The thrill is going, going, gone ...

I feel like I've reached my limit on reading and listening about the Mike Leach firing by the Raiders of Red. And I've been pretty much listening and reading about it since noon. Yesterday.

Anyway, as I'm bored with the arguments as to why he got canned, I've been thinking about why I'll miss the guy. Dale Hanson, channel 8 sports personality/quasi-journalist, opined during the evening news about the numerous Tech fans who were throwing up their hands and saying they would never have anything to do with the program ever again. Never ever.

Hanson rightly called this a bunch of B.S., saying the fans will still be there, especially if Texas Tech can keep winning, keep getting better. And he's right. I even spent part the day thinking about who the next head coach would be and who would be a good choice. Time keeps moving forward.

But Hanson also misses something pretty obvious. Anytime you get rid of a personality within the organization, the organization changes.

And there were a lot of reasons I loved having Mike Leach within the organization:

• His overall craziness combined with success brought more attention to Tech than ever before.
• He had a great image: Combative, eccentric, intelligent, innovative, tenacious. That image reflected on Tech.
• His style of offense and aggressive play just made the game fun to watch.
  
• He said what he thought, and was frequently hilarious while doing so.
• He seemed to get A&M's goat for no other reason than he could do so. That was fun.
  

All that goes away with Leach, no matter who replaces him. Some personalities are irreplaceable, and the Texas Tech administration just threw that away, bringing the end to a great time to be a Red Raider fan.

That's the biggest disappointment for me in this dang deal.