About Mike Leach...

There is plenty of ambiguity regarding exactly why former Texas Tech football head coach Mike Leach was fired. Tech officials and their apologists claim Leach "abused' the player. Leach claims he just told the trainers to "find someplace dark" for the player to be put; "one place was just as good as another," said Leach.

With the release of e-mails among Tech administration officials regarding Leach's contract negotiations in 2008, the likely motivation for the firing begins to appear. The negotiations had been tense, with Leach's agent asking for more than the administration wanted to pay. The negotiations apparently turned nasty. In an e-mail dated January 9, 2009, from athletic booster Jim Sowell to Chancellor Kent Hance, Sowell made the following statement:

"I hope he [Leach] doesn't sign, that gives us a full year to find another coach after we fire him after next season...."

Although I could be wrong, it looks as though Tech administration had Leach's termination planned for almost a year prior to its execution.