The Fake Lonnie Finch

You look into my eyes and lie those pretty lies.

Look, we had our greatest successes under Hayden Fry and Darrell Dickey...that's how off kilter this thing has been. Success can be had here. We will now have the facilities. We just need the right coach and coaching staff. With Mike Canales, we may or may not already have it. If not Mike, the non-firefighting Rick who runs the athletic department will make a good hire. He has no other choice this time. And, then, we will have our triumvirate of great coaches - Fry, Dickey and New Hire Guy - to rival the likes of Bud Wilkinson, Barry Swizer and Bob Stoops and Oklahoma and Darrell Royal, John Mackovic, and Mack Brown at Texas. But, just remember, bitches...he'll be winning with Todd Dodge's players! Bwaaaahahahaahahahahahahaahaaahaahaaaaaaah! I wet myself.

You don't have to yell.

Lumkes? Lord, I haven't seen that dude since we played intramural softball back in the day with Gary Brackenridge, Paul Hartsfield, and the crew. Wow.

On the Jacksonville Jaguars coaching staff: Dirk Koetter - Offensive coordinator Mike Shula - Quarterbacks Mark Duffner - Linebackers Wonder if Rick V has been in touch with any of them.

Screw Notre Dame, their alma mater, their TV contract with NBC, and their automatic inclusion into the BCS picture. Notre Dame and the "traditional power" fixation of the BCS, conference shifting and the whole lot of it is what's wrong with college football. Kudos to alma mater #2 for going up to South Bend and kicking the Fighting Irish's rotten as*es. And, kudos to the TU band for continuing to play the fight song after handing Notre Dame their as*es. If Notre Dame can't figure out a way to exploit Tulsa's #120 ranked pass defense they don't deserve any sort of respect anyway. Screw 'em. And, since they won't have the nuts to go play Tulsa in Tulsa, the will forever be 0-1 all-time against the Golden Hurricane. Moneygrubbing, self-righteous bastards. Kudos to Tulsa for taking them down. And, kudos to Baylor as well for hammering Texas who tried to stick them without a conference over the summer. Screw the traditional powers that keep college football in a state of flux and don't have the nuts or guts to call for a playoff. Cowards. Hail to three, Gold and Blue! Screw Notre Dame, their alma mater, and the whole thieving lot of them.

Promoted or not, he's already a master of mixed metaphors.

If he wins two and applies for the position, he should be in the running. Given what has happened this year with injuries on the offensive side of the ball, matching Dodge's season win total high mark of two within five games would be a good sign. If he wins three of the last five, which I'd say is highly improbable, I don't see how he isn't the front runner.

With all the firing and rumors of firing, OU maybe is playing a little defense here by giving their assistants raises in the middle of the season? http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/ou-coaching-staff-given-raises.html DC Brent Venables from $440k to $480k OC Kevin Wilson from $430k to $475k QB Josh Heupel from $220k to $250k All of the offensive get $20k more; all other defensive get $16.5k more. This may fend of some smaller mid-majors. But, BCS schools and bigger mid-majors could still match or exceed those top three.

Given that Stoops was 0-3 in Boulder as an assistant at Kansas State and 1-2 there as the head coach at OU, I'm sure he is glad he doesn't have to go back.

With Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor, Nebraska, Texas remaining on their schedule, it's not too far fetched to say the Texas A&M job will be open as well if Mike Sherman can't pull out three more wins among them. The Aggies have beat every team on their schedule with a losing record and lost to every one with a winning record. All remaining opponents have winning records. The A&M job will be the cherry of the region. If they lose this weekend to Texas Tech, I'd hope Rick puts the pedal to the metal on our hire.

Yes, and a jury will hear the majority of them say that he physically assaulted Miller under the legal definiton of assualt. The others will testify that they discussed it with the Miller and the closest bystanding witness who corroborates the story. Depending on whether the the hearing is criminal or civil, the jury or judge will hear form the D.A. or University Counsel that the nearest witnesses saw the choking and hitting and many others nearby saw some kind of assault. Leavitt's attorney is stuck having to try to convince a judge or jury that nothing happened when the 20 or so witness testify they he had in some manner. And, they'll testify as to the mindset of the player afterward and the actions of Leavitt during the investigation. They will then introduce into evidence USF's rules and policies, and Leavitt's contract signed by him saying he would abide by them. And, when Leavitt loses, he will have been out of coaching for two years and will not have the mark of the incident cleared. And, in addition, he'll have a nice legal bill to pay, possibly two depending on how that particular jurisdiction in Florida handles plaintiffs who files lawsuits and lose. It could be that they stick him with USF's legal bill as well. All in all, a stupid gamble unlikely to anyone any good - expect the attorneys, who will be paid one way or the other.

Good point. I'm not in the consulting game, though. How much do I charge him?

Miller didn't press charges. He and his attorney tried to get an apology. And, if you knew anything about the law, you'd know that Miller could still press charges any time before the statute of limitations ends. And, if criminal charges are pressed they will be for assault and battery because physical contact occurred. This is no great mystery or some sort of arcane knowledge. It's just the way criminal law is. You may not like it, agree with it, or understand it...but, that's the way it is.

Here's my take on Neinas - he's made some good suggestions, he's made some bad suggestions. So...is he really necessary? It's a hit and miss proposition anyway. Seems like Rick Villareal or any athletic director should be - in the internet age - to figure out who's available and who isn't. Plus, as long as Rick has been in the business, seems he'd have enough contact to be able to get in touch with any coach he'd want to interview. Does anyone really know what it is that Neinas does that supposedly is worth thousands of dollars in "consulting" fees?

You know this whole thing is twisted up when Lifer and I are agreeing on every post. Good Lord...no one has to "risk their health for our pleasure" no matter who pays for the education.

I thought TCU was in on DaWaylon Cook.

It was an assault. And, his actions were inappropriate. In fact, if before the statute of limitation runs Miller decides to pursue the case criminally, the charge of battery would also be included. There is no scenario under which either are acceptable. If our only two choices in the world were player-choking and hitting Jim Leavitt and Todd Dodge, I'd hope we'd choose Todd Dodge again. Not only has Jim Leavitt shown that he cannot control his temper around kids thirty-five of so years younger than himself, he's also shown that he doesn't have the grace to admit his wrongdoing, man up, and move on. Leavitt will be 54 years old in December. He's old enough to know right from wrong; he simply uses a plaintiffs attorney to sidestep doing what's right. Fortunately for us, the universe of potential head coaches contains more bodies than just Leavitt and Dodge. Therefore, we can hire a coach who can control his emotions and win football games.

No, I mean about two dozen. The report specifically lists 20 players and mentions a 21st. The non-student athlete witness list includes nine others, including five coaches...both Leavitt and Mike Canales were interviewed. And, each of the 21 student athletes, plus the nine coaches and others, will be be called to testify if Leavitt's attorney keeps pushing. It will be a mistake to do so; but, plaintiffs attorneys rarely let common sense stand in the way of making a buck. He could have had Leavitt out of the situation already. He doesn't. It's too bad he choked and hit the kid, too, with all of the current and soon-to-be job openings. If his attorney had settled and gotten him out, he'd be up for many of them.

The two dozen or so witnesses who say it did happen were in the room. So, it doesn't matter that every person in America wasn't there to see it. Isn't it funny how that happens? Not everyone in America has to see what happens all the time. It makes things much easier on law enforcement and attorneys to just interview the witnesses who see an event or crime, just as USF and their attorney did.

...or, is he just confirming what many have believed all along? After the loss to Iowa State, Mack had this to say: "I'm the CEO who's responsible for it," Brown said. "[but] I expect Greg Davis to run the offense and get his coaches to get their players ready to play. I expect Will Muschamp to run the defense and get his players, get his coaches to get the guys ready to play ... I tell them all the time, 'Get it fixed.' That's their job." http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5727226&campaign=rss&source=NCFHeadlines Sounds like his job is to just show up with everything all ready to go. Maybe he does just stand on the sideline and clap.

You do realize that in this conspiracy theory angle that Miller had to have in on his conspiracy: -20 to 25 of his teammates -the University president -the HR department at USF -the athletic director -USF's outside counsel -his counsel In the "he just wanted to get Leavitt fired for a scholarship" conspiracy theory, he'd have to have all of those people go along. It's not even plausible that a university president and others would stop down and agree to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees and time, plus incur ongoing bad publicity, just to do one walk-on football player the favor of removing a head coach and giving him a scholarship. As I've said before, if you prefer Leavitt in spite of him hitting the kid, just say so. You don't have to excuse his behavior, pretend it didn't happen, or make up some wild conspiracy based on one players getting a quarter of the team, the university president, and athletic director to act on his behalf. If he'd be a man, apologize, and settle, I'd support having him here. But, with the shenanigans...no. There are too many other excellent choices out there without the baggage.

Well, here's the attorney who oversaw the investigation with USF's HR Department: http://www.tsghlaw.com/tgonzalez.html I'd say he's well past the 1L stage. And, if there ever comes a time before the statute of limitations for the assault expires, his report would be a part of the trial, at minimum. Miller and his attorney said form the get go they wanted no money, just an apology. The case has already been laid out by competent counsel.

Or, one might argue what Joel Miller himself argued - he wasn't in it for the money and wanted to put the whole matter behind him. And, things have worked out for Joel Miller, too. Skip Holtz put him on scholarship this season: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/aug/20/210123/miller-gets-closure-in-usf-camp/sports-colleges-bulls/ http://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/article1116866.ece Also, Miller's attorney said all along that all they sought was an apology. When Leavitt wouldn't give it, they dropped the case. But, as statutes of limitations go, he has two years from incident to decide whether or not to continue the case. By the way, Mark Mangino and his attorney felt the same way as Joel Miller - get it done and move on. You have a real special case in Leavitt and his attorney.

Hmmm. Okay, Keeper of The Mean Green Roll Call, what exactly does the report mean? That a university's president, HR department, athletic director, and attorney just decided to waste some time and money one day, so they coerced a couple dozen witnesses to make up a story and give the school some bad publicity right before Christmas? That makes sense. Happens all the time. Universities love bad publicity. They're always going around trying to make stuff up. He choked the kid. He hit the kid. More than a dozen witnesses in the lockers around Joel Miller said so. Joel Miller said so. Leavitt was among the non-student athlete witnesses interviewed for the report. So, he did indeed get to tell his side of the story. Unfortunately for him, his side of the story did not match up to what the majority of the witnesses saw. And, to make matters worse for himself, he attempted to influence certain witnesses during the investigation. He broke, at minimum, three USF policies that could lead to termination. And, they terminated him, as was their right to do so per the contract he signed with them. And, such remain the facts until he either settles and has the report withdrawn, as Mark Mangino did. Or, until he goes to trial and has a court overturn the findings of the internal investigation. So, my green-helmeted, season ticket-holding, T. Boone Pickens of UNT friend, he did hit the kid.