Mike Leach admonishes 'God Squad' players in locker room video
Mar 12, 2010, 10:00 AM EDT
Mike Leach, possibly the only coach ever fired for placing a player in a shed, is scheduled to give a deposition today in Lubbock as part of his wrongful termination lawsuit against Texas Tech, stemming from his firing in Dec. of last year. In honor of that, I suppose, Orange Bloods has found a couple of videos of Leach locker room rants, one in particular which I found interesting. In it, he tells “Some of you God Squad guys” that praying is okay, but that God wants them to concentrate on defense.
“If you’re not doing that, you guys who are throwing the book around all the time, you’re defying the book.”
Video following the jump.
I’m not an expert on the Bible, so I don’t know what God thought of man coverage. My assumption is that he preferred zone. But a recent, unearthed relic does reveal that Jesus only played offense.
The Leach video clips were obtained under the Texas Open Records Act, and despite some salty language are actually rather mild when compared to other coaches one can think of. They probably wouldn’t even move the needle on the Bobby Knight meter. But it’s interesting to see a Texas football coach kind of on the outside looking in when it comes to praying and using the Bible for motivation. “You God Squad guys” is probably not a term heard by many Texas athletes. Leach, by the way, was raised as a Mormon.
The other video clips can be found here.
“What does God say? ‘If you’re lukewarm, I’ll spew you out,’” Leach says. “If you’re a defensive player, I don’t need one side of the brain on playing defense and one side thinking, ‘Oh gee, I wonder, this. I wonder that. I wonder the other thing.’ No, no. Screw that.
“Your whole head’s got to be on defense. Your whole head has to be on offense. Your whole head for that play has to be on special teams. If you’re not doing that, you guys who are throwing the book around all the time, you’re defying the book.”
The timing of the videos’ release is probably not coincidental. Leach’s attorneys questioned Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance on Thursday, and Adam James, the infamous player in the shed, and his father, ESPN’s Craig James, are scheduled to give statements on Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Not sure how these videos could impact anything, but it’s curious that they are being released now.
Leach, by the way, has possibly the greatest Wikipedia paragraph ever: Leach spends time during each off-season learning as much as he can about various things that interest him. Aside from pirates, he has researched topics such as Native American leader Geronimo, American pioneer Daniel Boone, grizzly bears, chimpanzees, whales, and American artist Jackson Pollock.
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Videos: Mike Leach Locker Room Rants Released [SportsbyBrooks]
Video shows Mike Leach behind closed doors at Texas Tech [Orange Bloods]
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- West Texas redneck - Mar 13, 2010 at 1:53 AM
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Tony!
Seriously…rich conservatives in California PLEASE! Pelosi and the LALA clan weirdywood control the BS in that state. Problem with Cali is nobody as the balls to say no! They just create cottage industries for every dependence known to man
In Texas we balance our budget every two years with what we have, and live within our means…Pelosi and the liberals dogs created Golden West Mortgage crisis with their threats to the big banks…read Barney Frank comments from 1999.
As for Mark and Joe R…kick my ass…you bleeding heart liberal pigs need to travel to Texas and experience God’s country for year! No income tax, good paying jobs in the oil field, tech jobs in Austin and Houston, reasonable housing costs, and by the way us ignorant Texans have the best health care in the world!
What do Phil Mickelson’s wife and mother, Eddie Van Halen, Henry Kissinger and the Prince of Saudi Arabia have in common?
All treated at M.D. Anderson Cancer hospital in Houston, TX and where the best 2 heart surgeons in the world reside?
You get an “A”…Houston Texas! Drs DeBachey and Cooley did their undergrad and med school in the great state of Texas!
God Bless the State of Texas
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- Brian - Mar 13, 2010 at 7:26 AM
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Gotta love Leach for telling it like it is, or at least how it should be.
Tis amazing how many atheletes think some supreme being is really interested in their play. Effing hilarious!
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- LewP - Mar 13, 2010 at 8:21 AM
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I’m not sure how this Leach story became a platform for slamming not only Leach, but Texas, and heck, the entire southern United States, but it did.
My opinion doesn’t matter 2 cents, but let me draw a parallel to this story to an experience I had a while ago. I was riding a DART train (Google DART) in Dallas one morning and underneath a scrolling message board on the train was a person sitting in a wheel chair riding the train. And then this big news came across the scrolling neon board above him that Terrel Owens might not be ready to practice because of a sprained toe. I thought to myself, “How can T.O. get much more publicity about his toe, than most Americans do that have far more challenges in life than him?”
I don’t give a rat’s behind about what Mike Leach does or how he coaches his team. It seems like stading in a shed can’t be that bad, even if all the allegations are true. Try running up the side of a hill and kill a bunch of snipers in a morter bunker, then get back to me.
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- Philip - Mar 13, 2010 at 1:22 PM
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Not to insult anyone’s intelligence (though I’m sure I will) but I think a lot of folks are missing the point Leach was making about the Bible: Do whatever you do to the best of your ability, giving everything you’ve got, and to do that you have to be focused. The concept is not that difficult. He wasn’t downing the God Squad, he wasn’t misquoting, he was simply reiterating the dictate from God to utilize your God-given talents to the best of your ability which in turn glorifies God. If you’re not focused then your not doing your best which in turn means your performance doesn’t glorify God hence “you’re not following the Bible”.
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- Bemused - Mar 13, 2010 at 1:53 PM
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It’s a suspect topic, but Texas pays more in federal taxes than it receives in federal benefits, in the latest data I could find in the time it was worth searching:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/press/show/22659.html
It would be interesting to control for things like military bases, which tend to be in southern and midwestern areas, for a variety of reasons. If one removed those from the equation, I wonder what the data would show.
It’s worth reading the analysis that explains some of the numbers.
Or you can just go on hating Texas. I’m sure they’re terribly perturbed. I would personally trade the delusional government here in Oregon and the taxes I pay for no state income tax and occasional dose of conservative rhetoric I’d have in Texas.
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- Robert Newman - Mar 14, 2010 at 5:28 AM
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I don’t know how the character of Texas became the focus of this blog rather than Mike Leach. For the record, and this is coming form someone that is well-educated and has spent more than 50 years of his life in the state as well as traveled and lived in many other areas of the country, Texans are pretty much like everyone else. They are more socially conservative than citizens in some states, but they are also very hard-working people that are much more open and friendly than those from New York-New Jersey for example, and much more sincere than most Californians. We have our problems like everyone, but there are a lot of good qualities that Texans and Southerners in general seem to have that are hard to find in the Northeast. Most Texans are a little embarrassed by George W. Bush, and the Republicans that control the state government. We laugh when people assume that the J.R. Ewing caricature represents the average male Texan.
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- alsosprac - Mar 15, 2010 at 8:37 PM
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Well said Dj quest, well said.
While extremely useful, the internet has also provided all of us the opportunity to demonstrate our individual ignorance to millions….and as you have so well pointed out, there is really no excuse for it.
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- markg - Mar 17, 2010 at 4:47 PM
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I wish Texas was its own country, that way we dont have to help pay for all these unemployed united states citizens. Then Texas could sell oil to all you northern boys for twice the 10 times to the cost. if this country ever got attacked all the citizens from the north would be running to Texas because you’ll dont know how to load a pistol or any sort of firearm, not to mention you’ll dont have the balls to protect yourselfs or your family if our military got overun or if the man delcares martial law. So dont write about how Texans are a embarrassment to you and the whole country when one day we might be protecting your butt!!
