My 2 cents.
If you have a player that is playing the injured card for any reason. Send him to the trainers. If he doesnt work hard then cut his scholarship. If thats not an option for whatever reason then dont play him.
Leach put himself in this position by not doing the right thing. I am not saying I think he should get fired over it, but he opened the door up to something like this happening.
He should have freaking CUT the kid.
It's is his own fault on three separate occasions:
1. Having faith in the kid when others had said "Don't sign Adam James."
2. Not cutting him after others, including golden boy Graham Harrell, had said that he was lazy and useless to the team. You are the coach. Cut the dead weight. Issue ultimatums. DO SOMETHING!
3. Pulling the shenanigans of locking him closets. He wasn't "harmed" but it placed a spotlight on Mike Leach, and TTU, that was unnecessary.
You can't help but feel that Mike Leach became a God in his own eyes, especially with the way TTU student body and alumni had fallen in love with him due to him making the football team a competitive squad for once.
I don't feel sorry for him. And I actually think he was overrated when it comes to gameday coaching. He keeps saying that he isn't that big of a coach anyway. He has a few plays and they just change up the formations to trick the defense, plus the receivers just run to open spots on the field.
The Red Raiders signed Scotty Young, senior QB at Denton Ryan High School in Texas. He threw for 9,000 yards in two seasons. 126 TDs, IIRC. He had 65 TDs in one season, just one short of Graham Harrell's record of 66.
I think the Red Raiders are going to be fine without him.
The team respects Ruffin McNeil. I do, too.
One man's loss is always another man's gain. I wonder if Leach will remember that he can't get too cute with stuff like this at the college level.
This situation reminds me of our own, with the Texans:
1. Head coach stabilizes the program.
2. Defense sucks.
3. Changes d-coordinators and the defense improves a lot.
4. Leach does a quirky thing with a player and it backfires. Our head coach does quirky things with roster decisions and gameday strategies/in-game adjustments. One gets fired, one has probably one more year.
As a Tech fan, I think this was the smart thing to do. How many players want to risk (no, correction: How many PARENTS want to risk) going to a college where a player might get treated in weird ways by the head coach?
Tech will win the bowl game. Where it goes from there is anybody's guess.