Texas Tech fans turn on Adam James

Texas Tech gave interim coach Ruffin McNeill a warm reception after Saturday night's Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State, but -- despite ESPN's best efforts to keep them off the game broadcast -- the very visible, very vocal pro-Mike Leach contingent in the crowd weren't nearly so kind to the would-be villains in Leach's controversial ouster, athletic director Gerald Myers and receiver Adam James:

Texas Tech receiver Adam James was loudly booed as he left the field at halftime of Saturday’s Alamo Bowl. James is a key figure in the controversy that led to the firing of Tech coach Mike Leach three days before the game.

James, wearing his No. 82 Tech jersey and a stocking cap, left the field in the company of a few teammates after most of the Red Raiders had gone in. Fans next to and above the Alamodome’s southeast tunnel rose to boo him. He showed no reaction.

James was accompanied by body guards throughout the night, but the booing was quite tame compared to the anti-James signs, t-shirts, pirate flags, bumper stickers and window-soaping in and outside the Dome, much of it the work of Team Leach, the group that's already picked up more than 41,000 followers on Facebook in the name of supporting Mike Leach against the university. (And made an alarming number of videos featuring members filming themselves inside of closets.)

Tech players, though, who were already steering clear of Leach's corner throughout the week, continued to show much less nostalgia for their former coach. Freak show offensive lineman Brandon Carter told reporters after the game that Adam James is "part of our family," and that his charges against Leach were "just the last straw. Sooner or later, something was going to come out." Quarterback Steven Sheffield was even more blunt: "I looked up in the stands and I saw signs about Team Leach. Bring Leach back. Leach ain’t coming back. That’s how it is."

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