Keep An Eye On The Leach Negotiations At Texas Tech

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In case you haven’t been keeping up with the goings-on in Lubbock, Texas — and let’s be honest, who does? — here’s a quick catch-you-up:

1)  Texas Tech has offered a Mike Leach a nice contract extension in terms of money.

2)  The extension also includes some “you can’t talk to any other schools” clauses that Gene DeFilipo and Boston College would love… but Leach has balked at them.  The main sticking point is a clause that would trigger Leach’s firing and a $1.5 million penalty if he interviews for a job without AD Gerald Myers’ permission.

3)  Leach missed a school-imposed deadline on Tuesday to sign the extension and could actually be fired tomorrow at a board of regents meeting.



First things first, if Texas Tech fires the best coach they’ve had in years, they deserve to to fall right back into the Texas dust from which they rose.

But the reason you should be paying attention to this mess is what effect it might have on coaches’ contracts going forward.

From an athletic director’s perspective, “The more you have invested in a coach, the more stringent you might be,” Southern Miss AD Richard Giannini told Jon Soloman of The Birmingham News.

Yeah, but…

If Tech has to part ways with the media-darling Leach, “there are a lot of ADs who are going to analyze what happened in trying to put a clause in there.”  That’s the view of agent Mike Brown.



Ironically, a pair of SEC schools are partially to blame for Leach’s current woes.

Supposedly, Texas Tech officials weren’t pleased that Leach and/or his representatives made “overtures to Auburn and Tennessee that were apparently rebuffed.”

These things get spun in any number of directions, of course.  Tennessee and Auburn sources would tell you that Leach approached them and they weren’t interested.  Leach’s people would tell you that he was approached by those schools.

(Personally, I think it’s a good thing Leach didn’t wind up at one of those schools. 

Face it, there’s no way Auburn would turn to a spread offense after the failed Tony Franklin experiment… and a program like Tennessee would never want some loose-cannon as their head coach, running around saying God knows what.)



As I said when BC fired Jeff Jagodzinski, I believe a coach should be able to interview for a better job.  And an NFL head coaching position IS better than the BC gig, regardless of what the Eagles’ AD thinks.

But how would a school like Texas Tech view a possible move by its coach to a school like Washington?  And Leach did interview with the Huskies.  Would they consider that “a better job?”

Should a coach inform his athletic director that he’s going to speak with another school so the AD isn’t blind-sided by a media report?  Yes.  In principle.

But for any of you who’ve ever worked in an office job, have you immediately told your boss when you’ve decided to eyeball the job market?  Have you told your boss about each and every company you’ve spoken to about new opportunities?

Probably not.

Sometimes it’s just better to handle things quietly.



In my view, the best bet for schools and coaches is to simply create dual buyouts.  If we fire you, we pay you X dollars.  If you leave us, you pay us X dollars.

Trying to work in “you can’t interview unless we let you interview” clauses will only cause animosity between the school and the coach.

Texas Tech has made themselves look like a small-time program by trying to pull this stunt.  And if they lose their coach, there’s a good chance that’s exactly what they’ll become — a small-time program once more.