If you haven't heard, because you forgot to get out from
underneath that rock you live under, Tommy Tuberville has left Texas Tech after
3 seasons. I have a few opinions on this.
First off I can't
blame the man; I would leave a team that had as many awful,
hateful, unyielding fans that Tech had. Why should you stay somewhere
where your efforts are apparently not appreciated? Let's think about this
seriously. We've all had that job that it seemed like nothing went right, there
was no support when you needed it, now let’s compound that with people
screaming for your job before you've even played a game... Hello! Can we say
hostile work environment?
Am I saying that
Leach needs to be brought back or that he never should have been fired? That's
a negative. I was leading the parade down Main Street when Leach got dismissed.
However, the things that followed Leach's dismissal just showed
the caliber of character you are dealing with, when you start to talk
about Tech fans.
Let's start by
just saying that Tech fans have changed the words to their own fight song.
Something that is steeped in school tradition got changed. These are the same
fans that boo the entire time a visiting school plays their school fight song,
classy. These are also the same fans that were slowly and methodically ousting
the Masked Rider and Raider Red for pirate paraphernalia brought on
by the mad scientist himself. When Leach was dismissed one thing that was made
very apparent to me and to the rest of the nation was this. Its not about the
school, or the team, it is all about the coach.
With that said...
I'm going to let
you in on a secret that isn't a secret, but anytime I bring this up people act
like this is big news. First thing there are two things that speak to
Chancellor Kent Hance, what can you bring to the university and how does this
help us achieve Tier 1 status? Now keep this in mind. I read somewhere and I
don't remember where I saw it, it was several years ago, but Tuberville brought
more money into the school in something like 6 months than Leach did in his
career at Tech. What did this lesson teach us boys and girls? It taught us that
a coach with a name is important. And I do mean very important.
Now outside of
actual monetary value of a coach with a name, let's look at some of the things
that Tubs was able to bring to Tech. There was a highly ranked recruiting
class, a highly ranked defense that suffered a lot of injuries ( a ranked
defense at Tech was huge, it has never happened, always look to the bottom of
the barrel to find Tech's defensive ranking), and Doege was talked about in a
Heisman capacity. All of these things wouldn't have happened if we had been
lead by the pirate master.
Let's face it,
even though the Big 12 has the toughest schedule and is one of the most
competitive conferences in the nation, its still a red headed step child. Not
only that, Tubs was able to shift focus from the Big 12 media power house UT; things
that no coach before him was able to do. Yeah OU would do it on occasion, but
that was about the extent of it.
Now that Tubs has
left everyone is wondering who Tech will bring in to coach. Well, there are a
few things that need to be considered with this choice.
We need a coach
that will unify the fan base... Good luck with that. I fully expect the next
person to be welcomed in a similar fashion by fans. I then also expect when
Tech goes another season with out a bowl game, that the new coach will be met
with the same respect as every other coach that had bowl bid less seasons... I
hope you sense the sarcasm.
So with the
thought of unifying the fan base being the most important part of this new
coaching job. Things have blown up with possible potential and the one name
that keeps being uttered is that of former Academic All American, and Texas
Tech Alum, Kliff Kingsbury.
I do want to throw
out there that Kliff was the last Academic All American at Tech, until Cody
Davis won the award... I appreciate smart men.
But after having a
freshman that you coached win the Heisman in the SEC that no one expected you
to perform well in... I will stand at the tallest point in Lubbock and lead the
chants calling you a moron for accepting the job for more than one reason.
I won't even start
on lack of experience... I will start with, are you going to seriously give up
the opportunity to coach with a team that has a serious chance of winning a
national championship? Are you going to give up the opportunity to coach a kid
that won the Heisman his Freshman year, for the remainder of his career? Are
you going to give up all these possibilities to take a HC position at
a school in a conference that should be renamed the Longhorn conference?...
Because Kliff let's face it, the only reason UT made it the the BCS when they
did was politics and they are the Big 12 as far as anyone outside the Big 12 is
concerned. Not only that Kliff you actually have a team that can run the spread
offense properly, complete with ground game and all!
Briles would be an
interesting choice, but between his very large buy out and the fact that he
knows what he's getting into, I don't foresee that one getting legs and running
for multiple reasons.
OSU's Todd
Monken's name has also been mentioned, just going by previous seasons...hmmm.
Now one thing that
all these men have in common is that they were/ are former OC's. Congrats, that
isn't what wins a game. One thing that Tubs had that I loved and firmly believe
that every HC should have is experience in defense. Offense does you no good
unless you can stop the other team.
With all this said
the new HC at Tech has a burden on his hands. So I am praying that our ranked
recruiting class doesn't jump ship, which happens a lot when things like this
happen, and they stay healthy next season.
But more
importantly I hope that the fans that were calling for Tuberville's job from
the get go, sit there and grin and bear it while we have a 3-9 season, with no
bowl bids. You got what you wanted. No Tubs. Now that you've got it you have
got to let a program build and you can either help be the corner stone or the
termites that eat away at something that has the potential to be a beautiful,
beautiful thing.
My final thought,
Tech fans need to stand behind the university as a whole and not a team,
player, coach or member of the staff. It takes a team to win and a team
mentality. Tech fans sorely lack the mentality part.
Just my thoughts.
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