Open Thread: I'll open up a thread at 1:45 p.m. for those of you who want to discuss the press conference as it's happening. You can go to Texas Tech's official site to view the presser (Internet Explorer only).
Tuberville is Not the Lead Story: It would have been nice to think that the situation involving Mike Leach's termination would subside until next week, but that's not the case. The LAJ submitted a list of questions to Texas Tech and to Mike Leach. Chancellor Kent Hance agreed to answer most of those questions and the LAJ has put those together: 1) the portions that the LAJ has cobbled together since they could not talk with Leach; 2) Hance denies having a problem with Leach prior to his termination; and 3) according to Hance, why Leach was terminated.
I'm not sure what to think this morning as I'm still collecting my thoughts (I woke up a tad late). Although I've read everything, the issues remain the same:
- The university should have conducted a proper investigation;
- If the proper investigation would have revealed that Adam James was in danger, then Leach should have been given his 10 day notice of termination;
- If after a proper investigation, the university did not feel that Adam James was in danger, but felt that Leach violated the terms of his contract, then Leach should have been given his 10 day notice of termination;
- That Hance should give Texas Tech fans more credit for being able to distinguish between a red-herring and emails from Jim Sowell that appeared to desire that Leach be given a year before he was terminated;
- That Hance and the administration knew (especially since Hance and Myers talked with Leach's attorney, Ted Liggett) that if Leach signed the apology that pending the results of the investigation, which I guess was never completed, that if they found that Leach mistreated James, that they would have cause for termination;
- Craig James went above everyone in the athletic department, as it appears that Craig contacted Board of Regent member Larry Anders, about the incident initially. Since it appears that Craig's response after trying to talk with Leach about the situation was to contact a Board of Regents member, leads me to believe that he wanted Leach to be terminated. Standard operating procedure was to contact the athletic department and Craig felt that he could go above the athletic department and did.
They painted Leach into a corner and they had to have known it.
And I guess the other option is that the university received some really bad, and I mean really bad medical advice regarding the treatment of James. I suppose that's an option, but it doesn't seem plausible.
I'd also add that although I'm not a trial attorney, I never would have allowed Hance to go on the record like this. I get that the university is trying to win back the Texas Tech faithful, but the story still doesn't add up. Again, the only thing that I can see is that the university received incredibly poor advice regarding Adam James treatment and that the university believed that he was in some sort of imminent harm.
Oh Yeah, Tommy Tuberville is Texas Tech's Next Head Coach: LAJ's Don Williams and FWST's Dwain Price write this morning that Tuberville's biggest and best quality is that he is a flexible coach. Somehow Price caught RB Baron Batch at the airport (on the way to the Cowboys vs. Eagles game) and I can't tell if I need to insert the sarcasm font or not:
"He’s a great coach and I’m just really ready to get this next page in Tech history turned," Batch said before boarding a plane in Lubbock to attend Saturday’s Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys playoff game. "I’m sure everybody is just relieved and ready to push forward.
"I’m just glad that they named a guy. I’m really excited to play for Tuberville."
Here's Phillip Marshall, who runs an Auburn website on Tubs:
"He definitely believes in a strong running game, which is going to be interesting, I think (at Tech),’’ said Phillip Marshall, a 40-year sports writer in Alabama who now works for AuburnUndercover.com. "But he’s a believer in letting his coaches coach, or at least that’s the way he was at Auburn. He was not a micro-manager in terms of what they did on either side. I would assume that’s still the way he’ll be. He obviously believes in defense, he believes in being physical, and he believes you have to run the ball.’’
And former Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum (Is it bad if I've always liked Slocum as a person? I could never dislike the guy), who employed Tuberville in 1994 as TAMU's defensive coordinator had this to say about Tubs:
"I thought one of the best things he did when he was here is he came right in and we didn’t miss a beat," Slocum said. "He fit right in from the beginning in being a big part of the staff.
"All the kids that played for him liked him, and all the coaches that coached with him liked him. He fit right into our program."
Slocum said he doesn’t believe Tuberville will drastically change Tech’s high-powered spread offense. "I think he’ll probably keep the offense intact and he’ll bring some things to their defense, because he’s got an excellent defensive background," Slocum said.
"I just think they made a good choice. Tom’s a good guy."
I also found some video: KAMC and Fox34 with video of Tuberville arriving in Lubbock.
Red Raiders Dominated: Yeesh! The Oklahoma St. Cowboys absolutely dominated Texas Tech, 81-52 (coverage). I didn't watch the game and I probably won't, but just perusing the boxscore Texas Tech turned the ball over 21 times with only 13 assists, made only 3 of 14 three-point shots, and shot 40% from the field. I mentioned before the game that Texas Tech needed to get out on Anderson and Muonelo . . . well Anderson had 28 points on 9 of 17 from the floor and 5 of 8 on three-point shots. LAJ's Courtney Linehan files her game story and head coach Pat Knight is going to have to get to work, especially with Missouri looming on Wednesday:
"We weren’t cutting, weren’t moving, weren’t back cutting," Knight said. "Everything just went bad for us. I’m going to have to look at the tape, from my standpoint when it comes to our offense guys quit screening, quit moving around."
Snip.
"It’s a funny deal with this team, we’re a better team than we were last year, but now the problem is how do they handle winning?" Knight said. "How do they handle all the BS that goes with it?"
"This is not the team I coached for 14 games. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board."