could not stand the success they were seeing. No one who watched the drama with Leach doubted it was a set up by a man who got to his place through dishonesty and never cared who he took down on the way. Too bad Craig James taught his son the same values. Thank you for making the book so available.

Mike Leach has been an enigma on the sports world for well over a decade, from his time at Valdosta State all the way up to his current legal affairs. If you are interested in learning about what makes this wild card tick, then this is the book for you!
"Swing Your Sword" (and you will notice the title is in classic aggie maroon :P) offers a tale that will blow your mind and make you smarter and stronger. I read the book in 2 days and now I am preparing to take the BAR exam just because Mike Leachs legal battles have inspired me to be something better and to strive for HONOR! Ever since I finished the book, i have felt more confident in talking to women, and i dont want to jinx it but i think i have found my soulmate due to this book!
But seriously guys, if you want to be wealthier, smarter, and overall more confident, then let the beautiful penmanship of Mike Leach guide you to glory!

Hail Leach!

The book is entertaining and well written. He does not linger or over tell details of his early years like a lot of people do. Just informs and them moves on. I find this curiously refreshing.

Football fans and coaches: this is a MUST read.

This man is a savant and a football genius. You will find his book wildly entertaining and a fascinating read. I am now a proud member of "Team Leach". Enjoy!