The Morning Stake | 2017.10.24

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 RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz writes about senior forward Justin Gray and how he hopes this next year is one to remember, but he also talked about the transition year with Chris Beard:

“The first year was obviously kind of tough,” Gray said. “We had to learn about each other, the coaches and what coach Beard likes and what he doesn’t like. It was pretty much a great learning experience. He made it smooth and easy for everybody. This year, especially since a lot of these guys are young, he’s made the transition between high school and college easier on them then what I had. He’s a player’s coach. He’s a great guy – knows when to be serious but when to have fun. His mentality is to win and nothing else. He’s here to build a winner. We’re lucky to have a guy like him to learn from especially since he’s shown that he can win. He’s honestly one of the best guys I’ve ever met in my life.”

Texas Tech Football

 A-J Media’s Don Williams writes about the struggles of the team:

Riding high with a 4-1 record and a 35-17 third-quarter lead nine days ago at West Virginia, Tech blew that game 46-35 and let the negative tide continue Saturday with a 31-13 homecoming loss to Iowa State.

Through the first five games, and into the third quarter at West Virginia, the Red Raiders’ energy and intensity weren’t an issue. Even in a 41-34 loss to Oklahoma State, they were in it to the end.

The last six quarters changed that.

“To come out and play as we did, as flat as we did to start the game off, is not acceptable,” safety Vaughnte Dorsey said Sunday. “We definitely come out this week, start off with high energy, that won’t even be subject to happening anymore.”

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  Via USA Today, Mike Leach is hiring a public relations firm in Houston, Dolcefino Consulting, to dig up dirt on Texas Tech and pressure Texas Tech to pay Leach what money he believes he is owed. Someone asked the other day what Leach actually received in terms of payment and this is a summary at the bottom of the article:

Leach’s 2009 contract with Tech says that if he were fired “for cause,” then the university’s “sole obligation” is to pay him his base pay of $300,000 and other performance incentives. Leach says that cause wasn’t proven in court and was false.

Leach says he received the $300,000 in base pay but not the $1.6 million he was owed in “guaranteed” income, or the $800,000 retention bonus that was due to him if he was the school’s coach on Dec. 31, 2009. Tech fired him a day earlier, but Leach says that bonus was “six years in the making” and due that year.

I haven’t verified any of these comments, but here is Wayne Dolcefino, a former investigative reporter in Houston:

“We’re going to get into their stuff, OK?” Dolcefino told USA TODAY Sports Monday.

Dolcefino said it’s time for “hardball” with Tech. That includes making public-records requests that seek evidence of waste, fraud and abuse.

“If they want to be weasels and not pay the guy, then they won’t pay him,” Dolcefino said. “But we’re going to look under every nook and cranny. We’re starting with phone records.”

I can save everyone the trouble. Texas Tech probably wastes money and there is probably some fraud or abuse because it’s a huge institution. At some point, I, as a meager blogger (and maybe you have to decide as fan), have to figure out if this borders trying to take down Texas Tech and trying to get paid and whether or not trying to take down Texas Tech makes you uncomfortable. I still go back to what I wrote lat week. An institution (company, university, etc.) cannot make a payment based on a moral obligation because an institution does not have morals (it is an entity, not a human) and can be liable to it’s shareholders or others who have an ownership interest in the university.

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