Mike Leach Mania!

It's a guest post!

I asked Angela, a proud former Red Raider, to share with us her thoughts on the recent Mike Leach firing hoopla. The end of this piece is a smidge out-of-date: Angela learned just a half-hour after she sent it to me that Texas Tech actually succeeded in hiring Tommy Tuberville. That's a great hire. Therefore, it fills me with dread.

But enough about my feelings; here are Angela's. Thanks, Angela!

What do I think about the Mike Leach “scandal” that hit Texas Tech two weeks ago? Well, let’s just start this out by saying Mike Leach is crazy. He’s absolutely insane, probably difficult to get along with (or even understand), and he does not show much respect for anything outside of pirates, Geronimo, and football genius. He also had a winning season and a bowl game bid every year he coached at Tech, the highest graduation rate of any college football program, and he’s the main reason I began to like college football during my days as a member of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland. He’s been known as the mad scientist of football, and his offensive genius made for very exciting games. His eccentricity also made for very interesting interviews. He’s done the weather report for a local new station (raining mud is also one of my favorite Lubbock weather patterns), given tips on dating, and accused the football players of listening to their fat little girlfriends after the loss to A&M this season. You never know what you’re going to get with this guy!

Leach has stirred up trouble before. He was fined $10,000 for a rant he went on after the 2007 game against Texas about the dismal officiating during the game. Maybe this is what initially set off the university brass and made them hate the best football coach they’ll probably ever see at Tech. I’m not really sure, but Texas Tech is definitely not the place for a laid back and liberal coach. Although in my experience, Lubbock LOVED Mike Leach. He mentions his love of pirates, so we all dress up like pirates, the band does a pirate show, and you can see pirate flags all over town. As Rachel mentioned, the athletic director Myers and others at Tech have wanted him gone since contract negotiations last winter. It has since come out there were e-mails exchanged among these folks and some boosters. In an e-mail to Myers: “I feel you should sign a contract that does not cost us too much to fire him.” Obviously there were plans in place to get this guy fired before they paid him too much…like the $800,000 bonus he earned.

The university launched an investigation into James’ allegations on Dec. 20 and fired Leach 10 days later. Now I’m not sure how long investigations into this typically last, but 10 days seems a bit fast. Good thing they got it all finished up the day before they had to pay Leach $800,000 for doing his job and doing it well. And now this has been followed by Jim Leavitt getting fired by South Florida. This new firing comes after a month long investigation that still seems inconclusive to me, as the very kid Leavitt’s accused of grabbing by the throat doesn’t even feel that the coach did anything wrong: “People can say different things but he only grabbed my shoulder pads to motivate me, because he's a passionate guy.” Apparently passion is no longer welcomed by college football.

I will personally greatly miss the coach that brought Tech’s football program into the national spotlight briefly. And so will most Texas Tech fans. I was at the Alamo bowl last week, and amount of support for Leach was overwhelming. The guy selling “Team Leach” shirts with skull and crossbones on the front is now probably a very rich man. Apparently if you watched on ESPN, you would not have seen the many signs supporting Leach and telling James to get back in the closet, you would not have heard the many chants of “We Want Leach!!,” and you would not have heard the booing as James entered or exited the ramp. Thanks ESPN, for making it seem that Tech had done the right thing. Maybe Leach did something wrong, and maybe his team was unhappy with him, but maybe the university should have done a better job figuring this out first before firing him. It makes the university look bad, especially coming after these same people sought out Bobby Knight and hired him right up after all his documented instances of player abuse. And it makes Mike Leach look even worse. I mean, how can you expect this mumbling mad man who is indifferent to how the world sees him to keep his mouth shut and not say things that will make it even harder for him to find a good job after this? I hope he gets a job, and I will immediately begin to follow that team, no matter how low on the totem pole. And I hope this team plays Texas Tech, because if that happens, it will be the first time I root against Texas Tech and for Mike Leach. He deserved better than the treatment he received, and I look forward to him getting millions of dollars from Tech when the litigations are over. Oh, and Tech should hire Tommy Tuberville real fast before USF tries to get him. If that man wants to be your coach, you hire that man! Let’s see how badly Tech can screw this up as well- I predict fairly badly.