Big 12 Media Days: Pirates Don't Send E-mail

Pirates don't send emails. Mike Leach condemns the uselessness of cell phones, and also reveals he has never sent an email. Other things happened at Media Days, sure, but nothing really happens until Mike Leach says something odd.

Being the pirate that he is, this should not surprise. Typing on a Blackberry is hard enough with two good hands, but try doing it with a hook for one hand, and you'll see why cell phones and pirates do not get along. Leach also downplayed the transition from the Harrell/Crabtree era, because this happens every year in college football, and Tech's going to score eleventy gazillion points no matter what because they are Texas Tech, and that is what they do.

Settling the Waters. K-State's Bill Snyder got unexpectedly funny, or at least "funny for Bill Snyder-funny" in his press conference today at Big 12 Media Days.

Q. Bill, can you talk about maybe how you're different this time around, if at all.

COACH SNYDER: Well, less hair. There's no dark tint to it whatsoever.

Snyder admitted his role was to bring stability to a program desperately in need of a tap of the reset button, using the phrase "settling the waters" as a description of what he wanted to accomplish during his second term as head coach. That won't happen quite yet: Snyder was furious over the release of a K-State internal audit naming him and other K-State officials as having received undocumented payments from the school.

Snyder insists he hasn't taken a penny more than he's earned from the school, and in fact took less. Given his status as the sole successful head football coach in the history of the program, that would be quite a sum.

Did I say "ten" wins? That was a typo, and should have read "between five and eleven." Ever-ebullient Dan Hawkins backed off a rumored 10-win pledge, but said that he wanted high expectations for his program, but still said "I did not promise anything" in regards to the rumored ten-win bar. How he managed to do all of that without completely contradicting himself is beyond me, so you can go read it yourself. He did it, but the universe of Dan Hawkins is where amazing happens. And by "amazing," I mean "losing the games you shouldn't, and rising up once or twice to win a game against superior competition."

Points for honesty, awarded. Mack Brown did what he usually does in press conferences, which is say the words "Texas Football" a lot and focus the attention of the media on his players. This year's prize pony, as it has been for three years running, was Colt McCoy. Brown praised the hard work McCoy did with Greg Davis, the Texas offensive coordinator, and called McCoy "the most accurate college football quarterback in history." He also took time to kick himself in the shins when asked how Texas has improved in recent years, most especially in their critical rivalry game against Oklahoma. The key? Staying relaxed, baby, something Brown had not done in past years.

And I do feel like our guys are relaxed in the game more than they were previous years, and we're playing better in that game. And Oklahoma is playing great. It's back to where it's a great game instead of some of those lopsided games where I didn't do a very good job coaching.

That's some nearly Spurrier-ish self-criticism there, but it deserves points for honesty, sure. Brown's interview concluded Media Days for the Big 12; only the Pac-10's remains on the calendar, and then we can all begin discussing real, um, what's it called again...ah, yes. Foot-ball.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.