Few people appreciate a live college football mascot more than Washington State coach Mike Leach. If given the time, he could probably talk about mascots for hours, and I would listen to all of it.

The Cougars are traveling to Boulder this weekend to face Colorado, which famously has a live mascot, Ralphie.

Mike Leach is a big fan — a super big fan. He loves Ralphie and spent two minutes of his Monday press conference expressing his genuine appreciation for Colorado’s mascot.

Mike Leach, big fan of Colorado Buffalo mascot Ralphie and other live mascots: pic.twitter.com/EUZVap1G7e — Femi Abebefe (@SWXFemi) November 6, 2018

He said:

“Their mascot is just outstanding. Them and Mike the Tiger are by far the best. Butch is a better person and a symbol — the whole thing, I’ll go with that, OK. But as far as — that buffalo and Mike the Tiger … utterly outstanding. Then it’s got the handlers. No, they’re not pulling that buffalo, the buffalo is pulling them. You see these kids running besides this buffalo, and sometimes they’ll wipe out or whatever. … I grew up in the West. What can you say? The buffalo. That’s hard to argue with unless you have a live grizzly bear out there or something.”

When asked if Washington State should get a live mascot, Leach was down with the thought while unsure how a live cougar would respond in captivity.

“We should. It would be cool if we still did. I don’t know how good mountain lions do in captivity. I’m curious. If they have just a good, happy life like the Georgia bulldog where they get their own hotel room and eat like a king. I don’t know how’d they do in captivity or how cooperative they are parading around the field. That buffalo goes pretty well wherever he wants.”

I’m so here for the Mike Leach mascot takes. This press conference astonishingly came almost a year to the day after he named Pitt State’s mascot as the best in college sports.

#FanIndex, though, is big on Washington State.