Over a year after he was fired, Texas Tech still can’t quite get out from under the shadow cast by Mike Leach‘s 10 years in Lubbock.
Specifically, in this case, his last three years.
The school acknowledged in a press release issued Friday afternoon “their self-imposed sanctions following the institution’s discovery of text messaging violations within the athletics program have been accepted by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. The text messaging to prospects occurred in the sports of football, softball, and men’s golf from August 2007 through February 2009. Leach, of course, was head football coach during that time.”
Reportedly, over 1,000 total texts were involved amongst all of the sports; the NCAA found that the football coaching staff sent approximately 234 text messages to 45 recruits.
The school’s self-sanctions include two year’s probation, recruiting restrictions and scholarship reductions, the specific number of which has not been released. In their official statements, school officials made sure to note that some/most of the violations were committed by (ahem) former coaches.
“The infractions that occurred with football here at Tech happened between 2007 and early 2009, before I arrived as head coach,” current head coach Tommy Tuberville said. “Each of the coaches on this staff has a thorough understanding of the rules and regulations that pertain to the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference. All of us here at Texas Tech are committed to running a program with the highest integrity and one that all Red Raider fans will be proud of. With that being said, we are glad to have this behind us and are excited about our bowl win over Northwestern and the upcoming national signing period in February.”
“I think we have a very good group of coaches who are committed to following the rules,” athletic director Gerald Myers said. “Obviously, some of our coaches and former coaches made mistakes, but we have a strong monitoring system in place and coaches who believe in doing the right thing. Our coaches do a great job of emphasizing the importance of NCAA compliance with their assistants and student-athletes.”
For his part, Leach denied anything untoward occurred during his time with the Red Raiders.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Leach said during an appearance on Paul Finebaum‘s radio show. “We never had anything more than a secondary violation when I was there. ...
“No one on my staff did anything that broke rules.”
Apparently, the NCAA disagreed slightly with that assertion.