Leach FIRED!!!!

[sammy]

I found this story on ESPN which confirms what idiots the Texas Tech organization is! What a bunch of morons to fire their coach for a spoiled rich kid who has an interfering father who works for ESPN! What a travesty!

Trainer says James was monitoredComment Email Print Share By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com
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Mike Leach tells Rece Davis his side of the Adam James controversy
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Texas Tech head football athletic trainer Steve Pin 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.

Pin '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.




Full Leach Interview With ESPN
Watch ESPN's entire 37-minute interview with former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. Video

Pin 's statement was obtained by ESPN.com on Thursday night from Leach's representatives. Pin 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, Pin said James was initially placed in a "sports medicine garage, there is no lock on this building." Pin 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," Pin said, according to the statement. "Adam walked about 40 to 50 yards, very slowly and with a non-caring at ude."

Pin 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," Pin 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," Pin 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 ESPN 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 compe ive 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."

In a phone interview with The New York Times, Leach described a divisive and tense relationship with Craig James, whom he said he had to deal with more than every other parent on the team combined. He said James frequently attended practices and called assistant coaches.

"I think he used his position at ESPN to try to coerce me into allowing Adam to play more," Leach told the Times. "But the thing about it is as the coach, I watch every inch of film. I'm deferring to the judgment of 12 people as we look at the film on who should play and who should play when and then we make our decision based on that. I don't feel like it's fair to the other players and I don't think it's the right way to do business to allow influence and position to dictate when you play a young man."

When Craig James was asked about those claims, he called them "absurd," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.

Leach also told the Times that the release of a series of e-mail messages obtained by The Dallas Morning News proved that the university did not want him around. In one, a booster recommended to Tech administrators, "You should sign a contract that would not cost us too much to fire him."

"It's shocking to me that there's people working together that were trying to get me fired last year after an 11-1 regular season," Leach told the newspaper.

Mark Schlabach is a college football writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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fanman2651 says: January 1, 2010, 0:42 AM ETfunny, i saw the mobile phone video the family posted and didn't see any humans other than the kid taking the video. this whole thing smells rotten, i'll bet Craig James wonders what the heck he was thinking when the entrusted his son's well being to the TT football staff...
chuckbass27 says: January 1, 2010, 0:20 AM ETwho cares - the pirate is gone...ALSO SEETech coach critical of James now offers support Texas Tech fires Leach 'effective immediately' Leach files for restraining order to coach Alamo Texas Tech suspends Leach for Alamo Bowl
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[johngateswhiteley]

A&M has slipped behind Tech in recent years as far as success......I could see that reversing now since Tech has done this.

I don't deny that. But it would reverse by A&Ms own doing. There is such thing as trends.

[johngateswhiteley]

So they've deliberately been unsuccessful lately?

Did t.u. deliberately suck in the 90s? No, happens.

[Marcus Bryant]

Briles? Come on. Briles' rep is about as deserved or real as Sherman's. And Briles isn't going to get kids to drive ten hours from civilization to Lubbock as Leach was able to, or get more out of less as Leach did.

[Blake]

Leach is an egotistical, all knowing . Craig James is an egotistical, all knowing . The TxTch administration is filled with good ol' boy egotistical s. The James kid is an en led, whiny, ass .

This is what happens when a bunch of s line up and ram head on into each other... You get this pile of . Unfortunately the TxTch fans are who suffer.

sums it up pretty well

[Blake]

What do you think of the Tommy Tuberville rumors?

disturbing.

He would be nice if Tech was at Baylor's level and starting over was an option.

I'd like to see this program continue at this pace and having even Ruffin move into the HC spot would be better to me than Tommy.

[Blake]

Tech cannot swing the buyout. They probably couldn't even afford Leach's contract which is why they're now trying to get out of it.

you are most likely correct that the cannot swing the buyout, but they can afford Leach's contract well enough.

[Blake]

...Cracks me up. A&M controls A&Ms success. The only schools that are on par or above A&M are: t.u., ou and Nebraska.

...jgw cracks me up.

[Blake]

Briles? Come on. Briles' rep is about as deserved or real as Sherman's. And Briles isn't going to get kids to drive ten hours from civilization to Lubbock as Leach was able to, or get more out of less as Leach did.

Briles has a CUSA le under his belt while being the HC at Houston. He won 4 state high school les in the 90s before spending 3 years as asst coach under Leach and then on to UH.

I think I can safely say if the Raiders were to get Briles, they would still be closer to a Big XII le than the Ags with Sherman who has nothing much better than Brett Favre on his resume.

....all that said, I doubt Briles comes to Lubbock any time soon and I'm betting Tech simply moves McNeil into the HC spot.

[lebomb]

Ruffin would be the smart choice.

[j-6]

this is why i dislike the new york times

article written by someone named "thayer"

go out of their way to say it was a 38-minute phone interview (wow! 38 minutes!)

then use content ripped off from AP, ESPN and the Dallas Morning News for the majority of the story

pulitzer

Isn't "Thayer" the semen receptacle that said Texas sends prospects to Girls Gone Wild parties and OU's process is upstanding and respectable?