Mike Leach: The OTHER Position

So I'm sure you've heard by now that Mike Leach was fired yesterday as the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders. What you may not have heard was anyone who was on his side. If you watched ESPN recently, all you heard were things like Mark May saying Leach deserved to be fired. Lou Holtz was a little less blunt and to-the-point, but he leaned the same way. And, of course, Craig James was saying he didn't ask that Leach was fired, which I do believe. James did say he wanted for son to be protected, but I'm not sure he was in any danger really.

I say, of course May and Holtz are going to agree with the firing; are they really going to say that was the wrong move? That would make those office Christmas parties a little awkward with James. I think that a few things don't add up:

According to ESPN, Texas Tech was going to owe Leach a lump sum of $800,000 as long as he was the coach as of today; with the firing, they do not owe him the money. Second, several emails were sent to Texas Tech, portraying Adam James as an entitlement kid (just look at his picture, he certainly looks the part) with a bad attitude and poor work ethic. Third, was the university actually looking to fire Leach before all of this came out? I know they had a rift about Leach looking at other jobs, but he was the winningest coach in the history of the university. Fourth, the university only took two days to fire Leach, not even investigating the claims. Fifth, doctors made the statement that what Leach did to James didn't harm him in any way.

The funny thing in all of this is that, in my opinion, Adam James looks like the bad guy here. He thought he deserved more playing time, but ironically only Mike Leach wanted to give him a scholarship (the scholarship to Texas Tech was the only one he received, and the position coach said he wasn't Division I material). His poor work ethic wasn't indicative of someone who wanted to put in the time and effort to make himself better, again presumably because of his entitlement air.

Another funny thing is that Texas Tech isn't going to get a better coach than they had in Leach. For not having played football in college, Leach is a genius on the offensive side of the ball. It did come out that Tommy Tuberville was interested in the job, and that may be a good fit for the university. Lincoln Riley also did an almost 180 (we'll say 175), saying that he would be there for James as the coach, but stopped short of saying he wanted him back next year.

I was pulling for Texas Tech in the game against Michigan State, but I think I'll back the Spartans now. I think Texas Tech was in the wrong, and I think they'll pay dearly for it in the form of a lawsuit Leach and his attorney were filing very soon.