Perverse thought of the afternoon

How does the same school that hired Bobby Knight after he was caught choking one of his players (and subsequently lying about it) suddenly find religion over Mike Leach?

Factoid of the day

It comes via ESPN’s Chris Low, who notes

… the Bulldogs can make one claim that nobody else in the country can: They’ve won at least eight games in each of their past 13 seasons. No other FBS team can match that streak over that same span.

Envy and jealousy: special teams edition

A shout out today goes to David Hale, who made me laugh out loud with this one:

Special Teams MVP: Drew Butler. This is easily the toughest choice on the board as there’s a good case to be made for four candidates: Butler, the All-American punter who kept Georgia’s offense afloat early by swinging field position; Blair Walsh, who gets my vote as the best kicker in the country; Brandon Boykin, who returned three kickoffs for TDs; Mark Richt, for ensuring Jon Fabris won’t be coaching the kickoff team next year… [Emphasis added.]

Ba-da-boom!

He’ll be there all week, folks.

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Now that the season’s over…

In the for-what-it’s-worth department, ESPN.com’s Chris Low reports that Georgia is prepared to “go to $600,000-plus annually and offer a three-year contract” to hire John Chavis.

One man’s electrical closet is another man’s comfort zone.

You can't have a pirate without a sword.

Perspective is a bitch.  What’s playing out in Lubbock, Texas right now scans like some college football version of Rashomon.  The player has one version of events; the coach has another.  Sources “close to the player” provide one set of facts; former players paint a very different picture.

Then there’s the player’s famous dad.  And the administrators who might have a financial stake in the dispute.

Given all that, I’m rather amazed at how quickly some folks have jumped to a conclusion that Leach needs to be gone sooner rather than later.  (James’ colleagues at the WWL – well, May and Holtz, anyway – were going strongly in that direction within an hour or two of the suspension being announced).

I’m not saying Leach is clean here.  This passage certainly indicates he’s dishing out some bullcrap of his own:

Liggett, speaking on ESPN and CNN, said James’ injury “didn’t seem serious enough to the doctor to send him home nor admit him to the hospital. It was Coach Leach that decided he would be better off out of the heat.”

(The National Weather Service reported a high of 66 degrees in Lubbock on Dec. 17 and 55 on Dec. 19, the dates of the events in question.)

Not exactly Death Valley in August.

But that $800K bonus sure puts the school’s actions to date in a bad light.  So does the bad blood that came into being during Leach’s acrimonious contract negotiations with Texas Tech last year, as mentioned in this article.

Now that Leach has sued the school in order to coach in the bowl game, I don’t see how this ends well.  But it’s fascinating to watch in the meantime.

Oh yeah, speaking of that bowl, how much fun do you think James and his teammates are having right now?

James was with the team in San Antonio. Defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill will be interim coach. Asked if it were awkward for James to be around the team, McNeill said, “I hope not.”

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UPDATE: No hearing today; Texas Tech fires Leach.

Minutes before Mike Leach was going to court in attempt to return as Texas Tech coach for the team’s bowl game, the school fired Leach by handing a termination letter to his attorney.

Leach’s attorney Ted Liggett says the letter says Leach is “terminated with cause effective immediately.” No hearing actually took place after the firing.

The “with cause” part will no doubt be the subject of dispute.

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UPDATE #2: More thoughts on “with cause” from Chris Brown.  Chris makes a point about the apology that TTU asked Leach to provide James (which Leach refused to do) that crossed my mind when I read about it in the first place:

Note too that it sounds like the University tried to get Leach to sign an “apology” letter that quoted from the contract, which would have been used against him as an admission as having violated it and thus giving them permission to fire him for cause.

Wednesday morning buffet

Get yourself a cup of coffee and grab what you’d like.

• Rodney Garner could soon be working under his sixth defensive coordinator in Athens.
• Here’s an early look at Georgia’s 2010 schedule.
• And here’s an early look at who will be back next season.
• Recruit’s perspective on Tennessee’s coaches:  “There are a lot of rules they need to catch up on that they’re not sure about.” What’s that old saw about ignorance of the law?
• Playoff PAC wants the Fiesta Bowl investigated.
• Given that his owner admitted on national TV that the dog is scared of the band, I’m pretty much of the opinion that this question is moot.
• You’ve probably heard about the Quinnipiac University National Poll showing that a majority of college football fans favor a playoff.  Two things I found interesting about it:  (1) fans are essentially evenly split on their attitude about the BCS; (2) the weird phrasing of the poll question – Do you think the Bowl Championship Series should, or should not, be replaced with a playoff system as takes place in college basketball? Would most respondents have taken that to mean something similar to March Madness?