Texas Tech Brought Down By Snobby Kid

For those of us that love the quarterback position and the passing game in general, yesterday was a very sad day.  Yesterday one of the most innovative minds in the game lost his job.

Yesterday, Texas Tech fired their coach Mike Leach after a player complaint was filed by sophomore WR Adam James, son of former NFL player and current ESPN analyst Craig James. The complaint stated that Coach Leach forced James to stay in a shed and an electrical closet during practice after James sat out due to a mild-concussion.


You have got to be kidding me.

Unvelievable.

Please tell me there's more!

How thin-skinned are you, kid? Give me a break. The places where James was forced to go can be seen in this report. It's not like he was in a 3x2 closet filled with electric wires!

I also question James' timing.

Why is he filing this complaint just before Texas Tech's bowl game? How could he cause such a distraction to his team at this critical point in the season? How could he cause his team to lose their coach for the biggest game of the year? He couldn't just wait a few weeks? What kind of teammate does this to his team?  Here is a kid who could obviously care less about his teammates and the Texas Tech football program - the only Division I-A program that offered him a football scholarship.

Diagnosing concussions is not an exact science. Doctors have to be careful in this day and age because of all the malpractice lawsuits in our litigious society. It's much easier to take a kid with a headache, label it a "mild concussion" and have him sit out than to give him the ok to play. If the kid were to get hit again at practice, the doctor would surely be liable for any damage.

But this is one area where medical practice and football bump heads.

The coach spends a scholarship on a kid and wants the kid on the field - especially in practice. Some kids have a knack for being injured for practice, but miraculously recovering for games. After a while, coaches get a feel for which kids are the types that like to practice and which are the ones that like to make excuses to miss practice. Clearly, Leach had made up his mind on which type of kid Adam James was, and insulted him by making him spend time locked up.

Mind you, he did not physically assault him or try to trade playing time for a night in Coach Leachy's Night Time Sleepy Tent. He just put him in a room for a few hours - which is about as much as James was going to do if he were actually at practice. Give me a break! If you can't throw a kid in a closet for a few hours, what CAN you do?

Leach made a commitment to Texas Tech last season when he decided to stay at the school after leading it to perhaps it's most successful season. Leach has put Texas Tech football on the map and was rewarded by the university last year with a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract. He could have probably signed elsewhere for even more, but stayed at the place where he made his name.

Leach is due an $800,000 bonus today, and was fired yesterday. How convenient for the university.

In addition, because he was fired "for cause", the university will not have to pay him $400,000 per year that he is owed over the remainder of his contract.  Again, how convenient.

I might be able to understand if a school with a squeaky clean image tried to make a move like this. But we're talking about the school that hired Bobby Knight! The Bobby Knight that flung chairs. The Bobby Knight who was accused of choking a player. Texas Tech defended Bobby Knight when he slapped a player on the bench during a timeout.

Texas Tech has 117 players on their roster.  One player filed a complaint.  116 players have not complained and unless there is more to this that we don't know about, they deserve the right to continue playing for the coach that recruited them. There's a reason Texas Tech paid this guy so much just one year ago - it's because he adds value.  At least, the university believed he added value just one year ago.

But if a doctor says a kid can't play, then the kid shouldn't play. The coach should know enough to just leave him alone. Locking a kid in a room for an extended period does not seem proper, though it also doesn't seem extreme.

Even so, it would seem to me as though a warning or a slap on the wrist more appropriate here than to outright fire Coach Leach. It just doesn't make sense to fire this guy. Please tell me that there is more to this than Leach locking a kid in a room for a couple of hours! 

How come this university is not standing up for Coach Leach in this, the only blemish on his record, when they so fervently stood up for a guy like Bobby Knight?

I don't feel much compassion for Adam Jones at this moment.  Why did the kid have to go this route?  Why couldn't he be a man, accept his punishment, and use it as motivation to work harder?  And if he couldn't take it, why didn't he just quit and allow his 116 teammates to play for the coach that commited to them and this institution.

I feel more for Coach Leach that after all the work he has done to put Texas Tech football on the map, it is going to crash down in this manner.

I also feel bad for the 116 other kids on the roster who came to play for Coach Leach. As you know, NCAA rules are ridiculous - any kid who wishes to transfer out of this mess would have to sit out a year before being able to return to the field.

When the dust eventually settles, Mike Leach will find a new job. The players will either transfer or graduate and move on. It is the legacy of Red Raider football that will probably suffer most.

Good luck getting kids to come and play there in the next few years. Good luck finding another coach who wants to work for an administration that won't support him. But hey... you saved a few bucks Texas Tech. That is, if you win the lawsuit that is sure to follow.

About the only people that seem happy about this are the James' family, the Texas Tech administration and perhaps the Baylor Bears - who could possibly escape their perpetual Big 12 cellar when the dust settles in Lubbock.

It is a sad day when one snobby kid can bring down an entire college program.  Please tell me there's more, because this just doesn't make sense.  Please tell me there's more.