These teams should have gone to the Meineke Bowl

…or, more appropriately, “Which would you rather…”

- Play your bowl game with a suspended head coach

or

- Play your bowl game with 14 players either suspended or dismissed

???

And I thought we had it bad.

Via Doc Saturday:

The official release from the university doesn’t shed much light. ESPN reporter Joe Schad, however, gets more specific on his Twitter feed: “Mike Leach is alleged to have isolated a player in a dark closet for not practicing with a concussion.” That player, we soon learned, is wide receiver Adam James, son of ex-SMU star and current ESPN analyst Craig James, who reported to Texas Tech “with great regret and after consideration” that “[his] son had been subjected to actions and treatment not consistent with common sense rules for safety and health,” according to a release by the family.

This is the strangest end of the season period I can remember. If true, Leach is a rather strange individual. If James/his family are making this up, ditto. Whatever happend, this can sure be ugly. James is the one guy on the Texas Tech roster who can fight a media war with the head coach on equal terms.

I gotta say, I feel bad for the Texas Tech fanbase. They seem pretty cool based on the blogs I’ve seen and the comments here. Whatever the actual facts of the thing, Raiders fans are definately blameless and getting screwed here. Not that I’ll feel bad if no Cap’n at the tiller helps MSU win.

…TTU blogs seems to be of the opinion that A. James is a crybaby, C. James is a stage parent, the Worldwide Leader’s stock-in-trade is innuendo and rumor, and that this case is really just an excuse for the administration at TTU to indulge their long dislike of Mike Leach and get rid of him cheaply.

I’m sure everyone reading this will know the veracity and good sense that comes from blog comment sections.

My guess after reading listening is that Leach was absolutely doing this to screw with A. James because he was in the doghouse, allegedly for poor effort. Leach is a coach who screws with his players in such ways. I don’t really have much respect for guys who coach like that, but it’s not a method Mike Leach made up.

No one’s offered a theory of how A. James was put at risk by being screwed with in this particular way. Well plenty of radio sports show callers have offered theories, but those theories don’t fit the claim that A. James was under supervision of a trainer while Leach was screwing with him by having him stand in a shed and a room/closet.