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Hundreds of college football players have entered the transfer portal since the end of the regular season for various reasons. That includes (now former) Mississippi State running back Dillon Johnson, who revealed he was leaving the program on Wednesday.
Based on how common those announcements have become, that would’ve been a fairly unremarkable development if it wasn’t for Johnson’s decision to go out of his way to include some very spicy comments concerning head coach Mike Leach, as the RB had this to say in the announcement he posted online:
“Since I am not very tough and Leach is glad I am leaving, I will be entering my name into the transfer portal.”
Johnson caught a fair amount of heat for failing to resist the urge to burn that bridge on his way out, and opting to throw a jab at Leach seemed like an unforced error that left plenty of people confused.
However, it makes a bit more sense when you listen to an audio clip that surfaced online on Thursday that appears to feature Leach uttering the comments Johnson alluded to in the post.
It’s unclear how the Going For Tew podcast obtained the 15-second snippet or the context of the conversation that shines some light on what Johnson was alluding to in the statement about his departure, as Leach was captured saying, “Dillon Johnson’s leaving, and I’m actually sort of glad because I don’t think he’s very tough.”
https://twitter.com/GoingforTew/status/1600878896148230144
Some people might argue this isn’t a great look for Leach. However, there’s nothing particularly scandalous about a football coach sharing his honest opinion on a player (especially when the football coach in question is Mike Leach, a man who has never been shy about being a bit too candid about, well, basically everything).
If anything, this only makes Johnson look even pettier than he already did, as the clip implies he’d told Leach about his intentions to transfer before the coach made the comment. Of course, he’s obviously allowed to be mad at Leach for calling his toughness into question, but he didn’t do himself any favors by attempting to retroactively paint the coach as the scapegoat when he’d presumably already decided to move on.