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[Adventurer]

A Who is most to blame for the Texas Tech fiasco?

Star Telegram


Express your opinion in a letter to the editor
By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

[email protected]

If somebody had told me I�d ever, in the history of ever, side with a football coach concerning an allegation of abusing a player, we�d have had words.

Those are fighting words.

There are certain inalienable rights all athletes have, above all to know their health is being protected. This is not to be abused.

I guess that is why I come down firmly on the side of Texas Tech screwed up royally by firing football coach Mike Leach on Wednesday. I do not believe Leach abused anybody, nor do I believe Red Raiders AD Gerald Myers actually believes Leach did.

He despised Leach. He had an opportunity. So he fired him.

You do not have to know the back story to know something stinks at Texas Tech with this whole imbroglio. One of the best coaches in Red Raiders history is fired over one allegation, by one player, that appears to have been greatly exaggerated by a university that once employed one Robert Montgomery Knight.

"Mike Leach is alleged to have isolated a player in a dark closet for not practicing with a concussion" was the original tweet from Joe Schad of ESPN when this story broke Monday.

Hmm, wonder how ESPN got this info?

Maybe from ESPN analyst Craig James, who, as we all now know, is the father of the player in question. Adam James had the mild concussion that idiocy and incompetence, politics and feuds have allowed to mushroom into a big, fat disaster in Lubbock.

http://www.star-telegram.com/306/story/1860979.html?storylink=omni_popular

[Reggie]

It's hypocrisy for the school who hired Bobby Knight, with all of his well-known issues at Indiana University spanning several decades, to fire Leach over this BS. I wonder what the Texas Tech AD thinks would've happened if a player would've shown up late to a Bobby Knight practice. If they think Leach's foul language was bad, this recording gives a general idea of what Knight would've said to him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw7KijRfU-c

In the end, nobody is a winner.

Texas Tech looks crooked for firing Leach when they would've, by contract, had to have paid Leach $800,000 if he had been employed with them for another 12 hours or so. Additionally, their football program will probably fall back into the deep dark abyss that Leach pulled them out of.

Adam James looks like a total puss. Few coaches will want this little prima donna on their team and have to deal with his mommy and daddy.

Craig James looks like a a-hole and has now destroyed two football programs. He got Southern Methodist University the death penalty for being involved in the scandal in the 1980s and now he's wrecked Texas Tech's program by getting a great coach fired.

A lot of schools won't hire Leach now, but that won't matter. Leach is able to win football games, even at a lousy program like Texas Tech with lousy players like Adam James, so a lot of NFL owners and some athletic directors will be calling his phone and throwing a lot of money his way.

I'm guessing this is the James' petty way of getting back at Leach for other scholarship players and even walk-ons getting playing time over Little Adam. Now, he can probably transfer to SMU without having to sit out the mandatory one year and play there, now that SMU had their first decent season since James & Co. caused the NCAA to deliver SMU the death penalty. Adam probably isn't talented enough, but Craig James can use the money SMU payed him to play there and pay SMU to let Adam get some playing time.

[Sector7G]

I have no idea what really happened, but I think it was a mistake for Leach to come out saying Craig was a lazy player who felt entitled. To me that made it seem that Leach could have had a grudge against Craig and thus been punishing him instead of looking out for his welfare.

[ueo119]

Leach just put the kid in a dark electrical closet, and if you look at the video the kid recorded on his cell phone. That closet was pretty damn big. Not a big TT fan, but thought Leach was an interesting character. It just looks like another case of the AD trying to get rid of a coach he inherited and wanting to bring in "his" guy. I feel bad for TT fans. Good luck trying to keep the same success with a new coach.

I hope Leach can find a new OC gig at a good school (maybe Florida?)

[Reggie]

I was glad to see Kentucky promote Joker Phillips to head coach today. Since Leach was an assistant there in the 90s, I thought Kentucky might go for him and end their 25 year losing streak to Tennessee. It looks like the Vols will make it 26 next November if we can keep enough players out of jail.

I hope Leach coaches a Big XII team so he can play Texas Tech regularly and run up the score on them. I'd like to see him hang 100 on them every single year.

[kiknkorea]

If he didn't want the kid there, he could have just sent him home.
Putting him in an electrical shed was pretty weak.

[ueo119]

I think it was the kid's attitude that pissed off Leach.
If you read this post, there are many emails from players and coaches ripping on him

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/19238949

Moving on, I just heard a rumor that the Oakland Raiders might be interested in him. God, that is the worst place for a coach to go.

[Sector7G]