Name: Jason Fitz: Mike Leach’s response to the brawl between Tulsa & Mississippi State was an ‘epic fail’
Uploaded: 2021-01-03T18:31:01.000Z
Duration: 6 min 55 s
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That was, uh, maybe one of them or 2020 bowl game incidents will ever see.

It's easy to joke about, but also very serious.

You, uh you were obviously, uh, part of it.

And you saw go down with the Armed Forces Bowl and it was Tulsa, Mississippi State.

And when I say he did were used to a certain level of okay, guys got fired up.

And, I mean, when when I say brawl, I mean, not just shoving, We're talking punches were talking kicks.

We're talking people knocked on the ground and just being attacked.

I mean, any other place that this happens, it would have been a criminal offensive was an absolute brawl.

But I mean, walk me through what you were thinking when you're watching this go down on a game that you're calling s.

So we're starting to go on, Go on, go off air and the teams are coming together in the middle of the field, handshaking and the thing.

And you kind of saw the beginning of that with the coaches in between on.

Then it just progressively got worse and worse.

And it was scary because they were single players, like there were kind of circled around by the opposing team that were being pinned down, being kicked.

You know, multiple players kicking them in the ribs and the head on guys running and just It kind of got the feel of like, You don't you don't realize.

I mean these air, £300 men, these the biggest people you've ever met, throwing punches at each other and landing.

I mean, you look at their I mean, that's the starting safety for Tulsa being helped off the field after he couldn't breathe.

And those injuries, like that's a real picture like that right there.

That's like a criminal criminal defense to be toe be out.

And I thought the most disgusting thing of everything was Mike Leach after the game when he was interviewed.

He's like, Well, you know, they're football players.

You've got to take more leadership from that.

Well, let's get to some straight talk brought to you by straight talk Wireless.

This is a little what Mike Leach said when he was with Ian Fitzsimmons after the game about the brawl.

This is a football game, so we're not gonna be tearing cloth over this deal.

I mean, you know, somebody went to a football game and somebody got hit.

I mean, you know, there's a point where I'm not gonna lose my mind over, but I just don't like that.

You know, we're undisciplined in some situations where I thought we if you control yourself mentally, emotionally, you put yourself in a better position.

He went to the game with control yourself mentally and emotionally, without even addressing the fact that they were so mentally and emotionally out of control afterwards, that this brawl happened, not just them, both sides of it.

It is his job as a head coach to create a culture that doesn't allow that to happen, or when it does happen to create some level of accountability.

Mike Leach absolutely walked this entire thing back in some way that tried to make it not a big deal.

It's disgusting for somebody that has paid as much as Mike Leakages toe lead young men to then turn around as the leader of young men and not immediately say, Hey, that's not what we're about.

That's not what this program will be about.

I mean, for me, Mark, this was absolutely gross.

Is the fight was It's equally is gross for somebody that has paid the way.

Mike Leach is specifically to be an educator and a leader and a representative of Mississippi State to represent the school.

That way, if a player handled that same situation that same way, we would be vilifying him.

I will hold Mike Leach toe a higher standard because that's what happens when you put the title coach in front of somebody.

He wasn't and it is absolutely a low point in the coaching career of Mike Leigh, absolutely, and Dean Fitzsimmons credit on the after the game when he was asking a question he gave.

He gave Mike Leach every opportunity to say this was wrong.

But that was just not the initial reaction.

Initial reaction was Oh, we're out here on a football field between the white lines.

Yeah, of course, people are gonna get hit.

Not in ways that you would actually get arrested on the street for.

You don't get the opportunity to do that regardless of whether you're wearing uniforms or not.

And to your point, you have even more responsibility because of that uniformed that you are wearing that Mississippi State logo on your chest, that name on the back plate.

I mean, think about the parents who are watching that and watching their sons either get hit or hitting.

And I mean, it's a disappointing moment all around.

When you are the leader of young men, you create a society.

You create a culture amongst your team that either allows this to happen or doesn't.

And that does not mean that Phillip Montgomery in Tulsa team, they're off the hook either.

I mean, that Phillip Montgomery didn't really condemn it as much as I wanted him to in this press conference after either.

I mean, these are young men, and honestly, I think that look at that.

I mean, you're kicking guys in the face and that that's that's what just blows my mind and you're right.

Phillip Montgomery is the Tulsa coach, and the quote that we have on ESPN dot com is the one thing I'll say is our program.

Our guys were a team that's going to stand up for each other, and we're gonna battle.

That entire statement just says, No, we're good with it.

Like when you get pushed far enough, you're allowed to push back.

These air, these air adults, these airmen.

At this point, they are of an age where if they did that on the street, they could be criminally prosecuted as adults.

We have to understand that they are adults, and the ultimate adult in the room is again the coach that's leading them.

So I understand that a coach can't get in the middle of a brawl between all of these kids and successfully break it up that's not likely to happen when emotion has gotten to that point.

What I'm asking for is some level of accountability from coaches on both sides to stand up and immediately say no, no, whatever, whatever that was.

It is not what this university represents because we asked the players to everywhere they go and everything to do and everything they say.

We asked them to represent the university that they wear, and that's something that coaches preach all the time to college kids.

How can we not hold coaches to the same standard, especially if you're the highest paid educator out of school?

I mean, that's that's really that's really money to create something that's bigger and better.

And he sits in living rooms and says, I'm gonna raise a young man that you could be proud of, Man, that's an epic Fail.

Everybody that was involved in that fight was an epic fail, and it's an epic fail for Mike Leach to not have a higher level accountability.

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