So Much for Eye Ball to Eye Ball Communication

The only thing that moves the National news out of the headlines of the the local newspaper would be something concerning “football.”  One of those happenings could be any of the following concerning the firing, hiring, retiring, dying or resigning of the head football coach at Texas Tech.  Well this happened faster than a speeding bullet this past weekend and for the most part the citizens that live and breath football are either mad, glad, sad, disappointed, or relieved that the Tub is gone for good.  On Friday of last week he met with his Athletic Director and looked him straight in the eyes and said, “I am committed to the Texas Tech football team for now and the future!”  At the same time his travel agent was sticking a one way ticket to scenic Cincinnati, Ohio in his hip pocket and whispering, your room at the Holiday Inn Express with a free breakfast, is also prepaid.  So, Tuberville is on that plane to the cold country to coach a team of a much lesser conference, much lesser facilities(the stadium seats a tad over 35,000 which is normally half full as opposed to the 60,000 seat stadium at Texas Tech which is usually sold out and stays packed all through the game, unless it is a blowout with a score of 66-20 like at the Oklahoma State game last year).  Now the caring fans of Tech feel rejected, tormented, embarrassed, and as Coach Tub looks at Lubbock in his rear view mirror most of the town is giving him the middle finger high five, with a slight wave to it.  His big goal, as stated in the newspaper article, would be to draw fans, since they seem to stay at home watching on TV or go to watch the losing Bengals play.   Good luck on that since he seemed to have a real lack of enthusiasm for that aspect of coaching and was Mr. Drab along those lines.  Listening to him talk was like watching paint dry or chewing on a big mouth full of black mud!

So, as someone once said, “life goes on in the fast lane or the slow lane, but we will survive.”  My only advice to the athletic director is to stick with someone who likes West Texas and understands that the wind does blow(Tub complained about that all the time) and sometimes it has particles in it called “dust.”  Plus the summers can be a little toasty but for the most part our weather is just fine and enjoyable.  The sunsets are only challenged by the big Island of Hawaii and the city freeways and street systems are beyond reproach since they are built for a city of a million but we only have 230,000 to use them daily.  As I researched the former head coaches of Tech back to the original Coach Freeland who was hired in 1925, I found that all of the guys from the Southeast stayed an average of 3.2 years as the Head Coach, while the native Texans stayed nearly 9 years.  The winningest percentage among the Head Coaches all belong to the Texas bred coaches.  So, as the Athletic Director says, “we want a winner who understands West Texas and wants to be ingrained(sounds like a tattoo) with the fabric of Lubbock.  

A couple of concluding trivia points need to be aired out now.  Since I have been following Texas Tech athletics and academia since 1950 I have seen a lot of things happen that have been interesting to note.  For example, right now as I write this the school has three sports that do not have a head coach, 1. The football team, 2. The men’s basketball team(has an interim), 3.  The tennis team head coach resigned last Friday after 20 years and taking the program to high national rankings.  Then on the academia side the chess team won a National Championship last year only to have the head chess coach resign and move on to a more chess oriented school, some where up “North” amongst all those smarter yankees.   So, as far as I know the other sports are being led by head coaches and I am sure the cheerleaders and poms are being led with the best(since I watch them closely through my binoculars during all home games).   Of course the Head Football coach always gets the biggest headlines and as we watch this transition to another new coach let’s remember it is not the end of the world and since there have only been 15 coaches and 1 interim in the past 87 years that is not too earth shattering!

EA, SH......:)!

greerman