It’s no secret that Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is not happy with his employers, as we wrote about it in much more detail yesterday. He wants more money, he wants more credit and, most importantly, he wants more respect. So how did Leach, who resurrected a moribund Tech football program, get so mad at the people who finally gave him a chance? Because of Bob Knight, who’s now too busy sitting in an ESPN chair to care about Texas Tech.

According to this piece in SPORTINGNEWS.COM, the friction is all connected to Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers, who currently pays Leach $2 million per season to coach the football team. When Leach first approached Myers about a richer extension two years ago, he was, by all accounts, not taken seriously. Despite leading Tech to nine straight bowls, Leach was always seen as a second class citizen to Bob Knight’s celebrity. And THE SPORTING NEWS’s Matt Hayes has a great anecdote to prove it.

Read more…

WE’RE NOT MAKING HAND PARTY OVER JAYHAWKS JUST YET We’ve been following Kansas football all season long (going back to early September) and we’re happy to see Jayhawks football getting so much coverage. It’s a shame people don’t talk more about Coach Mark Mangino though, but we all know how hard it is to cover him.

As pointed out by Doug Gottlieb of ESPN Radio early this week, the KU program is (ironically) in great shape with Mangino, because even if he wins out, the big football factories aren’t likely to hire someone who looks like a Hellmann’s jar with a headset.

It is also interesting to note that everyone we have heard talk about Kansas this week in the media or otherwise is completely overlooking the Iowa State game this Saturday. Here’s hoping Mangino can avoid the upset, and the subsequent ugly locker room infighting.