Mike Leach: You Deserve What's Come To You

As everyone knows over the last three to four days the saga unfolding with Adam James, Mike Leach and the Texas Tech Football program and at the core being a report that former Red Raiders head coach Mike Leach sent the sophomore wide receiver to a "shed/electric closet/press room" after he had a diagnosed concussion.

Here is the known timeline of the reported events in this situation.

1) Reports come out that Texas Tech coach Mike Leach sent WR Adam James to a shed as "punishment" while he had a concussion.

2) Texas Tech suspends Mike Leach for bowl game

3) Leach sues Texas Tech

4) Texas Tech fires Mike Leach a day before he was due to receive a 800K bonus in his contract.

So that's the timeline of events in this entire situation. Now the reports variety a little bit between the Leach camp and the Jones camp (including Craig James, ESPN CFB analyst and Adam James' father).

Some say it was a closet that was at least 40 sq ft in size. Some said it was a small shed with no lights. Others have it being a press room and so on.

The real problem is not that Adam Jones had a concussion or that Mike Leach was fired. It was the treatment of Jones that started this entire fiasco.

Texas Tech is a Big 12 program, a division I school with top of the line school facilities. The question and the confusing part in this entire situation is the fact that when Jones had his concussion (mild or sever a concussion is still the same) why was he not sent to the team room to be attended to and treated by doctors for his concussion instead of being secluded into a shed with a guard standing outside making sure he did not get out.

I know that there are some coaches out there who want to send a message to their players and want to be tough on their players but this goes way outside that boundary. A player with a concussion needs to be in a controlled situation, with team doctors around to check and clear everything so that there is no long term effect.

But locking a player in a shed with a concussion does nothing for the player, your reputation and it does not even come close to making sense on any level.

You want to send a message to your players bench them, or have extended workouts that are more grueling but not put a college football players career and possible life on the line by secluding him in a shed or tight space while having a concussion.

Now the real shocker in this saga is the fact that Mike Leach and his attorneys have not denied any reports of Leach sending James to a closed shed while he had a concussion.

Usually you will see a coach say that it's false and deny all reports. Leach is flat out saying "yes I did send him to the shed".

That right there would make me, if I were the Texas Tech AD, fire Leach on the spot. There is no way that on field success, no matter how great you are as a head coach, can justify these actions taken by Leach.

Leach has won 84 games at Texas Tech, more than any coach in school history. He's led them to 10 straight bowl games and was the AP coach of the year last year.

Yea that's great you're an outstanding football mind and a great head coach. The down side is you don't know how to handle personal contact with a player.

Here is Craig James on ESPN about the situation and I'm fully in support of what Craig James said.

When I hear some people say that Leach is the winningest coach in Texas Tech so he shouldn't have been fired.

Well I have a response for those people. Florida head coach Urban Meyer has won two national championships in his five seasons at Florida. Meyer is 56-10 in his five years at Florida and yet Meyer is more close to his players and personally and emotionally attached to his players more than any coach is to their team.

So there's a difference. Two winning coaches. However Meyer is more of a man than Leach seems to be. Now Leach is a good coach but this will hurt him and his reputation a lot.

Most likely what's going to happen is that Leach will learn to go back to school, learn not to sue your boss because you will never win, and hopefully Mike Leach will learn from this mistake and give Leach a year and I'm sure he will have another coaching job in college football.

NOTE: Here is Leach's attorney on ESPN