Short and Tweet: Leach Bans Twitter

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach has apparently fixed the Red Raiders Twitter problem in quick and absolute fashion.

Less than 24 hours after offensive lineman Brandon Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams vented frustration on their Twitter pages, Leach has taken action to make certain none of his other players make the same mistake.

"Anybody that wants to play for us doesn't have a Twitter page," Leach said Monday when asked about the two posts.

Carter, who was suspended indefinitely for an incident separate from his Twitter post, vented about no longer being a captain before it was removed, according to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.

"I am not a captain anymore and will not be playing this week. Good luck red raiders ill still be cheering on my family from the stands!!:)"

Williams was far more pointed in his comments, showing his frustration with Leach's tardiness to a team meeting and also the direction of the team following back-to-back losses in which Leach's coaching decisions weighed heavily on the outcome.

During the fourth quarter of Saturday night's 29-28 loss to Houston, Leach elected to go for it on fourth-and-one at the goal and quarterback Taylor Potts was stuffed, paving the way for the Cougars comeback win. Had Leach elected to kick the short field goal at that point, his team would have been ahead by eight points which would have forced the Cougars to not only score a touchdown but also make good on a two-point conversion just to force overtime.

A week earlier, a controversial on-side kick decision in the second half against Texas seemed to re-ignite a struggling Longhorns offense on the way to a 34-24 win.

"Wondering why I'm still in this meeting room when the head coach can't even be on time to his on meeting," wrote Williams, whose Twitter name was Kos39 before apparently deleting his account.

In a tweet right after the UH loss, Williams let out his frustration, as well.

"WTF I can't believe what happened man my senior season isn't goin anything like what I busted my azz for .... New week now F$&@"

Leach responded to Williams tweets in a stern way Monday.

"Anybody that's a malcontent doesn't stay around here very long because we have a pretty good line of recruits that are fully willing to replace him," Leach said. "Interestingly enough, he doesn't have a twitter page anymore."

But Texas coach Mack Brown brought up a point later in the conference call when asked about his team's policy on social network sites like Twitter, Myspace and Facebook. Brown, most college coaches across the country, would like to ban use of the sites by his players but may have his hands tied.

Brown, of course, had an embarrassing situation occur last year when one of his former players posted a racially charged message against then Presidential-candidate Barack Obama on his Facebook account.

"It's against state and federal law, I think to say that you can't be on Twitter, you can't be on Facebook, Myspace because basically they can," Brown said. "It would be a football rule and when they are away from us they are really more under the guise of the university more than football.

"What we have done is encourage them not to be on it and if they are on it then they need to be classy and not put anything on there they don't want their mom to read because these kids think they are just in conversation with buddies but that's public information. They can go private but a lot of people are smart enough to get in there.

"When there is a hint of trouble people are going to go immediately to their Facebook and Myspace page to see what's on there."



As far as the reason for Carter's indefinite suspension or if he might return to the team, Leach wasn't willing elaborate Monday.

"None of that stuff is privy to the media. That's for violating team rules," Leach said. "Anything he needs to do to get back, that's pretty much between me and him."

Williams' status with the team remains unclear.