ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Shiver me timbers. Mike Leach likes the idea of playing tomorrow.

It turns out the Red Raiders game at No. 2 Texas is on the same day as International Pirate Day.

"I think that definitely has the potential to be a good omen for us,” Leach told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “So really, I think on behalf of our program, we feel very confident as a result of that.”

The annual holiday has been celebrated through 1995, a fact that Leach didn't know about until earlier this week.

Leach's fascination with pirates has continued for almost as long as he's frequently mentioned the hierarchy of pirates during talks with his team and media press conferences over the years.

“In some ways, it had maybe a bigger impact than I thought,” Leach said about his buccaneer interest.

It's been adopted as a fascination by Texas Tech fans in recent years. The Texas Tech band dressed up like pirates for its halftime show against Texas last season in Lubbock. Leach's parking spot at the Texas Tech football offices features an intricate depiction of a pirate ship on his space and a new wall-sized mural has just been drawn at Texas Tech's training facility.

Leach was even pictured on the cover of a recent Texas Monthly magazine wearing an eye patch.

And Tech fans have taken to wearing all kinds of pirate regalia to the team's games in recent seasons.

“Flags pop up. Eye patches pop up. So it goes," Leach said. "I think it’s been good. I don’t really give it much thought or second guess it or intellectualize it a great deal. I mean, I like pirates, and I read about them and the rest. When you consider this business and what you can get stuck with, I’m very thankful that I get to be the pirate guy, instead of I have to be whatever the other stereotypes (might be).

"Believe me, heck yeah, it can get worse than pirates.”

Leach said he never tires of being identified with pirates.

“You answer some of the same questions again and again,” he said, “but it seems to me a lot of people are having fun with it as they wear their gear. And I don’t think it hurts recruiting either, because it kind of gives you an identity."

The Red Raiders might need more than Leach's association with pirates to help them buck the odds tomorrow night as a big underdog in Austin against the Longhorns. Leach has never won in Austin in four previous games there, allowing Texas to average 49 points in those games.

Texas Tech is 0-13 in true road games against top-15 foes in Leach's career there. The Red Raiders have never beaten a top-five foe on the road in the history of the school and haven't beaten a top 10 team on the road since beating Arkasas in 1986.