Yesterday morning I posted three entries to my Facebook page that provided some insight into how Texas Tech’s Tommy Tuberville is adjusting to life as the Red Raiders head football coach.
The entries were entirely based on conversations with three different sources, two of whom are current football coaches at major college football programs and an athletic department staffer also at a major football school. All three know Tuberville personally and have talked to him about the Texas Tech situation.
From those conversations, it was made clear to me that Tuberville was not entirely pleased with how things were going at Tech. In fact, as I said yesterday, Tuberville was downright “miserable.”
Tuberville is absolutely miserable at Texas Tech. Wishes he hadn’t heeded advice of Under Armour folks and taken TTU job. One of his complaints is ADs Myers/Hocutt are powerless to keep admins and boosters in check. Leach refused to kiss their rings, and you see what that got him. #tubs has told multiple sources he wishes he’d taken USF job over TTU.
As time goes by, Mike Leach is only going to look more and more like the genius he really was at Texas Tech. He didn’t need great players to win, which is why he was such a great fit there. BCG will be similar. Recruits to his system, which works. Don’t need blue chips to win. #tubs another story.
How’s this for awkward: #tubs backchanneled interest to Miami after Shannon was fired. The Miami Athletic Director at that time? Kirby Hocutt, who was just hired as new Texas Tech AD.
After practice yesterday, Tuberville talked about my Facebook posts to the DALLAS MORNING NEWS, LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL, DAILY TOREADOR, and NBC Texas affiliate KCBD.
Tuberville told KCBD-TV’s Pete Christy:
“I don’t know where that came from. How about this weather here? Whoever wrote that blog needs to come down here. He probably doesn’t have weather this nice.
“But no, this is a great place. We’re gonna build something here that people can be proud of, but I think that comes from a lot of people who probably would hope we would pack up and leave.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s gonna be a tough challenge the next couple of years getting it to where we want to get it to, but I would imagine that’s coming from across the river somewhere that they would hope I would go somewhere else.”
Two things stand out from those comments.
1) “It’s gonna be a tough challenge the next couple of years getting it to where we want to get it to.”
Tuberville inherited a program from the winningest coach in Texas Tech history not just in football, but in all sports at the school. (Mike Leach.) The 2010 team Tuberville led to a barely bowl-eligible season had 14 returning starters, including eight on offense.
Leach’s final season the Red Raiders had the highest graduation rate of any major college football program in the country.
So Tuberville being handed that program is a “tough challenge” that will take at least three years to “get it to where we want to get it to“?
2) “I think that comes from a lot of people who probably would hope we would pack up and leave.”
Reality has set in for Texas Tech fans who held out a scintilla of hope that Leach might return as coach. Those fans, though disappointed by Tech’s performance under Tuberville in 2010, fully support him as their head football coach now.
So who are the “people” who “hope” Tuberville “would pack up and leave“?
Can’t imagine it would be opposing coaches or players, as Tuberville’s TTU team last season was less competitive than the teams Leach consistently fielded at Tech.
Tuberville has support of the TTU fans and the local media. The national media hasn’t seen enough yet to make a steadfast judgement on his performance in Lubbock.
The only “people” many Tech followers would “hope would pack up and leave” are the TTU administrators and boosters who forced Leach out over what was purely a personality conflict.
The same delusional TTU administrators and boosters who put their own egos above the football program and the school in using the James family to manufacture Leach’s ouster are also the same folks who are the root of my Facebook posts about why Tuberville, at least in part, is “miserable.”
Former Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers in his latter years was a figurehead and had little to do with Leach’s departure. Similarly, new AD Kirby Hocutt lacks the authority of a typical athletic director at a major college athletic department. Hocutt couldn’t leave Miami fast enough, where substandard facilities, an impossible college market and a kooky school president had him ready to crawl to LBK if that’s what it took.
The Billy Gillispie hire was in the works, as I’ve noted for several months, well before Hocutt arrived in Lubbock. (His first official day at the school was Monday.) Gillispie was essentially hired by TTU boosters, donors and Chancellor Kent Hance. Hocutt’s involvement in the hiring process was mostly the observance of protocol.
Tuberville’s “misery” is based on two things:
1) Inability to control the boosters and non-athletic administration from meddling with the football program.
2) His personality. Tuberville is a “grass is always greener” guy.
On the latter, Tuberville is like basketball coach Tubby Smith. Ever notice how Smith’s name pops up for seemingly every high profile opening during the basketball offseason? It isn’t a coincidence. Smith wants to continue to cement his leverage at his current school while also receiving the attention and respect he thinks he doesn’t get enough of at his current job.
Tuberville has the same personality profile.
The greatest irony in all of this is that Leach would’ve been much more likely to stay in Lubbock indefinitely - at least compared to Tuberville - who will likely jump ship as soon as the opportunity presents itself. It’s no coincidence that Tuberville has uber-aggressive agent Jimmy Sexton in his employ. (See Mike Anderson.)
Though in order to get another high profile job, #tubs will have to somehow live up to what he yesterday called the “tough challenge” of taking over Leach’s wildly successful program.
#freetubs
Follow Brooks on Twitter or join him on Facebook for real-time updates.
12:21 pm on March 24th, 2011
I hope he is miserable there, and if he leaves for another job, I hope he’s even more miserable at that one.
12:24 pm on March 24th, 2011
LOL Tubs is not a good liar. The weather? Really? I’m not sure who would want him out. Like you said, their fanbase is pretty much over Leach, and he does not strike fear in the Big 12 schools like Leach did, so no one in the Big 12 cares enough about him now to want him to leave. I hope he stayes. Only Tubs would screw up what Leach built and turn it into a “tough job”. The only thing Tech really lacked was a defense.
12:45 pm on March 24th, 2011
I just want to say PLEASE use your website at least more than Facebook.
I use Facebook. I HAVE to use Facebook. Our local music venue doesn’t use their website to announce shows—-they use their FACEBOOK page. I use it to spread word of my new business projects.
And I follow you on Facebook.
But I come here to THIS site hoping to find stories and videos. I thought Facebook was always supposed to SUPPLEMENT sites——like, don’t you get more revenue from your ads if more people come here?
I’m just saying. I visit THIS site several times a day, from work, from home, and from my phone, and it doesn’t update enough (not that it ever could, I love it), but please, update here more than Facebook. This space would exist without Facebook, and I wouldn’t have been following you on Facebook without the wbsite first.
These videos are the perfect example.
But I LOVE the story, hehehe. Oh, Tubs. What a mess.
1:09 pm on March 24th, 2011
The bozo acts like we didn’t have anything to be proud of before. I will admit I’m a Leach fan through and through and I think the administration of my alma mater sucks. I now give my money and support to my grad school Boston University Hockey…….
1:17 pm on March 24th, 2011
Mike Leach was a terrible recruiter and by the time he got fired there was no talent on defense at that school (he only focused on offense and didn’t have the personality to recruit top players). He was very fortunate to be at the forefront of an offense that was so new it was difficult to stop, but gimmicks don’t last forever (see Houston and it’s Run and Shoot).
In my opinion, Leach is an idiot for being so difficult to deal with. He didn’t lose his job because of Craig James; he lost his job because his bosses couldn’t stand working with him and they found an opportunity to get rid of him.
Leach will go down in history as a footnote. He ruined his career by having such a huge ego, and the spread offense gimmick he used is not something that will continue working long term.
1:39 pm on March 24th, 2011
Wow.
Another feces slinging “sports reporter”.
So many of these points are off base which leads me to believe that this story is being planted to effect current recruiting efforts.
For the sake of time and sanity I’ll only refute a few of the inaccuracies.
Tubs had ONE fewer loss this year than he did last year. New offensive system and defense were going to lead to growing pains. Even with all that “talent” it lacked big time playmakers and the speed necessary to run the defense that Tubs is accustomed to…that will come with good recruiting classes. By the way, Tubs brought in a top 20 class in his first season. Better than Leach ever brought in during his tenure.
Speaking of “grass is greener” personalities, Leach was constantly using the his off-season to whore himself out for other jobs (Washington, Miami, etc). Of course, they all figured out he is way too crazy to take a risk on. Mike Leach brought a novel, innovative offense to Tech and it worked until every offense in the country adopted some form of the spread and, subsequently, every defense was adjusted to defend it. At that point, it came down to recruiting talent, a job that Leach fails miserably at….Leach’s inability to fufill EVERY responsibility as the head coach of a large D1 school is what got him fired. Mike Leach- Amazing offensive coordinator, horrible head coach.
As for Tubs not being able to “control” boosters…Can you tell me in exactly which way that is??? From what I’ve heard, he’s got most of them eating out of his hand and he can pretty much do as he pleases. He’s raised more money in one year than ML did in his first five seasons. He’s upgraded facilities, upgraded the scoreboard and raised money to buy a new videoboard, upgraded practice fields, weight room, etc., etc… Oh yeah…He just got another contract extension a couple of months ago from those administrators that apparently can’t get along with him.
1:41 pm on March 24th, 2011
This is such BS, and a big conspiracy to help sway Delvon Simmons commitment to either school. SBB is talking with the always shady Kiffin, and trying to help USC land Simmons over Tech.
1:48 pm on March 24th, 2011
I’ll never go to another Texas Tech game in the history of my life. But I might go out and get a DWI (or 3) and see if that might qualify me to get hired as the head basketball coach!!
1:48 pm on March 24th, 2011
If being drunk were a reason for not hiring coaches then TCU probably wouldn’t have any of it’s current coaching staff.
And Tech would have NEVER hired Mike Leach in the first place.
1:50 pm on March 24th, 2011
@BeckyTimmons:
You didn’t even graduate from Tech and neither did most of your Team Leach hate group. Give it up.
1:52 pm on March 24th, 2011
We have the least intrusive boosters of any major conference program in the country. Mike didn’t do anything in the way of alumni relations. He didn’t go to any fundraising functions and he sent his assitants to recruiting round-ups every February because he didn’t want to be bothered by it. He was allowed to sit in his messy office and read about pirates and dream up new formations and he was left largely alone. All of a sudden in year 10 Tech got tired of that and fired him?
Yeah. That makes sense. Mike was fired because he was told to make nice with the James family and make the issue go away. He responded by telling his bosses to go fornicate with themselves. That’s what got Mike fired.
The notion that he got ousted because he refused to glad-hand with nosey boosters is laughable to anybody who knows anything about the Tech program.
1:57 pm on March 24th, 2011
SbB has some misguided information. Look at the facts. Tech is coming off their best recruiting class in over 30 years. We are changing to a 4-2-5 defense after being a 4-3 and 3-4 over the last 2 seasons. Of course it is a tough challenge, transitiions usually are. Leach also inherited a program from the all-time winningest coach in school history and he also fought to be bowl eligible in year 1. Not sure why you are spewing your propaganda toward Tech, obviously some agenda you are pushing or being pushed toward. Come to Lubbock SbB, I’ll show you around, maybe even buy your lunch, you will clearly see there is no smoke or fire in the 806!
2:01 pm on March 24th, 2011
Carrie, it’s not about being drunk: it’s about drinking and DRIVING!! anyone who has ever lost someone to drinking and driving ought to be real proud of the Gillespie hire.
And the Drunk rumor about Leach, was probably just a rumor. Ya, know, Lubbockites tend to listen to rumors and believe it to be fact. Lubbock: just big enough where yuo don’t know everybody, but just small enough that rumors spread like wildfire. and sadder than that: people actually go on them like it is truth.
College Head coaches put in 80-100 hours a week at least. These guys don’t have time to drink. Mike was the kind of guy that stays up till 2am watching game film.
After growing up in Lubbock and going to Tech: I can honestly say: I am glad I don’t live there anymore, I am glad I am not raising my kids there, and I am glad they will never set foot on that campus! That school has become a nothing but a disgrace!
When Texas Tech fabricated lies to get coach Leach fired, they confirmed what is really true about the culture in Lubbock: progressive thinking is not allowed. Follow the crowd or get outcasted. If you are different or an “outside the box thinker”, you will not fit in here, and you will be fired!
Sorry folks: but it’s time to come out of the 18th century!
2:02 pm on March 24th, 2011
will [be awarded] next fall?
2:02 pm on March 24th, 2011
Nice to see SOMBODY get is. Thanks for this update! You started a scandal in Lubbock yesterday. But scandal is what we live for these days, it seems. By the way, the Mike Leach Scholarship is thriving and will presented next fall at Texas Tech! Guns up!
2:03 pm on March 24th, 2011
So let me get this straight………
Your argument is that the boosters and alumni are driving him crazy…at Tech…cause he’s not used to that being from Auburn?
Under Armor persuaded him to Tech? Away from USF which is also an Under Armor school??
Leach was “wildly successful”? How many conference championships games did we appear in, let alone win? How many BCS games? TT’s first recruiting class is already the best this school has ever had and that is after YEAR 1.
Dude, come on man….be better.
2:03 pm on March 24th, 2011
Mike’s recruiting class coming into 2010 was scheduled to be top 15, but when they fired him seveal commits de-commited and it dropped down to 40. He had kids turning down Florida and OU to come to Tech.
Let’s see if Tuverbille can ever get them to #2 in the nation? Think it will ever happen again??
Seriously doubt it.
2:04 pm on March 24th, 2011
So we’re supposed to believe that the boosters and administration of Texas Tech are far more intrusive and interfering than the ones at Auburn, where Tubs stayed for 10 years? And that in 14 months the Tech boosters have already made him ready to leave? That’s laughable on the surface.
Go check out the ESPN Big XII blog by David Ubben, who, by the way, ACTUALLY TALKED TO TUBERVILLE and see if it sounds like a guy who is “miserable”.
As already mentioned, it’s pretty obvious that SBB has been used by the USC coaches to do a hatchet job on Tech so they would have a better chance to land the transfer of Delvon Simmons. Such is the state of internet journalism these days.
2:05 pm on March 24th, 2011
Tuberville looks miserable. He’s always shrugging his shoulders down, walking around with his head hanging down like he’s looking for a can to kick.
He’ll be gone in 2 years tops. Just my prediction.
2:09 pm on March 24th, 2011
Team Leach: Hate Group?
Team Leach has raised over $50,000 in a scholarship fund for somebody who wants to go to college and be a coach.
Yeah, that sounds like something a hate group would do!
2:27 pm on March 24th, 2011
This is actually pretty accurate and while some people don’t like it and some people do. The truth is Tuberville did tell USF alumni he would have rather taken that job.
Here are some facts:
Tuberville is 13-12 in his last two seasons as a head coach. just over .500
Texas Tech’s boosters do meddle in the schools affairs, just look at Jim Sowell
“In one e-mail, athletic booster Jim Sowell of Dallas recommended to Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance and athletic director Gerald Myers that they maintain a hard line.”
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/texas-tech-red-raiders/20091230-Texas-Tech-fires-football-coach-Leach-3915.ece
No matter how people try to spin it one way or the other things are messed up at Texas Tech and Brooks I think does a good job of reporting as it comes in, and people shouldn’t shoot the messenger.
People can Baghadad Bob all they want saying everything is okay
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_drUMJ9HF-tQ/Rx5SSExa6YI/AAAAAAAAAfI/wI9a6BR225Y/s400/Andy+IIM.jpg
But in reality all is not well in raider land.
2:54 pm on March 24th, 2011
Brooks, this is a clear attempt to influence Delvon Simmons’ impending decision by slandering Texas Tech and making it appear as if Tubs will leave. USC shouldn’t need garbage like this helping them, they have enough trash in their program already. If you have any journalistic integrity, knock it off.
3:36 pm on March 24th, 2011
Auburn fan here. I actually really like TT. He got a little lazy his last few years at Auburn, but I’m glad he landed at Texas Tech and it looks like the hire was good for both parties. Texas Tech got a hell of a coach. I don’t really know why Sports By Brooks cares if TT might be wondering if they are a good match. I don’t really think that this is a good story even if its true. A lot of people wonder if they made the right choice after they change jobs.
4:31 pm on March 24th, 2011
@ Watchdog: Yes, the first one.
4:32 pm on March 24th, 2011
Tele-tubby loves it so much in Lubbock that he just bought a big ol’house in Varrado Estates. He thinks the weather is so nice too.
Except he is still leasing a home there and he cancels practice becuase it is too windy. All the kids playing baseball in town wear able to tough it out & have games & practices, but not tommy boy.
Come on tommy, too windy? Really?
4:48 pm on March 24th, 2011
Brooks says “Though in order to get another high profile job, #tubs will have to somehow live up to what he yesterday called the “tough challenge” of taking over Leach’s wildly successful program.”
So Tub’s 8 win season last year wasn’t wildly successful compared to the coach that averaged 8 wins a season?
5:04 pm on March 24th, 2011
All the facilities and improvements in Tech’s Football Program were bought and paid for by Coach Leach …just a few were wrapped up and finished (some still to be done with money still there) after Coach Leach was fired Dec., ‘09.
All this money Tuberville has supposedly brought in ($25 mil.) (reported on the sidelines by an ESPN reporter), has already been retracted by Tech in a freedom of imformation act request …and reported by none other than the LubbockAvalanche Journal!
Read the e-mails, depositions, etc. It’s ALL there. (especially Charlotte Bingman’s - counsel for Tech, sent to investigate the James’ fiasco - She cleared Coach Leach the second day and advised Hance to DROP it!)
The e-mails show Turner and Co. along with Hance had another agenda ~~~~ maybe Tuberville (Craig James’ friend and ESPN buddy) ~~~~ has finally had the time to read them!
Most haven’t gotten over this disgrace brought on our school, and won’t … unless Coach Leach gets paid and gets his justice.
Until then, Bear Bryant couldn’t stop the bleeding done to Tech when this Admins. shot her in the heart!
5:05 pm on March 24th, 2011
Hey Brooks… name your sources… don’t be like ESPN and only report rumors… that’s bush league brah.
6:51 pm on March 24th, 2011
To the Team Leachers
To Sports by Brooks
To all of the non-believers,
Enjoy watching the future seasons at Texas Tech football. Enjoy watching Tubs have more success than Leach ever could have dreamed of. Simply enjoy the Tubs era, because it is going to be a lot of fun to watch. Your voices will be silenced…Its only a matter of time.
Also, to the team Leachers, you guys are a joke. Let it go, let it go. Leach is gone…and there is nothing you can do. Time to quit throwing tantrums and grow up.
7:05 pm on March 24th, 2011
so Tubs wants out? very recently he signed a contract extension that made his buyout nearly impossible except for maybe 10 teams in the country and he wants out? makes no sense, the contract that he willingly and happily signed locks him at TTU for the near future. also the timing and location of this report are extremely suspect.
7:13 pm on March 24th, 2011
Stufrogg
mike wasn’t even on pace to sign a top 30 recruiting class when he left. the only prospect we lost out on was kadron boone and he wasn’t going to get us from a 41st ranked recruiting class to a 15th. half your stuff is made up blather.
7:39 pm on March 24th, 2011
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! This is too good to pass up. You want Stubby, now you got him Tech. Enjoy your seasons of mediocrity, until the boosters get their fill of this guy. I can’t wait to see how you handle the situation when he quits giving a damn like he did @ Ole Miss & Auburn. All it’s gonna take is a little pressure from the boosters and your AD, and he will get his “feelings” hurt and leave.
7:52 pm on March 24th, 2011
I was using rivals rankings, not scout. guess to each his own. I much prefer rivals.
7:54 pm on March 24th, 2011
tech was number 14 recuiting class in 02, 17 in 04 and 06 look at scouts recuiting class and by the way they were number 36 in 10
8:35 pm on March 24th, 2011
MAC, We aren’t ever letting go — not moving on — and forget hell!
You and your cronies ‘fill’ up the Jones since you don’t mind giving up “Strive for Honor Evermore”.
However, I may watch the UT game when Gideon is on the field! I wonder if Nancy James is going to be sitting on the bench — with a head cold!
9:18 pm on March 24th, 2011
oldtechfan, you’re pulling those numbers out of your ass. Tech only had one Top 25 class while Leach was there, and it was the 2006 class that had 34 players in it (and it was #25).
None of his other classes were in the Top 25, and a few of them weren’t even in the Top 50.
9:18 pm on March 24th, 2011
oldtechfan, you’re pulling those numbers out of your ass. Tech only had one Top 25 class while Leach was there, and it was the 2006 class that had 34 players in it (and it was #25).
None of his other classes were in the Top 25, and a few of them weren’t even in the Top 50.
9:26 pm on March 24th, 2011
Bob,
Where do you get your information about all the improvements being “bought and paid for” by Coach Leach? Leach never raised one penny for Tech.
The stadium was already in the process of being improved before Leach was even hired.
I agree Leach had a couple of good teams which created interest, but giving Leach credit for all the stadium improvements is ridiculous since he sat on his ass when it came to any type of fund raising for Tech. Tubs raised more money in his first week than Leach did in his 10 years at Tech.
9:32 pm on March 24th, 2011
Kimberly, BULL! That’s the “House Leach Built”, and always will be.
Now, let’s see you and your Adam James posse fill it up and keep it maintained!
8:39 am on March 25th, 2011
Ya know, reality bites. Barely making a bowl game and a half empty stadium says a thousand words. Mike Leach brought positive notoriety to Texas Tech. Win or lose, Texas Tech was put on the map by Leach. All you heard was talk about the ‘mad scientist’ of college football. Leach was a popular guy.
Then came the TTU administrators and one Jim Sowell.
imo, the religeous conservatives became horrified of the image that was being protrayed of Tech on the national stage. A pirate?? Leach’s mass following?? a man with a foul mouth that talks about ‘fat little girlfriends’??
They were embarassed. humiliated. They are unable to embrace the antics of a true genius.
imo, Tech got passed up for Tier One because of all this negative bs going on at Tech. I wonder how many professors have started looking for other jobs when the university slapped them in the face when they gave Tubs a huge pay raise and nothing for them. At least we now know that the real focus at Texas Tech is on football and not necessarly on academics.
9:31 am on March 25th, 2011
“I think that comes from a lot of people who probably would hope we would pack up and leave.”
I don’t think he meant the fan base, I think he meant people like the author of this article, who is engaging in plain and simple rumor mongering. Here are some more reasons why the information is so contradictory to the reality:
1. Tech and Tuberville had a fantastic recruiting class coming in.
2. The season ticket sales reached a new record high last year and this year will likely surpass that.
3. Tuberville himself volunteered to help the boosters and administrators in raising money for the athletic department by leading a delegation to Miami recently.
4. He has himself said multiple times that he wants to be in Lubbock for a while and I think Tuberville’s statement holds more value than the comments of other coaches talking privately.
5. 8-5 first year record is darn good. There aren’t many programs around the country where he would have got this good of a start in his first year. Why would he want to leave and go to a program where you are expected to win a national championship every year, when you can get by beating either Texas or Ou occasionally and going to a bowl game every year?
6. Recruiting in the state of texas is a lot easier than recruiting at many other programs.
11:28 am on March 25th, 2011
Chef4U, I think you have captured the foundation of this fiasco.
“They” could NOT stand that Pirate Flag! “They” could NOT stand the ‘new’ football tradition of playing all 60 minutes of the game … “They could NOT compete with the ‘new’ concept of finding a way to win.
“They” are basically progressive FFPS types.
But, “they” mistook Coach Leach as their enemy. (because he was the face of the ‘new’ program.)
When “their” real enemy was the students and fans of Texas Tech WHO actually were creators of this ‘new’ tradition and identity!
And, they ruined a man and disgraced it’s students and fans so they could take that flag down!
11:29 am on March 25th, 2011
jef … another BULL!
Were you at the last three games last year?
All those record-breaking ticket buyers didn’t show up to the game! 15,000, maybe? Cowboy Stadium, anyone?
Keep selling your tickets and your spin … but, the pictures don’t lie.
Promote your progressive Fun Fair Positive soccer football program [where you don’t keep score - and everyone gets to play - even Adam James, (according to his helicopter dad)]
Create Tech’s ‘new’ identity of taking a knee with 4 minutes left on the clock, when you are LOOSING; just to show how nice you are! And, for G-d’s sake, don’t practice in the wind! Couldn’t that get a player hurt?
I hope you and your gang enjoy and embrace your new identity … but, I predict there won’t be many others that do…for very long.
1:20 pm on March 25th, 2011
For all the bamer CTT haters out there, I’ll take it from here……6 beyotches!
3:02 pm on March 25th, 2011
Keller grow up ,I said look at Scouts recruiting record and you will see my results and like nettles say to each his own. If you were an adult and not a momas boy you would have read my first post. I did not say anything bad about anyone just pointed out scounts recruiting ranking.
5:06 pm on March 25th, 2011
Interesting that this report came out on the same day that Delvon Simmons was released from his North Carolina letter of intent set to choose between Texas Tech and USC.
Also, Pete Christy is not considered a reliable source of information by most Texas Tech fans.
10:06 pm on March 25th, 2011
Don’t you guys think I pretty much had my decision locked in BEFORE I formally asked for my release from UNC? JEEZE!!
1:47 pm on March 26th, 2011
Great article SBB. Tubs will be gone in less than three years(if that long). Having left the area several years ago, it is plain to see how delusional Tech fans are about the whole situation. Texas Tech will never be a destination job….EVER! Leach was the perfect fit for Tech but even he wanted out. Unfortunately for him, nobody wanted his baggage.
7:40 pm on March 26th, 2011
@ Javorsky…you comment: “Mike didn’t do anything in the way of alumni relations. He didn’t go to any fundraising functions…” is totally wrong. I had a personal conversation with the owners of the biggest steak house in San Angelo and one of the most famous in Texas a couple of weeks ago and all they could do was sing Coach Leach’s praises because he came in to eat one day and they casually asked him if he would be interested in heading up their TTU’s alumni chapter golf tourney and not only did he say yes, he showed up each and every year for 9 years on his own dime and brought a huge box of TTU clothing he had gotten donated for the auction. They told me that Leach personnally called each year to find out the dates for the golf tourney so that he could be there.
You’re only buying into the trash propaganda that Tech puts out about Leach. Broaden your horizens and stop being so naive cuz Leach did plenty of fund raisers……..just not the ones hosted by Sowell and Anders because they are such “a” holes.
8:00 pm on March 26th, 2011
I am a Tech graduate, a fan whose interest got reinvigorated due to Mike Leach’s football teams, and have no particular animosity or affinity to Tuberville.
Given that I have very negative opinions of Lubbock’s climate, I could certainly see how the Tuberville family might not like the area and Tuberville certainly has griped about the wind on several occasions.
I can tell you that this season was boring football, unlike any season I had seen under Mike Leach. The defense was even worse than it had been under Ruffin McNeil and his predecessor, the offense only had moments of spark, followed by blah, and the Special Teams (coached ostensibly by Tuberville) did some amazingly stupid plays.
Tech does appear to have a pretty good incoming group of people that have been recruited, so there may be some joy in Mudville or Tuberville next season, but as one who watched any Tech game I could, the attendance in the stands was clearly down in numbers, the fans unethusiastic, and the Ticket City Bowl though a victory (thankfully) for Tech, did not create the thrill of the Leach games against California, Minnesota, etc.
Time will tell on Tuberville and Tech.
9:59 pm on March 26th, 2011
#1) I talked to Kent HAnce the Tech Chancellor he said he felt he had to fire Leach after he told him to go F himself, wasnt booster related
#2) Lubbock isnt the nicest place and I know for a fact Tubs doesnt love Lubbock, but he is in a big time confrence and really would only leave for a big time SEC job, not UCF!!
#3) Recruting has been much better under Tubs and unless he starts to get lazy again like he did @ Auburn, Tech is gonna win a bunch of games with this guy in charge. Offense at Tech will always be loaded and with a salesmen like Tubs the defense will be rebuilt with top recruits in 2 years tops
11:43 pm on March 26th, 2011
Jeff, BULL!
Read the Kent Hance e-mails, with Sowell, Turner & Co. Then read the depositions, especially Charlotte Bingham”s (Tech’s lawyer sent to investigate James’ complaint). She CLEARED Coach Leach and told Kent Hance to DROP IT … before Hance fired Coach Leach.
Tuberville? MHO, he is basically already retired here. He was a convient hire having been at ESPN with Craig James the whole year Adam and his back-stabbers were rambling the throught the football program. Tubs is just a ‘figure head’. Neither he or the Admins. cares about wins or losses. This was just a” you rub my back - I’ll rub yours” deal. Now, if - if -if the Admins. gets ansy … Tubs will bail, as he has no loyalty or love for Tech or Lubbock and doesn’t handle pressure well.
The whole ‘09 year was one big swirl Adam James and his coup. Remember the $1,100 door slammed in Coach Riley’s face? Hance was running interference for Craig James even then. The Coaches could not discipline, suspend, or make him pay for the door!
Coach Leach was TOLD he couldn’t cut him. READ their own sworn words in the Court depositions!
The team, the players? Enjoy them. There are some fine guys there. Each play, each win will be on them and to their credit. Our new DC? Now there’s a Coach, maybe this fiasco will give him time (he doesn’t need much) to move up to RR HC and some integrity in leadership can be restored.