Mike Leach calls out PAC admins - via text
Yahoo doing a great job following this story. It's great seeing a coach take a stand against incompetent conference admins without caving to the pressure they can exert, but I hope his AD has his back.
October 20th, 2018 at 5:04 AM ^
Leach is my 2nd favorite coach. Entertainment everywhere! Not to bad with the offense either.
October 20th, 2018 at 5:24 AM ^
Somebody needs to do this...bad officiating is a problem. As much money as the NCAA rakes in they can afford to model the NFL ref system with training, salaries, etc.
October 20th, 2018 at 7:36 AM ^
The Leach thing goes well beyond the game officials (in fact, the officials were doing the right thing). Leach is calling out the PAC commissioner (Larry Scott) and his cronies for their incompetence/bias... which would never happen in any other conferences... nope
October 20th, 2018 at 6:16 AM ^
mike is right. period. easy call. gutless lack of enforcement and equally weak lack of contrition on the part of the pac12 admin/officiating heads if missing that call was somehow an honest mistake.
October 20th, 2018 at 7:23 AM ^
I don’t think I could ever be convinced of that missed call being an honest mistake. Good for coach speaking his mind.
October 20th, 2018 at 6:59 AM ^
He's correctly pointing out the league interference and duplicity with games. There's a growing body of evidence, of which we are all too familiar, that this shit has been happening. They need to fix the refereeing rather than fixing the games.
October 20th, 2018 at 7:04 AM ^
Good, good.
I’m sure the officials will find a way to screw us today as well.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:49 AM ^
That's the only thing I have a good feeling about today. The B1G would want MICH and OSU marquee matchup for the final game (but, of course, ultimately an OSU win) for the final regular season game.
October 20th, 2018 at 10:08 AM ^
You'd have thought that in 2016 as well, and yet they were still horrible @MSU.
IMO, the biggest concern today is what trash refs the conference will throw our way today.
October 20th, 2018 at 7:07 AM ^
Has any reporter requested through FOIA texts from Warde or Harbaugh in regards to officating in the B1G and the OSU game?
October 20th, 2018 at 7:10 AM ^
Calls will always be missed - BUT that isn't the issue - the call was actually made and it certainly looks like a correct one - then a "third party" (read down into the cited source) calls in and overrules the decision - and this appears to be a non-referee party. That is really the issue - this is really manipulating the outcome of the game. Was there a lot of money on this game?
In sport there has always been a lot of leeway. We have players in various halls of fame who have been notorious for bending or twisting the rules (e.g. famed for using a spit ball in baseball), and being very bad human beings BUT the one seemingly inexcusable sin is being party to fixing the outcome of a game.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^
While this is a particularly egregious example, where the PAC-12 got caught with their pants down, I think we're kidding ourselves if we don't think the leagues have been influencing the outcomes of games. I believe they're usually just better at hiding their tracks.
October 20th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
This is the story that everyone isn’t reporting in a bigger way (yet?)
how can a non official make the decision? Why have refs?
October 20th, 2018 at 7:36 AM ^
Since it's been demonstrated that PAC12 refs have cheated in the past on the behalf of USC on the field and later in the booth, it's no wonder he goes off.
October 20th, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
I'm glad he's pointing out how terrible and dangerous the poor officiating is. At the same time, Leach doesn't seem like a particular good guy and it takes a bit to distance that part of him from the message. Still, glad someone is putting a conference on noitce that people see how bad they are.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
Why do you say Leach doesn't seem like a good guy? He seems like a very good coach that speaks his mind.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
His brain works a little different than most. Read up on him. He's locked players in closets, etc. He has a little Bobby Knight in him.
October 20th, 2018 at 10:10 AM ^
The story about him locking Adam James in a closet was contradicted by several witnesses. It appears to have been made up by Adam James (Craig James’s son) who was spoiled and lazy and wanted to retaliate against Leach for his perceived mistreatment. Read up on it!
October 20th, 2018 at 8:18 AM ^
Say what you will about Mike Leach - he is definitely not the nicest man nor the most functional human being. However, I believe he is still a national treasure in college coaching circles for the things that he feels free to do sometimes, such as what is described in this story.
October 20th, 2018 at 8:21 AM ^
I'm glad that Leach went off on them, and I hope he keeps it up - publicly - whenever the PAC-12 mentions its commitment to player safety. Because he's absolutely right.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:05 AM ^
Isn't it amazing how quickly FOIA requests can be answered if a university wants it out? I always thought it took months because university officials are so busy.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
Don’t believe for a moment this is not going on in our conference as well. The deck is stacked against Michigan with OSU being the darling of the conference. I don’t recall Rodriguez being allowed to recruit while Carr was coaching his last bowl game. Then you have all of the lack of calls against the opposition for holding....where there is smoke there’s fire. Delaney is just as bad if not worse and you never hear a peep from our AD.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:12 AM ^
That "first down" in Columbus in 2016. Perhaps it was actually a first down but it was inches either way. But the officials immediately signaled first down and that's that. No bring out the chains. No booth review of the spot. You know none of this would be going on if Jim Delany was still commissioner.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^
With all the issues around “the spot”, not bringing out the chains is not one of them. The line to gain was EXACTLY the 15 yard line. It basically became the goal line...anything breaking the plane of that line makes it a first down. No measurement was needed.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
Right--the spot was bad, but the mechanics book (correctly) says you never ever bring out the chains if the line to gain is a yard line.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:14 AM ^
Leach is still my favorite coach ever. Wish there were more coaches with his honesty. Might fix alot of the issues in college sports.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^
So the head of the conference called the replay booth full of trained officials and had them overturn the call on the field?? How is this not a bigger story?! That's insane. If I heard something like that happens in a Michigan game I would give up my season tickets and never watch college football again. That's the craziest shit I've ever heard.
October 20th, 2018 at 10:06 AM ^
Not the head of the conference, but the VP for business affairs (and "corporate counsel"). You are right--this is a huge story that was very under-reported.
What happened is that the Pac 12 has a central replay booth somewhere in California to back up the replay official on site (the NFL does this too, as do the SEC, ACC and Big 12). The replay ref was about to confirm a targeting call on the field, but the VP, who is not a trained football official but was sitting in the replay center for an unexplained reason, instructed the replay official to overturn the targeting call instead. The replay official did exactly what he was instructed by the VP, who was obviously outside his chain of command, and overturned the targeting call that he was about to confirm.
I don't see how any ref with integrity could agree to take an assignment from the Pac 12 ever again. This goes beyond a bad call on the field, or even a biased official. This is the conference dictating a result based on something other than play on the field. It's the difference between incompetence and actual malfeasance. It is, as you say, crazy.
Story here
October 20th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Your description is far more accurate than mine. Is this not clear game fixing? That is suuuuuuper fishy. Unreal how this isn't a huge story. How many people bet on that game? That's just crazy!
October 20th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
Love Leach. Wish Delaney would get called out the same way.
October 20th, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
If he ever gets canned out there, I'd be all for JH getting him as a passing game coordinator.
October 20th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
PAC 12 refs are the WORSE in all of football. I was at the Game on thursday Asu vs Stanford and I have never seen a group of refs call a game aonone sided in my life. It was a shame and I felt sorry for those kids playing. Besides a couple Michigan games I’ve watched nothing even came close to the shit those refs did or didn’t call Thursday. ASU was robbed countless times and it was obvious over and over and over all night.