UW Dawg Pound's John Berkowitz write last night that Mike Leach will be going back to Seattle this morning for a second interview. Sounds like a done deal, right?
But ask someone who knows Tech’s coach - really knows him, interacts with him on a regular basis: Will Mike be coaching elsewhere next year? Are we seeing the end of an era? The answer I get lately, from multiple people, is always the same: Not if he can help it. He likes it here too much. His family, too.Oh, about that trip this week to Washington and Leach’s visit with UW officials: Knowing Mike, he thought it’d be cool to have someone else pick up the tab while he checked out the Space Needle. And maybe have his picture made next to the original Starbucks, holding his favorite, the big cup of China green tips tea.
Wise fellow, Leach. In all seriousness, with the trip to Washington, he’s exploring his options to be sure. But people around him say Mike doesn’t really have his heart set on finding a new port in which to dock the pirate ship.
Williams goes on to say that should Leach walk, Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers would be squarely in the cross-hairs of fans' displeasure.
Personally, I'm running a bit of a roller coaster of emotions on how this is playing out.
Yesterday, I was clearly upset that Myers didn't contact Leach the evening after the Baylor game. None of that made any sense to me and it still doesn't. Leach obviously has options, and we were all pretty sure that he was going to be a candidate for any major job.
David, a DTN reader, emailed me and posed the question (which I've also thought about before) if Leach and his agent, Gary O'Hagan, came to Myers early this year with number so high that there's no way that Myers could have said yes. Publicly, Myers couldn't report those high numbers for fear of alienating his coach and Leach and his agent get to see where they are with Myers and Texas Tech.
Leach and O'Hagan, and I'll blame O'Hagan here, maybe knew that and were perfectly willing to let the circus begin on Tuesday.
If that's the case, then I don't like it.
But this brings up another point, how much money is too much money for Leach? Right now, Leach officially makes $1,750,000.00 which puts him 31st in the country. Here are some Big 12 notables:
- Bob Stoops (1) - $6,500,000
- Mack Brown (9) - $2,910,000
- Mark Mangino (16) - $2,300,000
- Mike Sherman (26) - $1,800,000
- Art Briles (27) - $1,800,000
Does Leach deserve to make as much money as he wants? I do think Texas Tech does not have an unlimited budget, like Texas or Oklahoma, and is somewhat limited on what they can spend on a head coach.
How much does Coach Leach deserve and how much is too much? I'ld love to know how you guys feel about this.
Current Emotional State - semi-panic mode. There's just too much information for me to believe that he's not seriously considering other positions and I hate that it's come down to that. I'm not sure what should have been done differently other than Myers getting his ducks in a row to be ready to present a contract to Leach on Sunday, but there's a strong possibility that this would not have mattered anyway as Leach and O'Hagan wanted to shop from the beginning and Myers knew that.
And I also wanted to mention that two brothers are starting a website asking you to donate money (it's NOT tax deductible) to keep Leach in Lubbock. I can think of 100 charities that probably need your money and during these tough financial times, plus you would get a tax deduction. I get the sentiment from these guys, they want Leach to stay by any means and they want to show their appreciation, so their hearts are in the right place. They love their coach, but I don't see how asking for money is going to help the situation.