Freedom Of Leach

No college football program wants to be a "jumping off point".  Take the Boston College situation for example.  They fired their coach, Jeff Jagodzinski, after a great season for simply interviewing for another coaching position.  The same fate seemed to be waiting for Texas Tech coach, Mike Leach.  Leach's name is mentioned almost every year for open coaching jobs.   So when it came time to lock Leach down you would think that Tech would pull out all the stops.  But they didn't.  Instead they tried to increase his buy-out clause and make him run all his job offers by the University first.  These all seem pretty reasonable but it was the way they were introduced into the extension that upset Leach.  After what seemed to be an agreement the Tech tried to slip these clauses in right before it was signed.  Seems shady, but all they wanted was to keep Leach around and why not he is an offensive genius.   After Leach said no it seemed he was on his way to the unemployment line and bot sides agreed that the it wasn't the money.  But what was it about?

Coach Leach swears up and down that he doesn't want to leave Tech and that his family loves Lubbock.  But no one wants a contract to tie them down.  You read that right.  Every one knows that no sports contract means anything.  And Leach wanted an out.  I mean it is Lubbock.  The two clauses that Leach wanted to get under control where the buy-out and the interview clause.  The buy-out had to be lowered so that another school would be more willing to help Leach pay it if he got another job and the interview clause had to be changed because if Leach had to ask permission to talk to other schools he would never get it.  When Leach said it wasn't about the money you have to believe him because the 5 year 12.7 million dollar extension was similar in number to the previous extension but the terms had been modified.  The buy-out would stay the same as it was in his original contract, which is about 500,000 dollars, instead of the proposed 1.5 million in the rejected extension.  In the agreed extension Leach would only have to contact the University  before he interviewed for another position, not request permission.  Seems to me that Mike Leach wanted to make sure he could leave Lubbock if the right job was out there.

As I said in the opening paragraph, no school wants to be a career stepping stone, but it seems that's exactly what Tech may be for Leach.  Leach looks like he may love Lubbock, but only because it could lead to his next stop on the coaching carousel.  Ya'll continue to live like no one is watching and always leave yourself a way out.  Also stay tuned for my new advice column.  I will continue to write the sports blog here and I am also working on a fun weekly advice column.  I will post the link soon.  Also stay tuned for pictures of my lovely new daughter!