Texas has paid nearly $10 million in buyouts over the past 16 months. There was the $3.25 million to make Mack Brown go away, the $4.375 million to pry Charlie Strong out of Louisville, the $1.75 million to remove Rick Barnes as head basketball coach and then the $500,000 to pull Shaka Smart away from Virginia Commonwealth.
In spite of that (or, perhaps, because of that), the richest athletics department in the country isn’t willing to fork over $600,000 to make Oklahoma State go away. Texas athletics director Steve Patterson has maintained the lawsuit is a Wickline problem and not a University of Texas problem. “It’s between Joe and his former employer,” Patterson told the San Antonio Express-News in October. “They’re both represented by competent folks. We’ll let it sort out where it sorts out.”
The Big 12 foes have locked lawyers for the past six months over whether or not Longhorns offensive coordinator Joe Wickline actually is, you know, the Longhorns’ offensive coordinator.
It’s gotten to the point now where Strong, Wickline and assistant head coach Shawn Watson have been called to an Austin courthouse to give their testimony as to just who calls the plays. And who does call the plays? Depends on who you ask.
Wickline says he does. “I’m a decision-maker. I make calls. I call plays,” he said.
Watson, however, says he’s the play-caller. Wickline makes all the run calls, but they go from Watson’s lips to the quarterback’s ears. See this entertaining exchange captured by the Associated Press’ Jim Vertuno
“It can only come out of one mouth,” Watson said.
In every game? “Yes.”
For every play? “Yes.”
What about Strong? The head coach confirmed Wickline handles the running game but could not specifically recall a game where Wickline shouldered the play-calling duty. “I don’t want to remember that game, we were so bad,” Strong said of Texas’ 31-7 loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl.
You know who thinks they know who calls the plays? Oklahoma State athletics director Mike Holder. “I wanted Joe Wickline to be the offensive coordinator in charge of calling the plays, the final decision-maker. I believe that’s Shawn Watson’s role,” Holder said in a Feb. 3 deposition.
Wickline’s Oklahoma State contract stipulated he owed a $600,000 buyout for leaving for anything other than an offensive coordinator (or, presumably, head coach) job. From the sounds of it, Wickline carries the offensive coordinator title, but not the role.
And Oklahoma State is determined to prove it? Next up in this ongoing saga could be the Cowboys’ lawyers deposing former players and coaches.