Who could forget Texas' Mack Brown leaving Missouri off his final regular season USA Today coaches ballot last season? Or how about Texas Tech's Mike Leach voting the Longhorns fifth and the Red Raiders No. 2?
Then there is this quote from Grant Teaff on Wednesday about that very poll: "The perception is that there's a huge bias, and we've never really found that."
Oh really?
Then again, what do you expect when there's a gathering of the old boy's club?
The American Football Coaches Association, meeting this week in Phoenix, is considering several changes to the poll, including making not only the voting a secret, but the identity of the 61 voting coaches as well.
Chris Brown's excellent site Smart Football has an interesting read on Hal Mumme, one of the architects of the "Air Raid" offense that has helped revolutionize the game.
Although Mumme, who recently took over as coach at McMurry College in Abilene, has had varying degrees of success, he has never soared to great heights. Nonetheless, his coaching tree is impressive.
When Mumme became coach at Iowa Wesleyan in 1989, he hired Mike Leach, whose previous coaching job had been in Finland. The two perfected the system with stops at Valdosta State and Kentucky before Leach went out on his own, becoming the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops.
Bruce Snyder, pictured with his wife Linda, lost his 10-month battle with cancer on Monday. The former Utah State, California and Arizona State coach was 69.
He leaves an impressive legacy, including a 1996 Arizona State team that nearly won the national title. The Sun Devils, featuring Jake Plummer and Pat Tillman, finished the regular season 11-0, including a 19-0 victory over Nebraska, and earned a berth to the Rose Bowl, where they played Ohio State.
After more than 10 months of negotiations, Mike Leach and Texas Tech have agreed on a contract extension, the Dallas Morning New reports.
The newspaper said Leach and chancellor Kent Hance met for almost three hours Thursday afternoon and agreed to the deal, which will extend Leach's contract through 2013. Leach could sign the contract as early as Friday.
Athletic director Gerald Myers and Leach's agents, Gary O'Hagan and
Matt Baldwin of the International Marketing Group, did not attend the
meeting.
Tech added four clauses to its Jan. 9 proposal that sent the negotiations into a tailspin. They included termination compensation if Leach would have been fired, the buyout he would pay if he left early, a penalty for interviewing for another job without permission and who controlled Leach's personal property rights. The newspaper reported that details weren't available as to how those issues were resolved.
With the clock possibly ticking on his coaching career at Texas Tech, Mike Leach took his case to a national audience Wednesday in what could be a last-ditch effort to save his job.
During an appearance on ESPN, Leach was asked if he expects to be fired Friday when the Texas Tech Board of Regents holds a special teleconference meeting to discuss his employment.
"Well, no. I mean I know that sounds odd. But you know, it's like and I've said this a couple of times. It's like John Wooden says, 'Your best is always enough,' and everyday Tech gets my best. And I think part of that along with the efforts of the other good people I have to work with we've been able to achieve a lot of things. You know, if somehow my best isn't good enough, I can live with that."
Texas Tech's Board of Regents has called a special teleconference Friday afternoon amid growing speculation that the school is preparing to part ways with coach Mike Leach.
Leach had been given a deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday to sign a five year, $12.7 million contract extension. His current deal runs through the 2010 season and Leach earlier told about 40 supporters gathered for a rally outside the Tech football facility that he plans to honor his contract.
"I want to thank everybody for showing up," said Leach, who returned Monday night to Lubbock after attending a rugby match in Wales on Saturday and the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
"Shoot, heard about it last night. I came in on a plane kind of late. I appreciate y'all showing up. We're going to have a great team this year. We're excited about spring football and we're excited about the players here, the coaches and just looking forward to a great season."
The ongoing divorce proceedings between Texas Tech's Mike Leach and athletic director Gerald Myers picked up considerable steam last week. A series of revelations and accusations deepened the split and resulted with a university-imposed deadline of Tuesday on a contract extension offered to the coach.
Leach has his guns up and is ready to walk from the five-year, $12.7 million extension, which would be tagged to the two years he has left on his current deal. Sign by Tuesday or the extension is pulled.
Leach and his representation — International Marketing Group — are objecting to several clauses put in the extension. Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall breaks it down while asking, "What are Leach and IMG thinking?"
But this spat goes beyond dollars and sense. As we noted in December, Myers and Leach don't get along. The athletic director puts up with the coach because he wins and graduates his players.
