No one puts Mike Leach in a corner

Is Leach giving administrators the finger?

Will Texas Tech fire football coach Mike Leach for not signing a contract extension?

(If Tennessee can fire its coach of 16 seasons only to hire Lane Kiffin, anything is possible.)

Leach, the genius football coach who led the Red Raiders to an 11-2 record in 2008 and has a fetish for pirates, failed to sign a $12.7 million contract extension by the Tuesday deadline.

Now Texas Tech's board of regents will have to figure out their next move, which they will do by teleconference on Friday.

Leach says he's happy coaching on his current contract that pays him $2.65 million next season and $2.35 million in 2010. His main issues with the extension was not the money, but four clauses that were added at the last minute:

• guaranteed compensation if Leach is fired,
• the buyout amount he would pay if he left early,
• Leach's personal property rights,
• and a penalty for interviewing for another job without athletic director Gerald Myers' permission.
  

In defense of the university, Myers has said in the past that he just wanted to know if Leach was going to interview elsewhere and would not withhold permission.

But in this win-at-all-costs world, that just doesn't seem believable, which is probably why Leach told Myers to take his contract extension and shove it.

After nine seasons in Lubbock and a 76-39 record, Leach was not about to be bullied into signing a contract he didn't agree with one hundred percent.

(Just as Leach wouldn't give dating tips he didn't completely believe in...)

In effect, Leach is daring Texas Tech administrators to make a foolish move and fire him, which would cost the school as much as $4.4 million.

Here's what Leach told ESPN's Joe Schad:

I am prepared to finish out the last two years of my contract. I am not familiar with the notion of firing someone for failing to sign an extension to a contract. That notion to me is mind-numbing. But I guess stranger things have happened.

The only bargaining chip the school has is that all the other high-profile college football coaching vacancies have already been filled, but that probably doesn't matter to the unconventional Leach. He'd coach a Pop Warner team if that's what he had to do, and the team would no doubt dominate.

If Texas Tech's board of regents is dumb enough to fire one of the best coaches in college football simply because he would not bend to their collective will, and I highly doubt they will, the backlash from fans will be swift and harsh. Jones AT&T Stadium might just burn down. Already, fans have rallied around their football coach. On Tuesday, a couple dozen Leach supporters gathered outside his office to show support.

But beyond the fans' reactions, the football program would take a long time to recover. Who would want to coach at an institution that tried to strong-arm its employees into signing contract extensions? And what would all those high school recruits think about a school that fired the best offensive mind in the game?

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