The Winter edition of Cougars Quarterly has arrived in the mailboxes of Cougar Athletic Fund members and season ticket holders. Featured in the issue is an interview with Football Coach Mike Leach. In addition to football, Coach Leach discusses Pullman, the new football facilities, and by the excerpt below, his love of history and movies.

CQ: You are a student of history. What is it about history that you love?

Leach: First of all, you don't need to go to the television set to find drama. We are in the middle of it. There are incredible stories and levels of achievement in the past. There are a lot of lessons to be learned.

CQ: You are working on a book about Geronimo?

Leach: The opportunity to work with a historian like (WSU professor) Buddy Levy on a book about Geronimo, who was certainly incredibly courageous and a visionary, is a rare opportunity and one I couldn't pass up.

CQ: Do you take what Geronimo represents and apply it to your coaching?

Leach: I think so. We'll illustrate some of those points in the book. Not specifically in the context of coaching, but working with groups of people and what a group of people together can achieve and accomplish; some of the forces and influences that bind them, hold them together, motivate them and drive them.

CQ: Speaking of history, have you seen any of the Oscar-nominated movies, such as Zero Dark Thirty and Argo?

Leach: Yes, Zero Dark Thirty I liked. It felt like a documentary but I liked it and enjoyed it. I saw Argo. I was in high school when those events took place and I remember them. It was impressive to see the inside story about that on the screen.

CQ: Did you see Lincoln?

Leach: I saw Lincoln. I think Daniel Day-Lewis will be Best Actor because as you sit through the movie I found myself sub-vocalizing some of the phrases and trying to morph into Lincoln because of the effective job he did.

CQ: Any other favorites?

Leach: Django Unchained is my personal favorite. More my type of movie. The most impressive is how quickly he (director Quentin Tarantino) can develop and illustrate characters and even though they're over the top, they still stay within a semi-realistic fashion and I thought it was really impressive.