Given the allegations, the parties involved and the manner in which things played out over the last 48 hours, it’s no surprise that the Mike Leach firing is the topic du jour in the college sports world. After surfing the web, I have a few thoughts.
- Mike Leach is something of a media darling, so you have to give the James family credit for using the same media to get their side of the story out. (It helps to have a famous dad employed by ESPN.) And, hey, Leach is out of a job, so it worked. I suspect Adam James’ next head coach is going to tread very lightly in his direction.
- Speaking of Adam, this makes me wonder where a football player carries his cell phone at practice.
- Dennis Dodd makes an entirely appropriate point about common human decency. I’d probably accept it at face value, too, if the school hadn’t rushed to fire Leach the day before he stood to earn an $800 thousand bonus.
- Leach’s public statement contains this impressive set of facts: “When I arrived at Texas Tech, the football program was on NCAA probation and the graduation rate was far below the national average. However, in the past 10 years, Tech has been to 10 straight bowl games, has the third best record in the Big 12 Conference, and has the highest graduation rate for football players of any public institution in the country.” Do the powers-that-be at Texas Tech really believe the next coaching hire will do as well? If not, how do you let things get so far off track?
- On the other hand, a Texas attorney asks an equally good question of Leach: “Just how does someone as successful and intelligent as Leach lose one of the 20 or so highest-paying jobs in big-time college football?”
Lots of pig-headed stupidity to go around on this one, it seems like. And contrary to Gregg Doyel’s take-it-from-an-asshole,-they’re-all-assholes-in-this piece, there is a big loser in this mess: the Texas Tech fan base. They’re in some real pain.
Get The Picture 
The fans are always the big loser in any kind of situation like this, and its becoming obvious neither side of the argument, despite protestations, is too interested in the feelings of the little guy.
To me the most worrisome aspect of this debacle is that ESPN has not been fair and balanced in its coverage. All night long ESPN ran a crawler with only one side’s story.
This is wrong, and I hope Leach’s lawyers are quickly building a case for at least defamation against ESPN.
Other media covering the situation has at least given us a hint at both sides.
Not the WWL….only the James side….too much power to be so skewed, makes them dangerous to the health of the sport, indeed.
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Gregg Doyel isn’t a douche bag. He’s an enema bag.
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I agree! The only thing that can get me to read his drivel is a link from the Senator.
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I hope Mike Leach goes to coach at another Big 12 school and kicks the sh-t out of Texas Tech every time he plays them while Craig James calls the game from the booth.
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Kansas is looking.
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I suspect Adam James’ next head coach is going to tread very lightly in his direction.
I suspect that person is currently having coffee with the Easter Bunny. I cannot imagine any coach (other than perhaps June Jones at SMU) going anywhere near Adam James now. I don’t know whether that’s fair or not, but I think Leach and his team (and some of James’ teammates) have raised enough smoke around the kid that most coaches won’t think he’s worth the risk.
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Well, that still means Leach’s successor will be stuck with him. That’ll be another great selling point for TTU.
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I don’t agree, Senator. The next coach will undoubtedly review all the talent on the team and find young James wanting. Sorry, kid you’re a practice player only. If the kid gives him even the slightest BS he’s kicked off the team for insubordination. No closets, no crab walking on a hot field. Just off the team. TT won’t do sh!t. If Craig James tries to bitch on national TV HE might lose HIS job.
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The biggest douche is Craig James for blowing up this minor situation rather than handling his whiney, spoiled brat kid like a man. “You didn’t make it son, and you don’t act like a smartass to the HC. Pack your bags, you have a chance to (maybe) make a contribution at some 1AA school IF you change your attitude, and you don’t have to sit out a year.”
Second biggest disappointment is for a major university to so blatently eat their own just to save money and feed their own egos and need for being perceived as powerful. The fans, and immediate football future of TT, has been sacrificed as collateral damage by the timing of these actions by the TT officials. I hope Leach wins a huge settlement in his case, his reputation and character certainly was defamed by the way TT and ESPN handled the past few days. I am sure all will be settled and kept quiet, but Leach appears to hold the high ground here. (Yes, I have seen that some feel otherwise.)
Lastly, it is no surprise at all to see ESPN acting so trashy and unprofessional. We have seen how much “balance” they posess on numerous occasions over the years. It is almost as if the inmates are running the asylum in Bristol. I can understand the on-air talking heads wanting to slant things their way, but isn’t there an executive staff capable of exercising more control and requiring journalistic integrity? The timing of this entire sequence of events is reason enough for both James and TT’s AD department to be grilled. James can say he loves TT but how could he NOT understand the impact on the team and their bowl chances? His son was never in any danger, why not bring this up discreetly after the bowl?
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+1.
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At yesterday’s shootout at the Golden Corral Steakhouse in Lubbock, Texas Tech and Mike Leach end up committing Harry Caray on each other by each falling on the other’s sword of Damocles brought to you by ESPN…
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That kid’s teammates are gonna make his life a living hell until he transfers. What a whiny little loser.
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This was toxic brew that just exploded. You had a strained relationship between university and coach, combined with a player who is clearly a cancer on their team but son of a well-known player and media personality–throw in a dash of attitude and stubbornness from the coach and…….BOOM!
ESPN’s coverage IMO has been a disgrace. Completely one-sided and biased, with the on-air commentators obviously defending their colleague and ripping Leach when all the facts are not in. ESPN has abused their position with the public.
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Your last sentence is the biggest concern and will last far longer than this particular controversy. None of us have all the facts, but we form opinions and take positions on what is known/reported. ESPN has an obligation to make every effort to dig for facts and present a balanced view. Regardless of how you view this situation, ESPN has brought out the big guns and taken dead aim at Leach by presenting a one-sided perspective. They should be better than this, but they are extremely arrogant in their approach to sports and go far beyond being a sports and entertainment network.
While I support Leach based on what I have read, I have no doubt we know less than 75% of the facts and that missing information could well be the difference in how I/we would feel if all the facts were available. There are several losers in this: Leach, the team, the fans, and TT’s program and school. It all could have been handled so much better by everyone.
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“ESPN has abused their position with the public.”
Who doesn’t? It’s a sports station not a news broadcast like the Daily Show.
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The cleaning out of Adam’s closet…
http://www.zshare.net/audio/70523324b1bb7c6a/
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Didn’t these guys bring in Bobby Knight? What hypocritical sob’s. Why are the AD and Pres not always critiqued equally as a coach? Just a thought.
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I reside in Lubbock and can attest to the fact that 60,000+ are registered on Mike Leach’s facebook page in support of him. A large number of alums have cancelled memberships in the spirt organization, cancelled season football tickets and have cancelled specialty license plates bearing the TTU logo. According to the clerk’s office they are replacing them now. By the way some alums in Denver have submitted a Petition for the firing of Hance, Bailey and Myers. But back to Bobby Knight. He coached here for several years but not without incident. There was one incident as I recall when he slapped, chocked a play at a game. Then there was a fracas at popular casual dining spot at lunch with the a high ranking school office (I believe he was at that time the interim Chancellor). Bobby, I should point out is a dear friend of the AD at TTU and was dining with him and the chancellor. Apparently, the chancellor said something Bobby didn’t like and something other than talking insued. The latest info I saw from a e-mail sent to Hance was to the effect that Mike and Bobby were not the average coaches and that if Bobby and Gerald had not been friends, Bobby would not have gotten away with ‘chasing the chancellor down the street’. By the way Bobby left with his son annointed TTU basketball coach. And, the Chancellor was paid $2 million to leave. This happened obviously before Hance (former U.S.congressman and Washington lobbyist)was hired. But you get the picture, Mike Leach didn’t socialize with the administrators, play golf, etc. and in fact could never be classified as a ‘good ol boy’. E-mails from at least one BOR member and Hance indicate in early February, 2009 they were discussing firing him at the end of the season. By the way his contact was signed February 19, 2009.
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