Instant Analysis
Mike Leach Gets Fired
Pete
Fiutak
Good riddance. Good-bye. See ya.
The more the sadistic practices of coaches can be exposed, the better. No, coaches at the big-time collegiate level aren’t molders of men. That’s the job of the parents. No, coaches aren’t allowed to treat players like garbage, scare them into keeping their scholarships, or do any of this old-school crap that only the dopiest of the mouth-breathers believe is necessary.
Do I believe that football practices and coaches should be all hugs and warm fuzzies? Hardly. I believe that players should be pushed to the limit and beyond when it comes to working on being better
at playing football. If a coach wants to make a kid run steps until he drops ... so be it.
Run the same drill 97 times in a row until it's right ... of course. My problem is when the coaches think they’re above their methods in the name of a supposedly greater good. Withholding water on hot days, locking a kid in a closet, verbally breaking down a player and threatening his school life by taking away his scholarship, and all the other garbage that these thugs try to pass off in the name of discipline has no place in college sports. Those methods simply aren’t necessary, and every time a coach who crosses the line gets canned, the better the sports world is.
Has football ever been better? Has the product on the field ever been more exciting or more entertaining? Football coaches, just coach football,
teach your craft, and quit believing you’re doing something important enough to justify torture.
Richard
Cirminiello
Something is missing here.
Although I’m not at all surprised that this saga has ended with Leach getting fired, there has to be more to the story than what’s being told. A reprimand, a suspension, or probation? Fine. However, as bizarre as his tactics were, I’m not sold they rose to the level of termination in a matter of days of a decade-long successful coach, with no prior history of problems in Lubbock.
That said, move on, Mike. You’ll never coach for the Red Raiders again, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Like June Jones at SMU, there’s something to be said for a coach spreading his brand of offensive ingenuity and unique personality to another town. Despite this debacle, it shouldn’t take Leach very long to land another head job. He’s been one of the most productive coaches of the past ten years, will make a ton of money for a program, and besides being a little eccentric, has not had a recurring history of problems away from the field. He won’t be for everyone, so it’s just a matter of finding the right fit.
Matt Zemek
1) So, it’s indeed true that Craig James overstated his case, and that the severity with which Mike Leach treated Adam James was considerably exaggerated. No matter: The decision to fire Leach is still entirely appropriate.
There’s no positive medical value in having a concussed player stand alone for three hours in a secluded spot. No, Adam James did not and would not suffer increased neurological damage as a result of Leach’s actions, but the head coach’s intent – given his opinion of Adam James – was to make the wide receiver feel humiliated… at least, that’s what a reasonable person could very well conclude from this undeniably bizarre series of events.
If Adam James was such a cancer to the Texas Tech football program, Leach should have kicked him off the team. Admittedly, the record needs to be corrected in one respect: Contrary to what was said here on Monday, Leach did not punish Adam James for refusing to practice because of a concussion. In the eyes of some, that should buy Leach a second chance, but that’s still an impoverished view.
This about-to-end decade witnessed many controversies in the world beyond college football, one of them being the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. In a broader context, Mike Leach did not commit a very severe transgression in his handling of the Adam James situation; his actions are nothing – nothing! – compared to what Catholic bishops did for many decades in this country, as revealed in 2002 in Boston and then in other cities in subsequent years. However, the reason Mike Leach has been rightly fired is the same reason Bernard Cardinal Law was pushed out of the Archdiocese of Boston: Even if it was hard to precisely determine some of the ins, outs, whens, wheres, and whys of the situation, it was patently obvious that a person in a position of authority abused a place of power by acting in a murky, shadowy and decidedly stupid fashion.
The enormity of Mike Leach’s singular situational mistake – much smaller than first thought – can’t begin to hold a candle to the truly outrageous and severe sins committed by Cardinal Law over an extended period of time. Yet, a football coach and a disgraced ecclesial figure are both linked by their astounding stupidity and jawdropping administrative incompetence. Mike Leach didn’t destroy Adam James’s life the way Cardinal Law destroyed the lives of Boston Catholics, but his alarming lapse in judgment should result in the loss of his considerable power and income. People in power need to be held accountable, and while Mike Leach shouldn’t become a pariah in coaching circles, he does need to reflect on the mistake he made… and then piece together his career as an offensive coordinator or – if he stays a head coach – at a school that’s lower on the NCAA pecking order.
2) Just in case anyone thinks that Leach is being singled out or unfairly targeted in this instance, it’s worth looking at college basketball to understand that: A) Leach should be gone at Texas Tech; and B) that some athletic departments act responsibly, while others don’t.
Let it be said – if you think Leach is being picked on – that Rick Pitino should not be coaching basketball at the University of Louisville; no way, no how. For all the reasons stated above – plus the damning reality of a payment to Karen Sypher (whether or not it was to finance an abortion) – Pitino’s actions are far worse than anything Leach did, and it’s not even a debate. A man who is highly compensated to lead 19-year-old male athletes should not hold such a prestigious and visible job after being embroiled in the tawdry mess that enfolded Pitino. Louisville administrators should be ashamed of themselves.
On the other hand, Iowa State University’s administration should be able to sleep well at night. When former Cyclone head coach Larry Eustachy was seen drinking with underage girls, he got the heave-ho, and is now toiling in obscurity at Southern Mississippi. Rick Pitino should be axed, but at least the Larry Eustachy story provides a model for the way in which Mike Leach’s career could – and should – unfold, at least in the short run.
Michael Bradley
In the wake of Texas Tech’s firing of head coach Mike Leach, it’s pretty obvious the school wanted to get rid of him pretty badly; otherwise they wouldn’t have let ESPN serve as their in-house communications department or have moved so quickly in a matter that could well turn out to be pretty expensive down the road. The most interesting thing here is that without Leach, the Red Raiders run the risk of being nothing more than a mid-level bowl contender, which is just what they were before his arrival.
We can argue which side was right in all of this, and the lawyers will no doubt do that. If Leach did what he is accused of doing, he probably would have been fired anyway, because you just can’t treat players like that anymore, especially when they are the sons of television analysts. If he didn’t, Leach stands to make a lot of money. But what of Tech football from here? Does the school have someone poised to come in and continue the prosperity that Leach began? If it doesn’t, the Raiders will fade from the national scene, and Lubbock will be known simply as a west Texas outpost with a football team that wins a few games. There must be some serious animosity between the two sides, because firing Leach is drastic step that could have hugely negative ramifications on the field, especially for a school that once hired hall-of-fame bully Bob Knight to coach its hoops team.