At the risk of beating a dead horse on its way to the glue factory I would like to explore a topic that surfaced following the release of Leach's locker room speeches. Yes, this is about Leach so feel free to select the "Home" link at the top of the page if you want to read something else. My question is simple...did Mike Leach "change" during his tenure at Tech? First we need to define change. I am not referring to change like that nerdy chick in the movies who we could all tell had potential and then she starts wearing different clothes and then everyone wants to take her to the prom or sockhop depending on the film's setting. Basically, is the Leach that we saw in those clips the same basic guy who left Norman to come to Lubbock because he didn't want to be Stoops' babysitter? (yeah i know that's an obscure reference) We know that he has always been quirky:

 http://www.kentucky.com/2008/11/12/588728/mike-leachs-offbeat-personality.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3385098

But was there a difference in Leach's approach this year? Was he soured by the contract negotiations following such a successful season? Was he lashing out due to something beneath the surface? Did the players reject his style of leadership? If so, what was the breaking point? Or maybe it all came to the surface because we weren't winning like in 2008. Yeah, I know it's all speculative but we said many times throughout the season that things just seemed different in the locker room and on the field this year. Hearing the passion in his voice during the Insight Bowl speech was truly moving but seeing his reaction to the Baylor game made me feel like I was watching a different person.

I don't know if it's good, bad, or indifferent but Leach distinguished himself from most coaches in that people knew about him APART from Texas Tech. You can't discuss Stoops or Brown or Carroll apart from their respective schools, right? It seemed to me that he made himself bigger than the program at times which you can't really blame him for but I am sure it soured the three stooges. Anyways, I have been thinking about this topic for a few days and was wondering what other people thought. Thanks for your time and input.