LITTLE ROCK — Eight months after being fired as Texas Tech football coach, Mike Leach said he believes the Texas Tech administration used the controversy surrounding Adam James as a reason to dismiss him.

Leach, the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s guest speaker Monday at the Embassy Suites hotel, was fired Dec. 30, three days before the Alamo Bowl against Michigan State and one day before Texas Tech was supposed to pay him $2.5 million. Leach was given a five-year contract worth $12.7 million in March 2009 after several months of negotiating, which also saw him interview for the job at Washington.

Leach has filed a civil suit against Texas Tech in Lubbock’s 99th District Court. Oral arguments are scheduled to begin Oct. 7.

“The thing is the administration was dissatisfied with the way the contract negotiation went and they wanted to find a way of getting out of paying me what they owed me,” Leach said. “I’ve sat down with my lawyer and seen some memos passed back and forth which showed me they did not want to live up to their end of the deal.

“Right now, we want to get this thing to trial as soon as possible, and they want to drag this thing out.”

James, the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James, suffered a concussion and claimed he was forced to stand inside a darkened shed next to the Texas Tech practice field, which touched off a firestorm, ultimately resulting in Leach’s firing.

Texas Tech was 8-4 in 2009 with a 5-3 conference record before the James controversy hit.

“The first thing is Craig James was dissatisfied with his son’s playing time, and when he didn’t like the answer we had given him, he went straight to the administration,” Leach said. “When Craig James was at SMU, he got preferential treatment [referring to the fact that SMU was placed on probation when James was a player there from 1979-1982] and he felt his son Adam was entitled to the same thing. The whole thing was absurd.”

Leach compiled an 84-43 record in 10 years as the Red Raiders coach, going 11-2 in 2008. Texas Tech shared the Big 12 South Division title that season with Oklahoma and Texas, and Leach won Big 12 Coach of the Year honors.

Leach, now an analyst for CBS College Sports, said he wants to get back into coaching, even with the lawsuit pending against Texas Tech.

“It has to be the right place,” Leach said. “I want to go to some place where they value me as an individual and appreciate the fact that my teams win and my players graduate and not have to deal with people with separate agendas. The lawsuit doesn’t change anything for me.”

Since getting fired from Texas Tech, Leach has moved to Key West, Fla., and has kept busy, visiting movie producer Peter Berg, actor Matthew McConaughey and the training camps of the New York Jets, Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. In addition, he’s working on a book with Bruce Feldman of ESPN, and it is scheduled to be released in January.

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Uploaded by TheMemphisSlim on Sep 3, 2010 Johnny Majors from Huntland, TN tried out for the UT Football team weighing 150 pounds. His Father, Shirley Majors his HS Coach,encourage him and then 4 younger brothers all to be Vols. Johnny Majors was the runner-up in 1956 for the Heisman Trophy to Paul Horning, on a loosing Notre Dame […]

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We have had some great speakers at the Little Rock Touchdown Club and Auburn’s Pat Dye has to be included in that list. Jim Harris: No Little Rock Touchdown Club Speaker Quite Like Former Auburn Coach Pat Dye by Jim Harris 10/3/2011 at 3:22pm The last time former Auburn head football coach Pat Dye addressed […]

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