Mike Leach is hoping that a pre-game rally in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday will compel Texas Tech to finally pay him the $2.5 million he alleges he is owed for coaching the Red Raiders in 2009.
Washington State coach Mike Leach says he was never paid for coaching the 2009 season at Texas Tech, and has been vocal about his case on Twitter.
Now, he’s urging anyone sympathetic to his cause to attend a rally in Lubbock, Texas outside Jones AT&T Stadium before the Red Raiders play Iowa State on Saturday at 9 a.m. P.T.
Leach announced the rally point on Twitter Friday morning along with the hashtag #PayCoachLeach.
Leach also lashed out at Texas Tech during his Monday news conference this week. While discussing the qualities he would like to see in WSU’s next athletic director, he said honesty was the most important thing, and elaborated on his negative experience with his employers at Texas Tech.
“Oh there were outright crooks at Texas Tech. I can name some. I won’t name names but we’re talking about an institution that hasn’t paid me since 2009. We won nine games in 2009, they haven’t won nine games since. Are there crooks there? Yeah. They oughta put them in jail,” Leach said. “You’ve got schools that have actually had murders, rapes and sexual assusalt, schools that have cheated and fixed grades, schools that bought players, there’s only one school in the nation that’s shameful enough to have not paid their head coach. Only one. Texas Tech stands alone as far as being sleazy and not paying their head coach. Can you imagine that?”
Leach tried to sue Texas Tech in 2012 to recoup the $2.5 million he says the school owes him for the 2009 season. However, his suit was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court, which claimed that Texas Tech had sovereign immunity. Sovereign immunity essentially gives the state immunity from civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution.
“They wanna hide behind some nuance in the law,” Leach said Monday. “How are you operating in your role as the sovereign by not paying a contract that you drew up and you signed. Are they crooks? Yeah they’re crooks.”