Pirate Awareness Rally

Stood Up: Tech administrators decline invitation to speak
By Ralston Rollo/Staff Writer

Despite receiving invites from the Team Leach Facebook group, Texas Tech President Guy Bailey, Chancellor Kent Hance, Athletic Director Gerald Myers and new head football coach Tommy Tuberville did not attend the Reach for Leach rally; instead, the rally was carried by testimony from Tech alumni and students.

The rally took place from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Memorial Circle and featured an amplified telephone call from former Tech head coach Mike Leach.

“I’m proud to have had the opportunity to be your coach for the last 10 years,” Leach said.

Many members of the crowd did not get the chance to hear Leach speak due to the small sound system provided by the university, said Charlie Hodges, Team Leach public relations manager.

Jonathan Snively, a junior multidisciplinary studies major from Annapolis, Md., attended the rally and said he hoped many of his questions about Leach’s termination would be answered.

Incidents like the one with wide receiver Adam James happen everywhere, he said, so it would be ideal if Tech administrators cleared up concerns fans have about the haste with which Leach’s termination was carried out.

Despite those concerns, Snively said, it is time for the Tech community to move on and support Tech’s football program no matter who runs it.

“I support Tuberville, and I think he is a great candidate,” he said. “We need to move on for Tuberville’s sake.”

Paul Braswell, a Tech alumnus and treasurer of the Techsans for Tech Political Action Committee, said the rally and Team Leach have been a great start at achieving more political representation for Tech.

“The rally has channeled energy in a positive direction,” he said. “(The university) needs a bigger voice in Austin.”

Honestly, I had forgotten there was still a "Team Leach" rally planned for Friday. Of course I got breaking updates from Muench's facebook page that were much appreciated. The temperment of the fan base seems to be changing to "let's get on with our lives," which is good but it begs the question why there was still a need for a rally. Of course the greatest error in judgement came from Leach himself who should have stayed away from this alltogether. He'll say he just wanted to appreciate his fans but he really just can't step away from this.

Also, how is having a rally to create more headlines to pair with the ones about our football coach putting a concust malcontent in a closet helping improve Tech's representation in Austin. Probably just makes us more of a laughing stock.

So now there seems to be a bit of a shift from "Team Leach" to "Team Bleach," a group advocating cleaning up this mess and getting behind Tuberville. I originally sided with "Team Peach" but now I'm thinking of going with "Team Screech."