let's play some American Football, eh?

Former Tech QB Harrell signs with CFL team

08:30 PM CDT on Thursday, July 16, 2009

Associated Press

REGINA, Saskatchewan – Record-setting Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell is headed to the CFL, having signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday.

Harrell is the NCAA Division I career leader in touchdown passes but wasn't drafted by the NFL. His workout with the Cleveland Browns did not result in a contract.

Harrell had to fight the perception that his numbers were the product of Texas Tech's offensive system and he didn't have the arm strength to succeed in the NFL.

The Roughriders are already two games into their season and have three quarterbacks on their roster. Their starter is former North Carolina quarterback Darian Durant, who had only four career CFL starts coming into the season.

Alamo Mike's Last Stand?

A&M faculty vote 'no confidence' in chancellor
Rebuke of Mike McKinney adds new turmoil shortly after Elsa Murano was forced to step down as president.
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, July 02, 2009

When the chancellor of the Texas A&M University System addressed the Faculty Senate last week, he described the faculty as "the mind and conscience" of the university, with a voice that can open wounds or heal them.

"I have a sincere desire to see our relationship move beyond the adversity of the recent past," said Chancellor Mike McKinney, who went on to quote Scripture as well as Shakespeare as he urged faculty members not to reignite disagreement over A&M's leadership.

Despite McKinney's overtures, the Faculty Senate voted 55-9 Tuesday to approve a resolution expressing no confidence in his leadership. Earlier, an online poll by the senate found that, of more than 1,300 faculty members responding, 83.5 percent had no confidence in the chancellor.

The votes have no official impact. The A&M System Board of Regents has exclusive power to hire and fire the chancellor, who oversees a statewide network of academic campuses and state agencies, as well as a health science center.

The faculty's action nevertheless amounts to a sharp rebuke of McKinney and, indirectly, of the regents. Faculty Senate officials said this was the first time they had passed a resolution of no confidence in the chancellor, or even considered such a resolution.

Rod Davis, a spokesman for the A&M System, said Wednesday that McKinney and the regents would have no comment on the vote.

The developments come a little more than two weeks after Elsa Murano resigned as president of the College Station campus under pressure from the regents. Murano, the first Hispanic and first woman to lead the university, had taken issue with a sharply critical performance evaluation of her by McKinney.

Asked what prompted the vote of no confidence, Robert Bednarz, a geography professor and speaker of the Faculty Senate, said, "I think his statements about the nature of shared governance and how decisions are made are in opposition to what most faculty think is the most productive way to make decisions."

Shared governance is the practice of consulting closely with faculty members, staff members and other stakeholders before making major decisions. It is a widely accepted principle of higher education administration, but McKinney at times has essentially said he takes his marching orders from the regents.

Bednarz said some faculty members also thought the regents and chancellor didn't consult sufficiently with the faculty before expanding a rule on background checks for new employees and before trimming the list of financial firms with which university employees can place retirement money.

It's unclear what effect the no-confidence vote will have. McKinney, a physician and former state legislator, is a friend and former chief of staff of Gov. Rick Perry.

Regents Chairman Morris Foster — like the other regents, a Perry appointee — has said McKinney has "my full support."

"There's got to be communication and clarity of roles and purposes, as well as candor and openness, for faculty to feel comfortable that governance and leadership are in good hands," said Richard Novak, senior vice president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

The search for a new president, assuming that it's not done in haste and that faculty members are part of the search committee, could heal wounds and rebuild confidence in leadership, Novak said.

Foster has said that faculty members would be involved in the search, which he hopes to complete within six months, a short timeline for such a search.

rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604

Vick Released From Prison

He's out.

He served his sentence, and in my opinion, he deserves a second chance. In fact, anyone that gave Bill Clinton a second chance for committing the ulitmate heinous crime as our Nation's leader, should be more than happy to do the same for Vick. I have never liked the guy; nor have I admired him. I do, however, believe in forgiveness.

After all, Vick has admitted guilt and shown remorse. Unfortunately, those are 2 things Bill, to this day, never has expressed.

More From The Admiral:

Posted: May 12, 2009
Sporting News staff report

In an interview with BitterLawyer.com, Pepperdine Law School graduate and Texas Tech coach Mike Leach proposes a playoff system for college football that would essentially grant every team postseason play.

Acknowledging that his plan is "not one that anyone would probably go for," Leach told the website about his vision for a playoff system.

"This business of a four-team playoff or an eight-team playoff is just stupid. I think you have to cut the regular season to 10 games," Leach said. "Then I think you need to invite a lot of teams (maybe 64) into a playoff, but you'd let the rest of the teams continue in an NIT-type deal so that they could play another six games or so, which they need to fund their programs.

"The simple fact is that we act like a playoff system in college football is a unique idea. It's not. Bowls are unique. All levels of college football except for Division I have a playoff, and other sports do it, too."

Asked what other changes he might make to the game, Leach said he would like to see a speaker in the quarterback's helmet like the pros use. And in the NFL, he said, "they need wider hash marks."

Asked if he ever uses his law school training as a college football coach, Leach said, "Someone once put it to me like this, and I agree with this take. A law degree — and really any form of higher education, but especially a law degree — is all about problem solving. I use it every day in that sense. Because you don't always know the answer to something, but the great thing about legal training is that it teaches you how to solve the problem when you don't know the answer.

I Guess Deep Down Aggy Isn't That Bad...

Aggie spirit lives on even when the faithful are gone

Austin Soviet-Statesman
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

They're putting in a new cemetery space for Aggies in College Station, which makes you wonder. Since it's a tradition for Aggies to stand up through a whole football game, will they bury them upright and at attention?

Hey, this would be kind of a green move because it would conserve space and help fight global overpopulation.

They say there's no such thing as a former Aggie, and that once you are one, you're happily branded with that designation for life. Aggieness is harder to get rid of than a bad tattoo. But the new cemetery opening up in a few weeks proves you wear this badge for eternity.

I can hear St. Peter now. "Nice boots, pal. Really nice boots. What's the deal with the sheep?"

The Memorial Cemetery of College Station will have a section called the Aggie Field of Honor. The first phase will have 2,900 burial spaces, although non-Aggies are welcome there, too, if you really want to be buried in the middle of a bunch of Aggies. It's probably a good idea to mix, though. Nearly 3,000 burial plots — that's a lot of burr haircuts.

Some 350 spaces have already been sold. Former Aggie football great John David Crow has bought spaces, said Ross Albrecht, the marketing supervisor for the cemetery. Former Aggie football coach R.C. Slocum is planning to buy a spot, Albrecht added. He said they have yet to hear from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was an Aggie yell leader when he was in school.

Maybe Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is going to buy his space for him after the Republican primary.

The Aggie part of the new cemetery is decorated with a circular, concrete, tilted A&M logo. Vaults holding cremains will be marked with a dark red, almost maroon granite, Albrecht said.

Wouldn't the cemetery be even more festive if they included one of those UT outhouses like they used to stick on top of the Aggie bonfires?

What surprises me about this is that nobody's come up with this before. If it says A&M on it, you can sell it to an Aggie. Why didn't I buy a couple of acres outside Bryan about 10 years ago and start digging? I could be rich by now.

Oh, the municipal cemetery will also have a non-Aggie section for those who would rather be buried away from the Aggies. A 4-foot-by 9-foot grave site runs $2,000 in the Aggie section, and just $950 in the regular municipal section.

So why does it cost an extra $1,050 to get planted in the Aggie part? "It's just really the prestige," Albrecht said. I wonder if Aggies can get a price break if they buy season tickets for the whole family? And why not? The football team has been playing dead for the past couple of years.

But the big fashion question becomes should an Aggie be buried there with his senior boots on or off?

Actually, this Aggie cemetery is a pretty good idea for College Station tourism. Let's face it. The night life out there at the graveyard will be on par with the current club scene in the rest of College Station. No offense to the Dixie Chicken, of course.

You know, it's easy to make fun of Aggies because their traditions seem pretty goofy to non-Aggies such as myself, who just don't get it. But let's give the Aggies their due and admit that they manage to show a spirit that simply isn't equaled by the University of Texas. Who else but Aggies would have buried their deceased dog mascots so they can see the football score inside the stadium?

On the other hand, why not a cemetery in Austin for UT fans who have shuffled off to that great OU Weekend in the Sky? How about a cemetery for Longhorn faithful where each grave is marked with a full-sized plaster Bevo? Or a high-dollar Mack Brown plaque, embossed in gold, that comes with a Nike swoosh on it?

John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com

My new hairdresser

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Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Leach Apology:

“I never questioned the handling of the (A&M) players in any way and have always expressed the utmost respect for their coaching staff.

“I’ve always said that it is truly exciting to play Texas A&M - the quality of coaches they have, the great team and great tradition and, above all, the quality of players they have. I’ve always known A&M had great players. The fact that they have the luxury to put a third- or fourth-round draft pick on the bench, to me, identifies what a truly great team they are.

“It’s an honor for us at Texas Tech to have the opportunity to play them. There are numerous players on our team that will never get a look or play a down in the NFL, so you can imagine how exciting it is for me and them to go play a team the magnitude of Texas A&M and look over there on the bench and see third- and fourth-round draft picks.”

even MORE talk on the Leach embroglio

Dallas Morning News' Kevin Sherrington seems to agree with me.....

Tech's Pirate sails in his own direction - often into stormy seas

07:47 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Kevin Sherrington

Straight up: If your baby is ugly, don't ask Mike Leach if he thinks it's cute. The Pirate says what he thinks, which is often entertaining as long as it's not your baby he's talking about. He's Miss Manners' worst nightmare. No tact, no governor, no regrets.

But just because he's crazy doesn't mean he isn't right occasionally.

Take the flap the last couple of weeks over a couple of his Texas Tech players and the NFL draft.

When a Cleveland media blog indicated the Browns had no interest in star receiver Michael Crabtree – the term "diva" was invoked – Leach said Crabtree has had a better career than the Browns' young coach, Eric Mangini.

And when the Raiders' record-setting quarterback, Graham Harrell, went undrafted, Leach noted that the NFL's history of drafting quarterbacks is "notoriously bad."

Of course it is. The NFL hits on quarterbacks at the same rate the Rangers are right on pitchers. But Leach couldn't leave it at that.

And that's what gets him in trouble.

Asked what he thought about the Cowboys drafting Stephen McGee, whose Texas A&M days looked like something out of a 1970s scrapbook, he said the Cowboys liked McGee better than his Aggies coaches did.

Even if it was clever stuff, Mike Sherman took exception, and rightfully so.

If it's any consolation, Leach said it's nothing personal. It never is.

People call. He answers.

Simple as that.

"In all my life, I've never been mad at Texas A&M about anything," he said Wednesday. "I've always respected their traditions and what makes the school special.

"It just seems like once every six months, they get upset with me."

Pretty much any time he says something about them, as a matter of fact.

The reason to call Leach on Wednesday was to ask if he ripped the NFL because it won't employ his quarterbacks, a trend that could pose a detrimental effect on recruiting.

A college recruiting primer: Most blue-chip quarterbacks pick programs that best prepare them for the NFL. Or at least they hope so. McGee was drafted out of a program that, for three years, used him as a battering ram. But if a kid thinks that the school doesn't help, or, worse, its "system" might even hurt, what's the incentive?

Leach wouldn't answer that question. Not directly, anyway. But he did say that NFL offenses look more like his spread every day.

And it's not as if any other college coach has a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL, either.

"I can't think of anybody that's got more than two," he said.

Even with all the recent rhetoric, Leach swears he bears no hard feelings toward the NFL. And why should he? The league just drafted four Tech players, more than had been taken in the first seven rounds any year in school history.

Not that it matters to him whether the NFL offers its stamp of approval. He pretty much does as he pleases, which doesn't always turn out well.

For the record: When Leach's contract negotiations became public this off-season, I came down on management's side. Not everything Leach says is the gospel. I never said he wasn't self-serving. He just can't bite his tongue.

Frankly, that's what makes him fun. Consider his take on the draft order of the state's top quarterbacks, which went Matthew Stafford, McGee, then Rhett Bomar, with Harrell and Chase Daniel bringing up the rear as free agents.

"I ranked them Harrell and then Bomar," Leach said. "Stafford I liked also."

For a few moments, he didn't say anything. But you could sense it coming.

And sure enough . . .

"You know, the NFL likes size so much, Brandon Williams should have been drafted as a quarterback," he said of his former defensive end, picked by the Cowboys. "He's tall, about 240 pounds, and he can throw it a real long ways. As a matter of fact ..."

Thanks for the time, Mike. As always, nice talking to you.

Again, I usually like this stuff from Leach. His comments about Brandon Williams as a QB are hilarious. It's trying to disparage the success of a player from a rival team to console his own bitterness that's out of line. He's worried about Cody Harrell following the footsteps of the rest of his QB's, all the way back to Tim Couch and Josh Heupel and the impact that will have on his ability to recruit QBs. I don't know why he would care. He seems to do fine with the guys he's had, and hasn't needed the blue-chippers like Harrell.