Mike Leach of Washington State called the Pac-12 officials



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On September 21, Washington State lost to USC on a Friday night after one of the most controversial bans of the college football season.

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "At the time, the coach of Washington State, Mike Leach, had declined to comment on the obvious targeting of USC-hit helmet on helmet Porter Gustin on the Gardner Minshew Quarter of Washington State. Woodie Dixon, head of the Pac-12, who heads football in the league, called reporters on this controversial ban. "Data-reactid =" 23 "> At the time, Washington State coach Mike Leach had declined to comment on this case. Porter Gustin, of the USC, on Gardner Minshew, in the state of Washington, told the press that he had to phone the executive of Pac-12, Woodie Dixon, who runs football in the league, about this controversy.

Following this incident, Yahoo Sports obtained a handful of text messages from Leach to Pac-12 executives via a public registration application to the school. Leach's texts express doubts about the Pac-12's commitment to player safety and favoritism insinuations from the league office towards other programs. In total, they point to a lack of confidence in the Pac-12 to correctly referee the matches. Last week, the Pac-12 revised its retransmission protocols after a report by Yahoo Sports stated that Dixon, who is not a qualified official, had telephoned and canceled the representatives at the time. A different targeting call examined in the same match.

Leach, in a text to David Coleman, vice president of Pac-12, wrote on September 25 about the No-Call targeted against USC: "Woodie is a coward and fears the USC. I can not wait to tell him in person.

In lyrics to Larry Scott, commissioner of Dixon and the Pac-12 commission, Leach blames the league for not supporting his remarks publicly on the commitment to player safety. Leach wrote to Dixon following Gustin's success: "Never waste my time, letting me attend a speech or moralizing demonstration on player safety or targeting if you want to continue to alibi what happened on Friday latest."

Leach also said in a text message to Scott: "The Pac-12 can not credibly claim that they are actually trying to protect student athletes."

In a text of the same week addressed to Dixon, General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Commercial Affairs for Pac-12, Leach evoked a controversial match with Stanford of 2015. He accused Dixon of having called the staff of Washington state in the press gallery during this game. and causing them to lower the noise of the group because they "played too loudly". Leach then wrote, "Why can not I stop wondering if you are trying to manipulate victories and defeats?"

Dixon replied, "Mike never again accuse [me of] to manipulate victories and defeats. Please, show this text to your AD and have him call me. "

Leach replied, "I did not charge you for anything. I suggest you adjust the rules that I have indicated. After all, it's your job. (A text message from Dixon to Washington State Sports Director Patrick Chun, obtained by Yahoo, said he had received a "disturbing" message from Leach, but there is no more conversation about it. .)

Andrew Walker, Communications Manager, responded on Friday night at Pac-12: "Although we do not start private communications with coaches, if there is any serious allegation of any kind, we follow and discuss with the sports department of the university concerned and give them an opportunity to request an investigation into this matter. No such request has been received from Washington State University. "

Both Leach and Chun declined to comment when reached late Friday.

Leach has shown an affinity for conspiracy theories over the years, including the tweet of a political hoax on Father's Day that sparked strong criticism.

The SMS, obtained by Yahoo Sports Friday night, arrive while Washington State is about to experience one of the biggest games in the history of the school. The Cougars, at number 25, will receive number 12 from Oregon on Saturday afternoon, with the entire region ready for the very first appearance of ESPN's "GameDay College" in the state of Washington. .

Washington State enters the game with only one defeat, which has appeared in this controversial game of the USC. Leach says the missing Gustin targeting call may have cost Washington State an opportunity to win the match, as it would have had the ball in the final minutes of the USC line if the targeting had been announced. They ended up getting a 38-yard stalled and lost, 39-36.

Leach excoriated the officiating crew, led by referee Javarro Edwards, in a text to Coleman: "Send this crew back and hire the Mountain West Crew we had against Wyoming". He also told Scott: "I NEVER want to see him referee another of our games."

In a text to Scott, Leach added a reference to USC's Gustin missing the first half of the Washington match for a targeting call in a previous game: "It's a recurrence and something needs to be done. The officials refused to call anything and did not examine it. Pathetic."

As he has done publicly – and has received many criticisms about it – Scott has championed the call to targeting Leach in SMS. For contextual reasons, Yahoo Sports interviewed two independent officials last week about the call. Fox expert Mike Pereira called it "one of the most obvious targeting cases you can have". NBC expert Terry McAulay called this a "parody" she did not call. (Desmond Howard, an analyst at ESPN, asked on Twitter if Scott should be tested for drug addiction while Scott called it "a very very close call.")

When Leach contacted Scott to voice his concerns, Scott said, "I had questions and concerns regarding this shot." Scott encouraged Leach to contact Dixon and Coleman, as he did. said, "They were in the command center and examined the room. . Judgment very tight, but determined that it was not targeted. "

Leach was so stunned by this answer that he asked Scott if they were talking about the same success. "Show this shot to someone you know, who knows something about football, and see what he thinks it's not a targeting." When Scott publicly commented on the success later in the week, Leach wrote to him: Will he be fined $ 10,000 for making these comments? If not, why do not you just send me the $ 10,000 (sic) that you have fined me and we'll even call it. "

Scott replied, "I do not follow you. You may want to talk to your AD, who I talked to yesterday.

Leach refers to the Pac-12 rules that prohibit coaches from making public comments about refereeing. Leach was fined $ 10,000 in 2016 after accusing the state of Arizona of stealing signals. Leach had told Scott in a previous text that he "was considering taking a fine and expressing my feelings and thoughts in order to protect my student athletes."

In a text referred to Leach, Scott responded that he felt it was acceptable "to express his concerns and perhaps a disagreement, without going over the limit to criticize or discredit and invoke a fine." ".

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Leach's text messages come as a result of A Yahoo message Last week, a sports report showing that Dixon had telephoned the conference control center during the match between Washington and USC, had influenced the call of trained officials to participate in a targeting game.Scott confirmed this on Pac-12's media day after a detailed review that night, which contrasts with the text cited earlier. Dixon, who is not trained as a public servant, was identified by Yahoo as the "third party" in an internal report stating that "unfortunately" did not accept this call. "data-reactid =" 50 "> Leach's text messages follow a report by Yahoo Sports last week that Dixon telephoned the conference control center during the Washington State vs. USC match and was reported to have influenced the call of officials trained to participate in a targeting game.Scott confirmed this on Pac-12's media day after a detailed review that night, which contrasts with the text cited earlier. Dixon, who is not trained as a public servant, was identified by Yahoo as the "third party" in an internal report stating that "unfortunately" did not accept this call.

Gary McNanna, head of the stadium retransmission, wrote in his internal report: "The retransmission kiosk and the command center agreed that it was a fault of targeting. Unfortunately, a third party did not accept. Targeting has been removed. ruling on the ground of [roughing the passer] without targeting. It did not play well on television. Inverted my stop for [targeting] do not [targeting]. "

The Yahoo report resulted in immediate changes in the Pac-12's arbitration policies, as Dixon and his manager, David Coleman, were immediately banned from influencing referees in games. Scott also called for a broad review of the conference's policies and practices in arbitration. "We came to the conclusion that we made a mistake in our procedure," Scott told Yahoo last week. "We want to eliminate any ambiguity from that."

In text messages, Leach is generally complementary to Coleman and the work he has done to improve the role of officials in the Pac-12. "First of all, I want to say, thanks to your leadership, that the officials at this conference have improved a lot. However, as I watched this movie, this crew was even worse than I thought. "

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