Sportsfrog.com

There, I said it.

Mike Leach is getting absolutely killed during tonight’s broadcast of the Alamo Bowl. Mike Patrick–Craig James’s usual broadcast partner–has become a de-facto advocate for Adam James and Bob Davie, who spent much more time preparing for the Texas Bowl, is using his status as James’s replacement to play off of Patrick. It’s like a bad buddy-cop movie broadcasting a football game.

The worst part might have been near the end of the first half when Davie said that it must be hard for Leach to realize that it’s over and that he was watching his own football team on television. Yes, that’s probably pretty hard to take, but my guess is that when Davie said that, Leach was in the bathroom puking in disgust from all of the James fellatio that had previously occurred.

ESPN did a great job of ignoring the topic in the first part of the broadcast, and I’m sure that the overtime Liberty Bowl helped. But once the second quarter was underway, it was open season on Mike Leach.

At the very least, ESPN could have clarified on numerous occasions that Craig James worked for the network. Instead, it acted as if that point was known by the viewing audience, while also acting like none of the details–with plenty of pro-Adam James commentary and sidebars–of the past week were known by viewers.

Despicable.

Yeah, he’s quirky. And weird, by coaching standards. But he also graduated closer to the top than the bottom in his law class at Pepperdine, so, stupid isn’t exactly near the top of the list of adjectives you would assign to erstwhile Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. And with Craig James having ESPN at his disposal, Leach is wasting no time starting to get his story out. Enter this must read interview published in the New York Times which sure provides more pieces to the puzzle. And that perhaps this wasn’t anywhere near what Adam James and his father have alleged. A snippet:

Leach said that Craig James called the assistant coach Lincoln Riley so often to lobby for playing time that they had a meeting with Adam James. They played him two of the messages and asked, “How would you feel if we went in there to the meeting room and we stuck speakers up and we played these two messages for the team?” Leach added: “After that we didn’t get any more phone calls from Craig, but he did proceed to call administrators.” Leach said that Craig James felt his son was not getting a fair shot and threatened to call the administration about it.

“He made it clear that he had a business relationship with our chancellor or certainly was in conversation about such things,” Leach said. “He made it clear that he was announcing this game or that. He always felt like we were leaving the best receiver on the team on the bench. It’s inconceivable that we’d ever want to do that or consider doing it.” The Texas Tech head football trainer, Steve Pincock, supported Leach’s claims that he did not mistreat Adam James after his concussion.

For the details on what was done for (or to) James, read the article. It apparently was NOT locked-in-an-electrical-closet stuff, unless James himself went into said closet. And the idea that the James gang had an agenda here is all too believeable.

There has been plenty of rather interesting discussion about this as it has unfolded here in the (new) Swamp. Register and drop by with a thought or two.

Ok, yeah, bad joke. How many copy desk workers are going to use a pirate captain reference for the headlines for Mike Leach’s suspension? Gotta be quite a few.

Anyway, if this is true–and I stress that I think this is a big if–this is bizarre given the attention to concussions recently, and the player abuse allegations against Mark Mangino, Leach’s roommate when they started their coaching careers.

Dave Matter, the Missouri beat writer for the Columbia Tribune–and one of the best college-town beat writers around–has an interesting theory:

if Leach allegations are true, I’m convinced he wanted to get fired. He’s too smart to think he’d get away with this after the Mangino deal.

Leach may be batshit crazy, but he’s no dummy. (If you can get access to the feature on Leach in March’s Texas Monthly. It’s well worth your time. It’s an extremely long article, but one of the best magazine articles I’ve read all year)

But at the same time, why the heck would Leach want to get fired? He just signed a five year extension at Tech and at the time of the alleged incident, there were no primo college football jobs open. (Mike Leach to South Bend? That would go over well) Where would Leach go? Would he rather be an offensive coordinator in the NFL? I don’t think that the zone read scheme that Leach runs at Tech would be terribly effective in the NFL without Peyton Manning at quarterback.

Whatever this is, my guess is that it’s somewhere between what Leach and Adam James say. But if the resolution to this situation is Texas Tech and Leach parting ways, then Tech may very well toss its relevance on the national college football landscape out the window as well.

(Kudos to ESPN for taking Craig James off of the broadcast of Saturday’s game)

EDIT: Great piece by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.