Bye Leach

[bsmooth]

Texas Tech fired coach Mike Leach on Wednesday, two days after he was suspended by the school as it investigated his treatment of a player with a concussion.

The school handed a termination letter to Leach's attorney, Ted Liggett, minutes before the two sides were to appear in a Lubbock, Texas, courtroom for a hearing on the coach's suspension.

Liggett said Texas Tech general counsel Pat Campbell approached him outside the courtroom and told him that win, lose or draw in the hearing, Leach was out effective immediately.

Liggett told the judge there was no need for the hearing on Leach's request that he be reinstated to coach the Alamo Bowl. Texas Tech plays Michigan State on Saturday in San Antonio.

As for Leach's reaction, Liggett said, "Well, he's not thrilled."

Liggett said he planned to file a lawsuit on Leach's behalf against the school "soon."

"We can guarantee that the fight has just begun," he said.

Liggett said Leach's side has evidence that shows the decision to suspend the coach was without merit.

"So they pulled the trigger," Liggett said. "They don't want that coming out."

In February, Leach and the school agreed to a five-year, $12.7 million contract. According to terms of the deal, Leach was due a $800,000 bonus on Dec. 31 if he were still the head coach at Texas Tech.

Leach was suspended by the university on Monday as the school investigated his treatment of receiver Adam James. The sophomore alleged the coach twice confined him to small, dark spaces while the team practiced .

James is the son of former NFL player and ESPN analyst Craig James.

"We appreciate that the university conducted a fair and thorough investigation," said a statement from the James family. "From the family's point of view this has always been about the safety and well being of our son and of all the players on the team."

Texas Tech officials seemingly laid out their case against Leach in a letter to the coach that was included in court papers filed in response to his motion for a restraining order to lift the suspension.

The letter set out guidelines for dealing with student-athletes that the school wanted Leach to agree to. He refused to sign the letter.

Among the guidelines were:

-- "Decisions regarding whether an injury warrants suspension from practice and/or play will be determined by a physician without pressure from you or your staff."

-- "There will be no retaliation against any student who as suffered an injury."

Liggett said Leach likes Lubbock and wanted to remain the football program's coach.

"Coach Leach has never, ever hidden his desire to coach the Texas Tech Red Raiders," Liggett said. "His accomplishments, his actions, his graduation rate all prove that."

Leach likely will speak publicly soon, though Liggett said he did not know when and declined to say where Leach was Wednesday.

"It's pretty hard to keep him quiet," he said.

Liggett read the termination letter aloud in the packed courtroom. When he reached the part that made it clear Leach was fired, many in the gallery gasped audibly.

Several fans called out that they wouldn't be renewing their season tickets.

Outside the court, after the firing had been announced, a motorist yelled out his vehicle window, "Fire Myers," referring to athletic director Gerald Myers.

Leach and Myers did not always see eye-to-eye, as was the case in last year's contentious contract negotiations. Myers was not happy that Leach met with University of Washington officials about their job opening without informing the university.

Myers did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Tech is the second Big 12 school to launch an internal investigation into a coach's treatment of his players.

On Nov. 16, Kansas investigated Mark Mangino, who got a big raise after he was national coach of the year and went 12-1 in 2007. Some players said he was insensitive, though others defended him.

Mangino resigned Dec. 3 after reaching a settlement with the school that was later disclosed as a $3 million buyout.

In an affidavit included in Tuesday's court filing, Leach said he "would never intentionally harm or endanger a player" and that he has been "forced into this situation without being afforded any process." He also said "absolutely" no evidence had been given to him that showed he had violated any university rules or standards.

Several former and current Texas Tech players and coaches defended Leach and harshly criticized James' work ethic in e-mails obtained by CBSSports.com.

Among those were former Texas Tech wide receiver Eric Morris, who wrote that James was "never known as a hard worker" and "seemed to have a negative attitude toward the football program the majority of the time."

Morris told The Associated Press on Wednesday the letters were written as school administrators began looking into the incident, before Leach was suspended. Morris said they wanted to show their support for Leach and show James' possible motives.

Morris said he spoke with Leach as the incident began unfolding.

"He told me he would never do anything" to harm a player, Morris said. "He was trying to hold someone accountable."

Leach's dismissal comes a year after he was Big 12 coach of the year and led Tech to the best season in the history of the program. The Red Raiders went 11-2 last season.

A quirky coach sometimes called a mad scientist because of pass-happy offense, Leach arrived in West Texas in 2000 with his high-octane spread offense. Since then, eight time has a Texas Tech quarterback led the nation in passing.

He parlayed his penchant for pirate lore into his coaching, telling his players they need to "swing their swords" to perform at their best. He began to not acknowledge players' injuries in 2003 to the media.

In 10 seasons, he won 84 games, surpassing predecessor Spike Dykes this season as the winningest coach at the school.

The year before he came to Lubbock, Leach was offensive coordinator under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. Before that he spent two years as an assistant at Kentucky and five years at Valdosta State in Georgia.

Not unlike Bob Knight when he came to coach the Red Raiders basketball team for 6 1/2 years, Leach has raised the profile of the city and the school. He appeared on "60 Minutes" and was profiled in the New York Times Magazine

Now I was unfortunate enough to get a concussion while playing in college, and the only people who dealt with me were the medical staff. I was not placed into a dark room and forced to stand, but I was allowed to watch practice with the trainers in street clothes for a couple of days.

[StL FinFan]

I am wondering if the allegations have real merit or if the AD was waiting for the right opportunity to fire him.  I guess we will never know.

[bsmooth]

He is not denying that they put the kid in the rooms.

[StL FinFan]

It seems like the TT supporters are blaming the kid for this whole mess.  Seems like blaming the victim to me.

[bsmooth]

Of course they are, all they care about is winning. I loved how the other coach is now throwing the kid under the bus too.
What I find funny is the fact no one is denying the kid had a concussion. What is in question is how he treated the player after diagnosis.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

This is very disturbing.  Eerily similar to those kids at UCF that were denied water during offseason workouts.  One died, and the other suffered from kidney failure.

[Philly Fin Fan]

I saw a quote from the Texas Tech WR coach on ESPN last night, and it was really messed up. For a coach to be making the remarks he was making about a kid was ridiculous.

I'm sure Leach wanted to keep the whole thing quiet, but you know the story was going to be all over ESPN considering who the affected players Dad is!

[bsmooth]

I saw a quote from the Texas Tech WR coach on ESPN last night, and it was really messed up. For a coach to be making the remarks he was making about a kid was ridiculous.

I'm sure Leach wanted to keep the whole thing quiet, but you know the story was going to be all over ESPN considering who the affected players Dad is!

That is what I am talking about. Seemed very unprofessional for the coach to be talking about the kid.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I think this is part of the wussification of sports.

As best as I can tell, it sounds like he told a kid who had an attitude problem to leave the meeting and go wait in storage area.  A far cry from dening someone water during a workout or making someone play when injured. 

This strikes me a lot like Parcells calling Terry Glenn, "she" during a presser.  Not real professional, but not something to get all worked up about either. 

[Sunstroke]

(Caution: The following amateur-hour diagnosis contains opinion, speculation, assumption, and incredible hulk-esque leaps based on nothing more than intuition. Void where inhibited. If found offensive, please drop in nearest mailbox.)

I think you have a head to head collision of a couple of different elements in this one, and neither of them smell too good.

1) I think you have a successful college football coach who is equal parts eccentric and egocentric, (and an extra shake of both for good measure) which is an often problematic and almost-always misunderstood character trait combination, often found in extremely intelligent people and complete sociopaths. I think that combination not only caused Mike Leach to believe that his method of disciplining the player was acceptable, but makes him less likely to truly grasp why the majority of people are up in arms over the situation.

2) You have a 21-year old student athlete who comes from a family of means, with a father of relative celebrity (within the sports world anyway). He "supposedly" has attitude and work ethics issues, and is suffering from a mild concussion (and to those who say there is no difference, I say "go have a couple of concussions, like I have, and we'll talk). He's angry that his coach has responded to his attitude and work ethic issues (both immediate and cumulative) by putting him in an equipment shed and an electrical closet during practices while he's unable to practice. While young Master James lacks his coach's eccentricity, he has enough ego to demand that he get even with the authority figure who embarrassed him in front of his peers.

Open gas can, insert lit match...  Angry young man makes video of electrical closet and equipment shed, goes viral on YouTube, and voilla! A revenge dish best served in the cold of cyberspace.

Hidden in all this is what part the strained relationship between Leach and the University played in how everything unraveled. It definitely didn't help, that's for sure.

Frankly, I think Leach was right to be fired, and Craig James probably should be bitchslapped once or twice for raising a whiny punk-bitch of a son. Adam James should go take another time-out in the shed.

[Spider-Dan]

As best as I can tell, it sounds like he told a kid who had an attitude problem to leave the meeting and go wait in storage area.  A far cry from dening someone water during a workout or making someone play when injured. 

The medical staff held the kid out of practice with a concussion.  Since he was not medically cleared to practice, Leach made him go stand in an electrical closet; the exact requirement was that he "not have enough room to sit or lean."  A member of the staff guarded the door to the closet.  He was kept there for several hours.

This is in no way acceptable.  Kick the kid off of the team if you feel that he's a slacker, but don't lock him up in a closet because he won't play with a concussion.

[Sunstroke]

Since he was not medically cleared to practice, Leach made him go stand in an electrical closet; the exact requirement was that he "not have enough room to sit or lean."

Then the exact requirements weren't ever carried out, because the closet shown in his video is not only large enough to sit down in or lean against a wall in, but to do crabwalking laps around.

(Still) Not condoning anything, but if we're trying to keep things in the realm of reality, then inaccurate statements like the closet not being big enough to sit down in or lean in should probably be kept out of it.

[Spider-Dan]

I didn't see any video.  I'm simply stating what the news article said:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls09/news/story?id=4779341

The source said Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James "to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours."

[Sunstroke]

Here's some more news, a report from the head trainer, that basically calls "bullshit" on Adam James' claims. I'm filing it under "never assume the full picture when the only info provided comes from a single emotionally invested or biased source."

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4787194

Full article:

Texas Tech head football athletic trainer Steve Pincock said Red Raiders receiver Adam James was placed in a "sports medicine garage" and media room as "big as a two-car garage" while recovering from a concussion, and was monitored by two trainers at all times.

Pincock's account of the incident, given in a statement to representatives of former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, contradicts James' version of events that led to Leach being fired Wednesday.

James, who is the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James, sustained a concussion on Dec. 16. He was examined the following day and told not to practice because of the injury and an elevated heart rate.

Pincock's statement was obtained by ESPN.com on Thursday night from Leach's representatives. Pincock refused further comment when reached on his cell phone in San Antonio, Texas, where the Red Raiders are preparing to play Michigan State in Saturday's Alamo Bowl.

A source told ESPN's Joe Schad that Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James "to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours."

According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to "put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside."

However, Pincock said James was initially placed in a "sports medicine garage, there is no lock on this building." Pincock said injured players are typically asked to perform exercises during practice, but "James could not participate in these drills, and was originally asked to walk around the field."

"Adam showed up to practice in street clothes, no team gear, and dark sunglasses," Pincock said, according to the statement. "Adam walked about 40 to 50 yards, very slowly and with a non-caring attitude."

Pincock said Leach then asked that James be moved to a location "where sunlight could not bother him as he was wearing sunglasses."

"I instructed Adam to stay in the garage and out of the sun, so the light would not worsen his condition," Pincock said in the statement. "While in the garage, Adam was walking around, eating ice, sitting on the ground, and, at one point, sleeping; at no point was there any enforcement to make Adam stand up."

Leach, during an on-air interview Thursday night with ESPN, said he had not suggested any place specific for James. "I said, find some place dark and one place was as good as the next, and that was close to the field, and plus they had the ice machine," Leach said.

Two days later, while the Red Raiders practiced at Jones AT&T Stadium, James was placed in a room that is used for postgame interviews involving opposing coaches and players. James told school officials he was placed in an electrical closet inside the room.

"I walked Adam to the room, which was at least as big as a two-car garage," Pincock wrote. "Inside the room there is an electrical closet. I looked in the closet and stated that there was 'no way that Adam would be placed in there.' I shut the door to the electrical closet, and it was never opened again. At no time during this practice was Adam ever placed in the electrical closet."

During Thursday's interview, Leach said he believed money was a motivating factor in his dismissal.

"Last year, they didn't want to pay the money [in contract negotiations]. Based on popular opinion and public pressure and things like that, they got in a position where, to save face, they had to give me a competitive contract, which they did," he said. "Then I think, whether it's for financial reasons or what, they decided not to follow through. Now essentially they're trying to steal the money."

[bsmooth]

The emails from the reciever coach should never have been made public and only used by the AD as possible mitigating evidence for his decision.