Mississippi State's Mike Leach Doubts Texas Spent $280K on Arch Manning Visit
Mike Leach is casting doubts on reports of Texas spending $280,000 on a recruiting trip highlighted by quarterback Arch Manning.
“Have you ever been to or heard of rooms that can eat up that much of $280,000? I haven’t,” Leach said Thursday on his weekly radio show, per Stefan Krajisnik of the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “Let’s make them really expensive. There’s eight recruits, hypothetically. Let’s make those rooms $3,000 a piece. Right there you still haven’t even dented it.”
“I think this is embellished. … But I would be curious if someone managed to be creative enough to find a way to spend that much money in that period of time on that number of people. I’d be curious exactly how it was done and what they did. I have some serious, serious, serious doubts about this.”
Leach said he read the article in The Athletic that highlighted the expensive recruiting visit, which featured eight high-level prospects and their families.
If Leach read the article, however, it's hard to see why he would have trouble believing the amount spent. Texas did not send out a press release bragging about spending over a quarter-million dollars on the trip; reporter Sam Khan Jr. obtained receipts and invoices via a public records request.
The amount spent would be verified by those receipts.
The report also details exactly how the money was spent, including comments from parents of the recruits who were on the trip. Texas laid out a 5-star red carpet for top recruits, and all parties took full advantage of the open checkbook.
This all seems like a pretty cut-and-dried situation.
