Mike Leach, Mississippi State’s football coach, is sort of funny and can be, at least situationally, a bright football mind. But when it comes to dealing with his players, he’s a doofus. He’s shown this time after time after time.
But he once ran a pretty snazzy offense that helped a team that hadn’t won in a while win some football games (though Texas Tech never finished ranked higher than 12th in the nation), so he’s also gotten chance after chance to make millions while overseeing college students that he appears to detest.
Here’s the latest evidence that he doesn’t view them as individuals with agency, able to make choices about when and where they should take the risk of playing an essentially meaningless bowl game:
Mike Leach: Players opting out of bowl games is "one of the biggest absurdities that I've seen."
"You owe it to your team, you owe it to your fans, you owe it to your coaches and it’s the most bizarre thing in the world to me."https://t.co/3KUMlaDVCZ
— Andy Kostka (@afkostka) December 11, 2021
Hey Mikey, wanted to let you know that a full 20 percent of the people in the state where you work are living below the poverty line. That’s more than 564,000 people. You make $5 million a year. You might want to reevaluate what qualifies as absurd or bizarre.
Anyway, as many, many, many people pointed out, it’s extremely hypocritical for a college football coach to express this opinion so vociferously after so many of his coaching brethren abandoned their teams prior to those teams playing in their bowl games. Brian Kelly (who is bad) left Notre Dame while the school was still just outside the playoff with a chance to qualify.
Coaches, including Mike Leach, change jobs all the time because it’s what’s best for them, but the players can’t make a decision that affects their livelihood to guard against injury? I thought everyone understood and acknowledged the hypocrisy of this stance by now.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 12, 2021
Mike Leach himself once left Oklahoma, where he was offensive coordinator, to become the head coach at Texas Tech:
https://t.co/eBDRhYfGIe pic.twitter.com/iJwXibNVrh
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) December 12, 2021
This excerpt from Mina is an incredible burn, yes, but it also underscores the very reason that Mike Leach should not care one iota if any of his veteran players opt out of a bowl game: Because the weeks spent leading into any non-playoff bowl game aren’t about planning to win a football game … they’re about getting a head start on NEXT season.
Mike Leach should ask any savvy Mississippi State fan what they’d rather have: A win in the Liberty Bowl, or increased reps (both game and practice) for young players expected to step into more important roles next year?
It’s an easy choice, and also one that Leach himself should be smart enough to make. Mike Leach is not going to get fired for losing the freaking Liberty Bowl. Mike Leach will probably get fired if he goes 3-7 or 4-4 in the SEC again.
(I’ve made this argument before, if it sounds familiar.)
NFL-bound stars should skip their bowl games, and college fans should thank them
Of course there’s the matter of treating the players with basic respect, too, and allowing them to make a business decision about what’s best for them. To let them have the same right every single other person in college football — from the athletic director on down to the equipment manager — has always had.
Leach should understand that treating his athletes like the bright young adults they are will only help him continue to recruit talented players, but at this point he appears to have officially bought in on the idea that he’s eccentric or quirky or unfiltered enough to still resonate with good players.
The rankings — the Bulldogs’ 2022 class is ranked 11th in the SEC, with no five stars and one four-star player, according to 247 — suggest differently.
A cynic might believe Leach is pressuring his players not to opt out of the bowl game because he has money on the line. Amazingly, that’s not the case: Leach’s contract stipulates he gets a $100,000 bonus simply for participating in the Liberty Bowl. His own school doesn’t even care if he wins this game!
His players, meanwhile, get a swag bag and a per diem.
Maybe if Mike Leach wants his players to be obligated to play an entire season he can support a push for them to unionize and then collectively bargain for contracts where schools offer monetary bonuses for playing in bowl games.
That would be fair. As it stands, Leach’s players aren’t even guaranteed to have their scholarships next year. So maybe let’s save all the rah-rah coach talk for a time when everybody is tied to the team they’re supposed to be loyal to by the same sort of agreement.
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