Last Friday Craig James assessed the status of Mike Leach’s termination lawsuit against the ESPN announcer and Texas Tech.

“I feel very confident about our position. Most people in Lubbock support my position. We did what any responsible parent would do. We did the right thing.”

For all I know, James may be right about the overall support he enjoys in Lubbock, but from their public actions, I do know at least one group of people who do not share James’ optimism.

The lawyers representing Texas Tech. Read more…

Today Mike Leach filed a lawsuit in Lubbock District Court that accused ESPN and James-hired public relations firm Spaeth Communications of defamation.

Case introduction:

Lawsuit excerpt:

Here is the letter Leach attorney Liggett sent to ESPN:

 Lawsuit excerpt covering Spaeth Communications:

What Leach wants: Read more…

For Texas Tech football fans, perhaps the only thing more stressful than witnessing ESPN broadcaster Craig James effectively oust their winningest coach in school history during the offseason for illegitimate reasons has been the last two weeks.

(Craig James said it, not us)

The Red Raiders suffered a blowout 52-38 loss to lowly Iowa State last week - allowing an improbable touchdown to the Cyclones on an onside kick in the process. Then today Texas Tech took on Baylor, another Big 12 also-ran that during former coach Mike Leach’s tenure was normally viewed as a breather on the schedule.

But under new, defensive-minded Tommy Tuberville, Tech’s defense surrendered 38 points to the Bears while incredibly allowing another freak touchdown on an onside kick in barely escaping with a 45-38 victory. The win allowed the Red Raiders to narrowly avoid starting the conference season 0-3, something Tech fans haven’t seen since 1990, ten years before Leach started his decade-long run of excellence at the school.

With such freak events going against Tech the past two weeks - including the shredding of a defense never seen during Leach’s tenure - I got to thinking about a quote ESPN’s James blessed us with about his ousting of Leach during his sermon at a Dallas evangelical church last May:

“I have felt strongly that we have been in a spirtual war for the past four months. Our faith, our christian family has sustained us. … It’s important to lead a godly life.”

Five months before James started his own “spiritual war” against Leach by threatening to sue the school unless it fired the coach late last year - a threat that has been confirmed by Tech Chancellor Kent Hance and Tech attorneys but gone virtually unreported by main media - apparently his god also instructed him to badger then-current Texas Tech assistant coaches about son Adam’s playing time:
Read more…

Dwain Price of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS reports that Texas Tech has not paid Mike Leach $1.7 million he is owed for “work he performed for the school during the 2009 season.”

(Stiff?)

Like most football factories, Texas Tech compensated Leach with a small base salary supplemented by “outside income” sources. Those sources include radio and TV appearances and an apparel endorsement - a controlled by Tech officials.

According to Leach’s contract, Tech is supposed to pay him $1.6 million in guaranteed outside athletics-related personal income. He also was slated to collect an additional $25,000 because Tech played in a bowl, $25,000 because the Raiders finished the season ranked No. 21 in the final Associated Press poll, $25,000 because Tech won five Big 12 games, and $25,000 because its football program’s graduation rate was above 65 percent. 

When contacted by Price, Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers confirmed that Leach hadn’t been paid most of his 2009 salary. Read more…

If you’re wondering what ESPN is planning to do with Craig James this college football season, it appears we have our answer.

Richard Deitsch of SI.com has a Q & A this week with ESPN’s vice president of production Norby Williamson that illuminates the cable network’s stand on the college football analyst standing accused of unduly influencing the termination of Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach.

Deitsch:

Last month James called the Alabama spring game and remains part of the regular rotation for ESPN’s College Football Live. Williamson told SI.com that he anticipates James will have a “similar schedule” to last year.

I’ve snipped some additional excerpts below from the the interview but I suggest you check out Deitsch’s entire story on the subject. Read more…

Craig James spoke at a church in Dallas recently, and talked about the wrongful termination lawsuit Mike Leach filed against Texas Tech after the football coach was fired following text messages and emails from James demanding Leach’s ouster to Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance and members of the Texas Tech Board of Regents.

(Video Below: Scroll to 14:00 mark)
Excerpt of James remarks:

“My son was being treated in an unfair, unimaginable, and unthinkable manner. We filed a complaint with the university; private, hoping to quietly protect Adam to stop the insanity that was being done to him. Not once, but twice.

“The lies, the accusations, the death threats, police sitting outside our home. The bounty on our lives. The insanity that comes from someone’s actions, are crazy.

“(Craig’s son) Adam (James) and my footprints, and what we’ve done in life when we hit the wall we can look around and our character, our honesty and our integrity are in place.

“Now the other side of the equation, the party that’s accusing, I wonder what their beach looks like?

“I have felt strongly that we have been in a spirtual war for the past four months. Our faith, our christian family has sustained us. … It’s important to lead a godly life.”

Regarding those “quiet” and “private” complaints from James, news reporter Ann Wyatt Little of ABC-TV affiliate KCBD in Lubbock noted three days after the James speech:

“According to official documents, On December 23, 2009, Craig James wrote to Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance demanding that Mike Leach be terminated.”

Five months before James asked the Texas Tech administration for Leach to be fired for the alleged mishandling of his son Adam’s concussion, despite the Texas Tech team trainer and doctor claiming the contrary in sworn affidavits, the ESPN analyst left voicemails with two Red Raiders coaching staff members demanding that his son be given more playing time by Leach. Read more…

Mike Graham of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS has the latest today on the playing status Adam James at Texas Tech. The 6-3, 216-pound son of ESPN broadcaster Craig James is being moved from receiver to tight end.

(Adam James: Ready to mix it up with the Sooners D-Line?)

Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville addressed the tight end position after Monday’s spring practice.

“We don’t have any tight ends on the team,” Tuberville said. “Ryan [Haliburton] and Adam James are the two closest guys. But I think both of them have done a pretty good job. Both of them are physical. Adam can really catch the ball and give us a little addition there, but we’re going to need to have a two tight end offense next year.

“We’re probably going to need a freshman come in and play for us at a tight end position to give us three. We’ll have some tight end next year. But those two guys, with what they’re doing, and you know, they’re giving us a pretty good look and I think they’re going to be fine for next year.”

Tuberville said the offense will probably run 15 to 20 offensive plays per game with a tight end.

The prospect of James lining up against defensive ends who will not only go at least 50-75 pounds heavier but also are just as agile has to have Mike Leach snickering into his sixth margarita of the day.

As for Craig, we now know that he once told former Tech receivers coach Lincoln Riley via voicemail that Adam was the best receiver on the team. With Adam’s move to offensive line, wonder if Tuberville’s voicemail is burning up too? Read more…

Betsy Blaney of the ASSOCIATED PRESS has details on a memo that Texas Tech university President Guy Bailey sent to Tech Chancellor Kent Hance three days before Mike Leach’s firing that recommended the “James case be closed” and Leach keep his job.

Testimony from Hance and the attorney also confirmed that university President Guy Bailey penned a memo Dec. 27 to Hance recommending that Leach “be issued a letter of reprimand” and that the James case be closed.

So why was Leach fired? Read more…

The evidence continues to mount that Texas Tech school administrators, faced with a wrongful termination lawsuit from former football coach Mike Leach, are in the process of intimating that ESPN’s Craig James played a major role in the dismissal of the school’s most successful coach of all-time.

Saturday Matthew McGowan of the LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL reports that yesterday Leach attorney Paul Dobrowski told a “room full of reporters” that Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance stated under oath in his Thursday deposition that James, an ESPN national college football analyst, “personally wanted Leach fired.”

Hance’s statement about James comes after Texas Tech attorneys, in a written request to the Texas Attorney General on Jan. 26 to keep public school documents about the firing secret, reported, “Craig James threatened on Dec. 20 to sue the university if it did not investigate the actions of then-head football coach Mike Leach.”

I wrote at the time of that revelation:

Tech attorneys are trying to keep all records sealed within the university as it pertains to the Leach investigation, but in the process of trying to keep those secrets, university lawyers tipped off just how much influence Craig James was trying to exert over the Texas Tech football program - and Leach himself.

The reason Tech lawyers released the statement about James’ threatened lawsuit was an attempt to prove to the state’s attorney general that the school had no choice but to go forward with its subsequent actions against Leach. And that behind-the-scenes details of those actions needed to be sealed forever.

Sounds a lot like Tech school officials are doing what they can to place the blame for the Leach investigation and subsequent dismissal of the coach on James. That would perhaps take the heat off themselves for what was an extremely unpopular decision with fans and, more importantly, donors. (Donations to the school have reportedly plummeted since Leach was fired, causing cuts in Tech academic programs.)

Though from Craig James’ perspective, the worst may be yet to come. Read more…

ESPN.com reported today:

Former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach and the school are headed to mediation Friday in Lubbock, Texas, sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN.com on Tuesday.

(ESPN’s James should just cut a check w/ Tech to Leach now)

On Jan. 21, State District Judge William Sowder ordered Leach, Texas Tech and their attorneys to complete mediation by Feb. 5. Lubbock attorney Frank E. “Dirk” Murchison III, a graduate of the Texas Tech School of Law, will try to mediate a resolution between the sides, according to the sources.

The source said neither side wants the case to go to trial and said the dispute might be resolved in mediation at a later date.

Interesting news from ESPN, if only it were true.

The LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL reports that Leach has absolutely no intention of settling with the school.

Read more…