LAJ's Don Williams is on the case, Michael Crabtree's cousin and mentor, David Wells said that Crabtree is "50-50" on returning to Texas Tech. Here's Wells (no, not this David Wells) on Crabtree:
"He loves the college life. He loves college. He loves his teammates,’’ Wells said. "He has a hard decision to make. He loses Graham (Harrell) as his quarterback. Leach hasn’t signed his deal. (Crabtree) is wanting to see that happen. There’s a lot of things to (consider). It’s a difficult decision. It’ll probably come down to the wire.’’
There's a lot to this article, especially when it comes to Crabtree, mainly that Wells denies that Crabtree has hired Anthony "Paco" Montoya as his personal assistant, which refutes earlier reports from the Dallas Obeserver and DallasBasketball.com.
Given all of that bit of delicious news, perhaps the most interesting bit of news was a 90 minute to 2 hour meeting between Wells, Crabtree, wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons, inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley and the Captain himself, immediately after the Cotton Bowl. I'll let Williams take it from here:
Tech wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons said the contract was one of several topics covered in a 90-minute to two-hour meeting among Leach, Crabtree, Simmons and Lincoln Riley, Crabtree’s position coach last year. The meeting took place at the Cotton Bowl stadium immediately after last week’s game."Leach brought up the whole situation and explained to them, ‘I’m going to be here. I want to be here. If that’s one of your concerns, let me put that to rest,’ ’’ Simmons said.
Simmons said Leach also shared with Crabtree "what he’s trying to accomplish, what his vision is for this program, how glad he is and sincere he is and how happy he is to be here.
"I thought it was very big of them to sit down and address it and talk about it.’’
That sounds encouraging, but then there's this, Williams again:
Asked if Crabtree’s camp was worried about Leach leaving Tech, Wells said, "Not worried. Concerned.’’Asked if there were concern even with Leach having two years left on his contract, Wells replied, "Yeah.’’
But Leach said that need not be an issue. Tech officials and Leach’s agents have been in discussions since Dec. 5, when Tech offered Leach a five-year, $12.1-million deal.
Is it better to be "not worried" or "concerned"?
I've got no idea what this all means, but at the very least, Leach seems like he made it a point to sit down with Crabtree and assure him that if Crabtree is going to come back to school, Leach will be there and they've already addressed the fact that there are only two years left on Leach's current deal.
I'm not sure if this is an bass-ackwards way to think about it, but it's almost as if Crabtree and his advisors called Leach out for you, the fan. Their concern is your concern.
Now I'm beginning to wonder if this deal gets done before January 15th? You know, the day that Crabtree has to declare.
Speculate in the comments.