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Washington State coach gets minimal turnout for ‘Pay Coach Leach’ rally in Lubbock

Washington State coach Mike Leach reacts to a call against his team during the second half of a game against Cal on Oct. 13 at Memorial Stadium. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)

Mike Leach may never get the paycheck he thinks Texas Tech still owes him, but that doesn’t mean the Washington State coach won’t continue to raise awareness for the case against his former employer.

Leach believes he should be $2.5 million richer than he is – the Red Raiders didn’t pay their former coach after firing him in 2009, exercising “sovereign immunity” – and coordinated a rally on Saturday in Lubbock, Texas, on behalf of his cause.

It wasn’t exactly the March on Lubbock that Leach hoped for.

According to a local radio station, SportsRadio 1340 The Fan, the crowd of reporters gathered in front of Jones AT&T Stadium outnumbered the protestors, and as it turned out, the rally wasn’t much more than a brief Q&A session led by Houston-based investigative communications consultant Wayne Dolcefino. Another man stood behind Dolcefino holding a banner that read “Pay Coach Leach.”

Leach has regularly blasted off in press conferences and interviews stating his scorn for Texas Tech, which dismissed its coach in 2009 after he was accused of mistreating former Red Raiders wide receiver Adam James.

Tech didn’t pay Leach for the season, in which the Red Raiders won nine games – Leach often points out the school hasn’t won nine since – and the Texas Supreme Court pointed to its sovereign immunity clause while ruling that the school didn’t owe the coach anything when Leach attempted to sue Tech in 2012.

Leach, now eight years removed from his final season in Lubbock, recently partnered with Dolcefino to launch a website – paycoachleach.com – that he hopes will further extend the footprint of his cause. Leach is pictured on the home page of the site holding a “Pay Coach Leach” sign and an accompanying displays the coach’s quarrel with Tech.

“Mike Leach led the Texas Tech Radiers to their best football season in history. 11-2. What did Texas Tech do? The school cheated Leach out of his paycheck. Now it’s time for Texas Tech to do the right thing.”