Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach has been suspended from coaching at the Alamo Bowl after allegations that he locked one of his players in a closet after he suffered a concussion. A report released by the family of Tech wide receiver Adam James indicates that he was the player that suffered a head injury in a December 16th practice. Leach’s alleged treatment of James, son of ESPN analyst Craig James, seems a bit suspect.

• On Dec. 17, James said Leach told trainers to put him in “the darkest place you can find.” James was sent to an equipment shed near the practice field, where a member of the athletic staff checked on James to make sure he did not lean against anything or sit on the floor. James said Leach told him that if he came out he would be kicked off the team.

• When the team returned to practice two days later, on Dec. 19, James said Leach told trainers to “find the tightest, darkest place” for the player. James, in his street clothes, was put in an electrical closet inside the football stadium for hours, again monitored by a member of the athletic staff.

I’m a bit hesitant to bury Leach because (a) his side of the story on FOX Sports isn’t nearly as damning, (b) Leach says that James might have been faking the injury, which I wouldn’t put past the silver-spooned seed of a college football analyst, and (c) because all of this “new learning” talk about concussions seems to be a half-cocked effort into trying to make football “safe.” It won’t be long before other Division I coaches lock up their players in closets. Leach is an innovator like that.

Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is quickly becoming my favorite coach in any sport. If you missed it, here’s what Leach said regarding the Browns and Eric Mangini for passing on Michael Crabtree:

“[Crabtree] has been more successful as a receiver than that guy has a coach at this point,” Leach said to the Sacramento Bee. “Part of the reason is he’s (Crabtree) too shy to be like that…Let’s see how all those non-divas do up in Cleveland this year.”

So one might expect Leach to lighten up some after Mangini invited former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell into Browns minicamp, right? Well…

Leach told the Dallas Morning News he thought Harrell should have been drafted and that NFL teams are missing out.

“The truth of the matter is that the NFL drafts quarterbacks notoriously bad,” Leach told the paper. “That’s indisputable. …

“I don’t have an answer for why they don’t have a skill for drafting a quarterback. Well, I think the priorities are out of order. Accurate and makes good decisions needs to be a priority, not something they need to teach him, because they don’t do that very well.”

It is rather amazing that Harrell wasn’t drafted, but who knows why. Coaches fall in love with players and hate players for seemingly ridiculous reasons. I for one am glad that I don’t pass judgement on human beings with such inhumane objectivity.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach really needs to learn how to form an opinion. Somebody asked him about his prize quarterback’s chances of winning the favor of NFL coaches, despite the fact that Graham Harrell worked almost exclusively from the shotgun while playing for Tech. Leach was asked about whether NFL coaches, who would want a QB to be proficient under center, would have concerns with developing Harrell to do so.

“You bring up easily the most pitiful NFL cop-out of all,” Leach said in a telephone interview.

“And you can send that message to the whole NFL. Any coach who has ever said or uttered those words or considers that a concern, here’s my message for them: How could you possibly look yourself in the mirror and consider yourself an NFL coach and not be able to teach a guy to run back three steps, five steps and seven steps? I can teach a child that!

“Any coach in the NFL who can’t do that ought to be fired!”

“I can do that,” Leach said of teaching a quarterback to drop back. “I only need a three-hour window. I’ll have a great clinic for all the NFL coaches who are so horrible that they can’t teach a guy to take a snap under center and go backwards.”

I don’t know why, but every time I see Mike Leach, I envision a delicious plate of ribs being brought to me. It’s like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I see him, then I see ribs, then I see him again. I wonder if the Texas Tech administration felt the same way. It would certainly explain why Texas choked last fall.

|Dallas Morning News|