Bruce Feldman and others are reporting on Twitter that Mike Leach will be named as the new head football coach at Washington State.

Leach has been sitting tight waiting for the right opportunity after he left Texas Tech in a controversial breakup at the end of the 2009 season. He’s been hanging out in Key West and doing some announcing. Leach is widely considered to be one of the best offensive minds in college football and he turned the Texas Tech program into consistent winners. His overall record at Texas Tech was 84–43.

Meanwhile, Washington State has become an embarrassment in the PAC-12 under Paul Wulff, going 9-41 over the past 4 years. To put it in perspective, Wulff is coming off his best season with the Cougars at 4-8. Washington State isn’t considered to be on of the marquee programs of the PAC-12, but the school has had some excellent teams over the years and has produced some good quarterbacks like Drew Beldsoe and high draft picks like Ryan Leaf.

Leach has helped to develop some excellent college quarterbacks. He coached Tim Couch at Kentucky and Couch became the #1 pick in the NFL draft. At Oklahoma he coached Josh Heupel and he coached Graham Harrell at Texas Tech. Michael Crabtree was considered the best receiver in college football under Leach’s supervision.

It looks like a great fit for both parties involved. Leach will bring a high-powered offense and some attitude to a program that has hit rock bottom. The PAC-12 is competitive, but Leach comes from the equally competitive Big-12 where he battled the likes of Oklahoma. Leach probably won’t elevate Washington State above USC and Oregon, but he’ll likely make them competitive. He should also do well with recruiting given his history of coaching scoring machines.

Leach also brings some baggage as well, so he’s a high risk/high reward candidate. The Adam James incident was ugly for Leach and for Texas Tech. For that reason, he didn’t get serious consideration from the biggest programs. For example, I couldn’t see Leach being considered for the open UCLA job. But Washington State is perfect. Given their recent history, what do they have to lose? At the same time, it’s a big enough program where Leach could do some serious damage and build a dangerous football team.

Mike Leach has a new book out entitled “Swing Your Sword,” and in it, the former Texas Tech coach writes that his biggest regret was not cutting Adam James, the son of ESPN broadcaster Craig James, who inevitably got him fired in December of 2009.

From SI.com:

My biggest regret was not cutting Adam James. I kept hoping he’d develop a work ethic. He had two position coaches, first Dana Holgorsen, then Lincoln Riley. He didn’t get along with either one.

According to Steve Pincock, the team trainer, James was “walking the field” in an indifferent way. James was wearing street clothes and had a baseball cap on backwards, which, injured or not, he knew was against team rules. I asked Pincock why Adam wasn’t dressed appropriately for practice. Pincock said he didn’t know. This was the first he’d seen him because Adam was late. I asked him why Adam was wearing sunglasses. Pincock said Adam’s eyes were sensitive to light because he had a concussion. I told Pincock to remove James from the field since he wasn’t dressed properly, was late, and had a bad attitude while the rest of the team was practicing hard. I told Pincock to put him somewhere dark and have him do something.

At no point did I say to lock him in a room. I never told Pincock what he should do with Adam beyond getting him off the field and putting him somewhere dark since his eyes were sensitive to light.

Months later, when Adam James was deposed under oath, he said he found the incident “funny” and that he did not believe that I should have been fired. In fact, he texted his father about the incident while in the equipment garage because he thought he would “like” it, since they both have the same sense of humor.

According to Pincock’s statement, he specifically told James not to go into the electrical closet by the media room. James admitted under oath that he ignored Pincock’s instructions. He admitted that he let himself into that closet and that he shot a video — a video that would start a firestorm of allegations — because he thought it was funny.

Check out the rest of SI.com’s story because it’s a pretty interesting read. What struck me the most was how removed Leach appears to be from the situation. It felt like I was reading a testimony from a trial instead of Leach’s personal feelings on the matter. He comes across as calm and composed, and a person that is only interested in sharing the facts from his side of the story. Good stuff.

This Adam James situation is he said, she said, but it’s not hard to choose sides. My take? I think it’s pretty clear that Leach is telling the truth in his book. And maybe that’s because he graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law and can make a damn compelling argument. But the consensus on Adam James is that daddy made sure he was given every opportunity in life and never had to work for what he wanted. It appears as though Craig James took the opportunity to get back at Leach for not turning his son into a star, even though Adam was the only person who stood in Adam’s way. But that’s just my opinion and I’m only basing my thoughts off of what I’ve read. I could be way off and Leach is every bit of the monster Craig James has made him out to be.

That said, considering he had a winning record every year at Texas Tech and ran one of the most electrifying offenses in college football, I hope Leach finds work again in the future. Like most college football coaches, I doubt this man is a saint. But it doesn’t sound like the Adam James situation should have been his undoing at Tech.

In a bizarre, still developing story, Texas Tech’s Mike Leach has been suspended from coaching in the Alamo Bowl on January 2 after one of his injured players, receiver Adam James, complained about being mistreated by the head coach.

From ESPN.com:

A source close to the family said James sustained a concussion on Dec. 16, was examined on Dec. 17 and told not to practice because of the concussion and an elevated heart rate. The source said Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James “to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours.”

A source told The Associated Press that James said Leach told him if he came out, he would be kicked off the team.

According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to “put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside.”

An attorney for Leach said that while James was secluded twice, the circumstances were not as portrayed in that account.

Ted Liggett, Leach’s attorney, said James “was placed in an equipment room as it was much cooler and darker” than the practice field “after a doctor had examined him and returned him to the field.”

The player claims that he was locked in a closet, yet Leach’s attorney says he was placed in there because it was “cooler and darker?” Something just doesn’t add up here and the entire situation stinks on Leach’s part.

The twist in the story is that James is the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James, who also played professionally for the Patriots. Given that Craig James is in the media, this could wind up being Leach’s undoing if the investigation turns up that he did something wrong.

We’ll wait and see before more details emerge, but this doesn’t look good for Leach.