Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is one of the most innovative offensive minds of his time. He's a master of Xs and Os, but he's just as sharp with his ABCs.

Leach drew the wrath of Aggies after A&M quarterback Stephen McGee was drafted by Dallas, saying the Cowboys liked the popular McGee more than the A&M coaches.

It wasn't even a half-truth, yet it turned into a full-blown war of words and innuendoes, with the only winners being Leach and the Red Raiders.

The smart thing for Aggies to do would have been to let Leach's words die in cyberspace or have his printed barbs fade away with the next day's trash. But that's not human nature. A&M head coach Mike Sherman felt compelled to defend his player, his program, and issued a statement.

"There is nothing Mike Leach could ever say that would offend me," Sherman said. "I do find it unfortunate, however, that a college coach feels the need to question the handling of a player by a staff particularly without any knowledge of the facts or the extent of a player's injury. It is equally bothersome that a football coach would question the draft status of a player. This doesn't make any sense to me."

Many things Leach does don't make sense. But what he does on the sidelines is priceless, especially when it comes to playing A&M. He's 7-2 against the Aggies, winning seven of the last eight. Only Oklahoma's Bob Stoops is better at beating the Aggies, but that's somewhat plausible. OU is a Top 10 program and, besides, Stoops doesn't rub it in. He's too worried about beating Texas and figuring out how to win a BCS Bowl, yet he's not opposed to playing a little verbal volleyball.

Remember when former A&M head coach Dennis Franchione got a good zinger in when the Sooners didn't have a returning starting quarterback because of all the mess with former quarterback Rhett Bomar?

"That may be the only question mark they have ... other than what [summer] jobs they're going to work this year," Franchione said in reference to NCAA sanctions involving OU players for work not performed.

Stoops shot back, even though he didn't name the Aggie coach. Franchione had said several times the Aggies were only a play or two from winning the Big 12 South in 2006, which wasn't lost on Stoops.

"There are some guys talking about, 'If this happened in this game, and this happened in that game,' in like three or four games, they'd be Big 12 champions," Stoops said.

What spoke louder than Stoops' words was the 42-14 thumping OU put on Franchione and the Aggies in 2007, which virtually sealed Franchione's exit.

That's what A&M needs to do if it wants to get back at Leach, the pirate lover. Win games, beat him at his own game. Forget words, do it with action.

Leach does some of his best coaching and verbal work against A&M. He marvels at the school's tradition with the 12th man and the Corps of Cadets, yet revels in most of the victories. It started with that 48-47 overtime victory at Kyle Field in 2002 when A&M missed two extra points. Just as painful was Tech's Robert Johnson acrobatic 37-yard touchdown catch with 26 seconds left for a 31-27 victory in 2006, silencing the A&M home crowd of 85,979.

"Glad we got out of here with a win," Leach said. "This is a tough place to do it. Once in a while, a pirate can beat a soldier, you know?"

Leach, though, like most Pirates, isn't invincible. He's 4-14 against Oklahoma and Texas. Heck, he's even lost three times to Oklahoma State. He's also 0-2 in the Cotton Bowl.

Leach has a 42-30 conference record, but if his record against A&M were reversed, it would be only 37-35. That also includes a 9-0 mark against Baylor. So Leach probably owes the Aggies a debt of gratitude for his recent five-year extension worth $12.7 million.

Leach has outscored A&M and Nebraska 413-224 in the last 10 games, but neither school considered him, opting instead to hire Sherman and Bo Pelini. Yet many Big 12 followers were hopeful Leach would be good enough to land at Clemson, Tennessee or UCLA. They, too, didn't hire him.

So Leach isn't going anywhere. He has to make the best of the situation, and beating the Aggies has certainly made his life better.

"It's an honor for us at Texas Tech to have the opportunity to play them," Leach told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal last week. "There are numerous players on our team that will never get a look or play a down in the NFL, so you can imagine how exciting it is for me and them to go play a team the magnitude of Texas A&M and look over there on the bench and see third- and fourth-round draft picks."

Again, a half-truth at best, but Leach made his point.

A&M has had seven players drafted in the third or fourth round since Leach took over at Tech, including McGee and running back Mike Goodson this year. Since 1995, the Aggies have had 51 players drafted, including 31 in the fourth round or higher. Tech has had 25 players drafted since 1995, only 10 in the fourth round or higher -- including a record four this year.

Tech, though, is 11-3 against A&M over that span. That just doesn't add up. Either Leach is a heck of coach or A&M didn't get the most out of its talent when the two met, or maybe it's a little of both.

Leach's playful barbs last week brought attention to Tech's domination in the series, just what the Aggies didn't need.

As for the way it was done, that too works in Leach's favor. His ability to rile Aggies makes him a friend with Sooners, Owls, Cougars, Longhorns and Bears, just to name a few. It might even help him in recruiting, because if you didn't notice, the Red Raiders were the more talented team last year.

A&M, which beat Tech from 1990-94, has allowed the Red Raiders to pass them, and the Aggies have to live with it until they can do something about it. That means listening to Leach.

"How can anyone not be shocked that they're offended by this?" Leach told the Avalanche-Journal. "How is that possible? I mean, they're the ones that keep issuing these official statements. I haven't issued any official statement. I just answer questions when somebody asks me one."

And until someone asks him how A&M was able to finally beat the Red Raiders in Lubbock, you can bet a few more barbs will be headed the Aggies' way.

* Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.