Big 12 Year in Review

The InformativeSports

Big 12

YEAR IN REVIEW

With Zach, Matt and John

Zach Bigalke: Looks like I’m going to plop back into the captain’s chair for this Big XII preview. With us as usual are John Mitchell, recovering from a car accident that was the impetus for my filling in as anchor, and Matt Strobl. It’s nice to see you both here again.

John Mitchell: I’m just glad that I came out in better shape than my car. I’m glad we don’t treat people like we do cars. If they cost too much to fix up, then just total it and move on.

Matt Strobl: He must have been distracted by the Mark Ingram Fathead he plastered on his windshield. I kept telling him that a wall would have been a better place for it.

Okay... now let’s get down to business. The coaching carousel was set off all across college football during the season, when revelations about player abuse by Mark Mangino at Kansas led the school to buy out his contract and end its relationship with their head coach. Did the Jayhawks handle this situation correctly, and do you think Mangino’s successor Turner Gill will be able to build upon the successes Kansas has achieved in recent years?

Strobl: Of the three universities that fired their football coaches “with cause”, Kansas was the most justified. However, that doesn’t mean I completely condone the decision. Mangino had a terrible season with the Jayhawks despite the fact that he had QB Todd Reesing back for another year. There is simply no excuse for that program finishing dead last in the division. At 1-7, Kansas tied Baylor for the worst record in the Big 12 a mere two years after going 12-1 and winning the Orange Bowl. Mangino has plummeted from Coach of the Year to nearly-unemployable lout thanks not only to this shoddy on-field display, but also to the allegations of player mistreatment that led to his dismissal. My only complaint is that Kansas ’ investigation of the incident seemed far too cursory. It seemed that the university was looking for way to rid itself of a coach who failed to maintain success, and these accusations provided the perfect opportunity. I have no problem with Mangino being fired, but it should have been done the right way and for the right reasons. A more thorough investigation would have convinced me that Kansas agreed. As for Turner Gill, he’s an excellent coach who now has his work cut out for him. Kansas is near the bottom of the Big 12 food chain when it comes to recruiting, and to make matters worse, it appears that Bo Pelini has Nebraska back on the winning track. With Missouri enjoying some recent success and Bill Snyder back in Manhattan , the lesser division just became much more interesting and much more competitive. I have a lot of respect for Gill’s abilities, but even the very best coaches need talent to win. Gill’s challenge will be giving capable recruits a reason to choose KU over the other Big 12 programs that are currently in better shape. It will be a slow process, and the university will need to be patient. Given the way they handled Mangino’s ouster, it remains to be seen whether or not that patience will be exercised.

Mitchell: Mangino’s firing was just the beginning of the peculiar firings this offseason, but I agree with Matt, his was the most justified. Along with the reports of his mistreatment of players, Mangino was struggling to have success on the field. After a 5-0 start this season for the Jayhawks, they lost their final seven games of the season to finish outside of a bowl game. Their seventh and final loss was the most obvious evidence that a coaching change was needed in Lawrence . Terrible clock management down the stretch lost Kansas the Border War against Missouri and kept them out of a bowl game. Turner Gill will be taking over at Kansas , and good for him that the Jayhawks are in the Big XII North, where it is much easier to win, although Bo Pelini has Nebraska ready to completely dominate the division. Gill is a Big XII guy, from his playing days at Nebraska and a long time assistant with the Huskers from 1992-2004. Gill was a hot candidate last offseason after leading Buffalo to their first MAC Championship in school history and interviewed for the head coaching jobs at Syracuse and Auburn , but was passed over. Now, he gets a shot back in the conference he once played and coached. I think he will do a very well at Kansas , and give his alma matter a run for their money in the Big XII North.

Bigalke: This is the one termination that I think the school got correct. The compilation of facts against Mangino was comprehensive and damning enough that the Jayhawks would have been absurd to keep him on as coach. Yes, Kansas reached its only BCS appearance on Mangino's watch, but they were never able to find enough consistency to build on their Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech. That failing alone was cause enough in this "What-have-you-done-for-me-lately?" era of college football. Coupled with substantive allegations of physical abuse -- which Kansas had the sense to investigate thoroughly before making a final decision -- there was really no other choice than to get together with their embattled coach and engineer a buyout. And in landing Turner Gill to take over in Lawrence , the Jayhawks have a smart young coach who has the skills and commitment to get Kansas back in the Big XII hunt.

And then there was the other big vacancy which opened up when Texas Tech terminated Mike Leach’s contract just before he was due to receive a contract bonus at the end of the year. With so many conflicting reports coming out of Lubbock , this one is going to see a courtroom. Do you think Leach stands a chance at winning his suit and repairing his reputation in this case?

Mitchell: I thought Texas Tech’s handling of this situation was very poor. If Mike Leach did what it was said that he did, then yes that was bad, but I’m not even sure if it warranted termination. The university owed Leach the benefit of the doubt after a decade of him leading the Red Raiders, and just one year ago he led Texas Tech to an upset of Texas and had them ranked #2 in the country before their loss to Oklahoma . What it came down to in my opinion is that the university didn’t want to pay the $800,000 bonus that he was owed on New Years Day. I think he does have a shot at winning the lawsuit against Texas Tech. The AD and Leach have never seen eye to eye, so in some way it has seemed like a personal vendetta against Leach and he was just waiting for one thing to happen for him to terminate Leach and move on. There has been a lot of different stories, but Leach seems to be the only one singing his tune right now with the rest of the coaches and players either remaining silent or playing a nice game of “Simon Says.”

Strobl: I do. From the beginning I found Leach to be the far more believable party in this fiasco. Adam James and his family seem to be motivated by complaint over a lack of playing time and the university itself has been at odds with its Mad Scientist coach for some time now. Texas Tech’s President allegedly told Leach that the Chancellor was going to try to railroad him after the complaint surfaced, and that warning, if true, was certainly accurate. While I completely agree that Leach could have handled the situation in a more constructive way, the various accounts of the story lead me to believe that it has been spun and overblown to serve a larger purpose. All manner of contradictory evidence, statements and retractions, and conflicting accounts muddy the truth of what actually happened, and I admit that we may never know exactly what was done by whom. But the more information that is released, the more convinced I am that Leach’s dismissal was wrong. If Mangino got shortchanged by a slipshod investigation, then the inquiry into Leach’s behavior was downright shameful. The university ad judged him guilty before the probe was even launched- remember that its initial act was to suspend the coach for the Alamo Bowl. When Leach balked at that maneuver, he was fired. Call me crazy, but a coach who has built a competitive team where none had existed and given your program a decade of success deserves a little more loyalty than that. If, in the course of a legitimate investigation, he was found to have acted outside the lines then TTU’s reaction might have been warranted. But the course of actual events was in no way legitimate. I think Leach has a good chance of winning his lawsuit, or at the very least earning a substantial settlement. However, his reputation will not be easily repaired. Despite the fact that he’s been coaching at TTU since 2000 without so much as a whisper of misbehavior, allegations like this can dog a man for the rest of his life. It is my sincere hope that as part of the suit, further information comes to light that will exonerate Leach completely. I fear that’s the only way for him to shake this black mark.

Bigalke: From the beginning I was skeptical of anything coming against Leach, especially given the fact that despite his wacky reputation his actions in Lubbock have been above reproach during his entire time there. With a graduation rate that rivals the so-called "brainy" schools AND a sustained level of excellence among his squads AND no prior incident like the one he's currently enduring with James, there is nothing in his wacky demeanor to indicate that he is a malicious person. I loved when he told ESPN, "It's not like I sat up in my office with my coaches and said, 'Which player can we single out and mistreat... let's see, how about we go after the richest kid on our team whose dad has the biggest microphone in the country?'"

He has consistently done well by his players at Texas Tech, and it really does sound like the Leach family stepped in to provide a convenient scapegoat for the university to do what they already desired to do but didn't have any grounds to pull off without a big payout. But they're going to end up paying an even greater sum now than they previously would have had to under the stipulations of his contract, now that it has gone into the courts. Because you're right, Matt, a 21-year-old with a bad work ethic and a big-time daddy is NOT a kid... even if he wants to keep acting like one. And a man has a right to defend himself. I believe Leach when he says that he wasn't given any notice, written or verbal, about which university statutes, state laws or stipulations in his contract he had violated. I also believe him when he says Texas Tech did not tell him what the cause was when they fired him... as the widely-reported termination notice has said, he was only fired "with cause effective immediately".

Hell, the chancellor doesn't even know whether to say if he was fired due to insubordination or due to his handling of James. The university can't get its story straight, and we're expected to believe they have a "kid's" best interests in mind? No... we knew long ago that there were factions in Lubbock that wanted Leach out. And I'm feeling more and more like my wacky insinuation that Craig James sent his kids to Tech to split up an old rival is looking less and less crazy. This feels like a pure case of collusion by the university and the family to choke out the coach...

On the other end of the spectrum, it is pretty much certain that Leach will never coach another down with the Red Raiders. New replacement Tommy Tuberville, most recently seen being terminated by Auburn , steps in and looks to retain much of the offensive flavor which was a hallmark of Leach’s time at Tech. How do you think Tuberville will fare as the head coach of the Red Raiders, and is he making a mistake in trying to retain Leach’s offense?

Strobl: I like Tommy Tuberville, and I don’t want to hold the university’s action against him. But anyone who thinks he’ll be able to further elevate this program is delusional. If you look at the big picture, he’s in a fairly similar situation to that which he had at Auburn . Texas Tech is in a division with several other teams that enjoy significant recruiting advantages, and once again Tuberville will be fighting for the leftovers when it comes to drawing in-state talent. Although he had flashes of brilliance on The Plains, he was unable to maintain regular success for precisely that reason- getting top-tier talent year after year was not going to happen there and it won’t happen in Lubbock either. Tuberville is a coach who will get you 8 or 9 wins a year. He’ll beat the teams he should beat, and he’ll lose most of the marquee matchups. Whatever faults he may have, Leach was an offensive genius, and I believe he wrung more talent out of his offenses than they actually had. Especially at the quarterback position. I expect the Raiders to regress under Tubs. However, retaining Leach’s offense isn’t a bad move. Tuberville recognizes the impact it had and the fact that keeping the system in place will afford some continuity to a badly disrupted team. It’s unclear whether or not he’ll be able to manage it long-term, but finding success with that offense would go a long way toward improving his odds of victory. What Tuberville really needs to do is bring a defensive mindset to Texas Tech. The Big 12 is often one giant shootout, and building a quality defense could make a real difference in the Red Raiders’ fortunes.

Mitchell: I’ve never liked Tuberville as a person, stemming from his days roaming the sidelines on the Plains and him insisting on rubbing Auburn’s streak over Alabama in all the Tide fan’s faces by holding up four or five fingers after leading Auburn to another victory over Alabama . It was so sweet to see the Tide knock off Tuberville and his sheepish smile with a 36-0 drubbing of the Tigers and signaling the end of his tenure at Auburn . But, this guy can coach. I thought Auburn was not smart to fire Tuberville who spent 10-years at Auburn , leading them to an average of over 8-wins a season. In 2004, Tuberville led Auburn to a 13-0 season, but they were not picked to play for the National Championship as they went on to defeat Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl while USC ran over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to clinch the National Championship. I don’t really see him having anymore success than Leach had in Lubbock though. I see Tuberville being a consistent 8-game winner at Texas Tech and maybe breaking through and having a shot at the conference title every now and then. Tuberville could have a little better success with the Red Raiders if he is able to build a defense like he had on the Plains. If Texas Tech is able to have a strong defense along with that high-octane offense that we all know, then this could be a very dangerous team in Lubbock and they could compete with the likes of Oklahoma and Texas . Recruiting is going to be the biggest challenge for Tuberville. Texas is a very fertile recruiting ground, but they will be going up against the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and even TCU and Houston.

Bigalke: Will he get Texas Tech any further up the Big XII ladder (fighting with Oklahoma State for third in the South) than Leach was able to do in his decade with the program? I highly doubt it... as you say, John, he was an 8-win coach at Auburn , exactly what Leach brought to the table for the Red Raiders. Tuberville can maintain that kind of success, but I don't really think he exceeds that level. If that is what Texas Tech wants to pay for what will be a big-money hire for sure, then so be it -- but if they were so reluctant to pay Leach the kind of money Tuberville will surely demand, it is going to be yet another hypocritical stain on that school's athletic reputation. Tuberville got a bad shake at Auburn, and with friends like he's about to acquire in the Texas Tech administration he should expect a bad shake again sooner or later in Lubbock...