After Texas Tech rallied from two second-half deficits to finish off Michigan State late Saturday night at the Alamo Bowl, Tech players began to tell their side of the story involving fired head coach Mike Leach. Many said the incident involving Adam James was just the last in a line of problems this season involving the coach and players.

Many players expressed views, but didn't want to go on the record after winning an emotional game, 41-31.

Some did provide insight on the record. To a man, the Tech players defended James -- who was angrily booed at halftime by a throng of Tech fans seated in sections above the tunnel the players use to get to the locker room -- lauded the job interim coach and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill did throughout the week and lobbied for him to be the next head coach at Texas Tech.

Players described Leach as viewing himself as bigger than the program and losing touch with the players.

Senior offensive lineman Brandon Carter, who admitted he and Leach haven't always seen eye-to-eye, offered his take on what went wrong in Raider Nation. He said Tech fans quick to pile on James as the reason for Leach's firing don't know the entire story.

"I think the fans, I don’t want to say anything bad about the fans, but this is not the first situation that something like this has happened, this is just the first time someone stepped forward," Carter said. "I don’t want fans thinking that Adam James did this because he was upset, but it was just kind of the last straw and sooner or later something was going to come out. This is the first situation that someone spoke up about.

"We always thought that Mike Leach was a great coach and he always has been. This year, I don’t know if it was personal issues or what not, but things just kind of turned for the worst and it just became a big distraction this year for us and I think that’s one reason we were so up and down this year, because some of the things that he said to his players and some of the things that were done, people just didn’t cope with that," Carter said. "It didn’t click with the players and the players kind of rebelled against him and it just kind of made things worse. Everyone just started doing their own thing, we weren’t playing together there for a little while. So, like today I think we played well together and coach Ruff did a good job today keeping us together."

Several players described practices after Leach's firing as the best set of workouts the team had all season.

"It was easily the best week of practice," Carter said. "It literally was like a burden was kind of lifted up. I don’t want y’all to think I don’t have any respect for Mike Leach because he gave me an opportunity, he gave me five years of his coaching and I learned a lot for him. I hope the best for him. I hope somewhere down the road we cross paths again. I just hope that it’s a little different from this past year."

Players stressed that the team never fractured -- if anything they grew closer -- and that they found television and other media reports of divisiveness and choas amusing.

"When I was watching TV and with all the media, it was kind of funny to us because the one thing I know is everybody else didn't think we were going to come out and do anything, everybody else thought we were going to come out and lay down and look for a reason not to play hard," junior running back Baron Batch said. "But, it was more than that. We wanted to come out and play hard for Ruff and for our coaches.

"The administration did what they had to do, I can't really get caught up in that," Batch continued. "The thing everybody needs to do is move on right now. You know, Leach, he's not here anymore, there's nothing that complaining and being mad can do now. We just won a bowl game, that's a big deal. We won it for Ruff. I think the best thing right now is just to move on and accept that that's that and we're still a great football team."

Batch also defended James, the son of ESPN analyst Craig James, who accused Leach of mistreating the sophomore receiver the day after he sustained a "mild" concussion.

"The best thing right now is just to move on. What happened happened, that's in the past now. Being mad about it won't help," Batch said. "You know, I love Adam, I support him 100 percent and the administration did what they had to do. The Double-T, it's bigger than one person and I hope people realize that it's bigger than me, it's bigger than Ruff, it's bigger than one person. The thing that Ruff knows is, he holds that to be true, the Double-T is bigger than just one person."

Junior wide receiver Detron Lewis said the team moved on quickly from Leach's firing.

"The deal with Mike Leach didn't really affect us at all," he said. "We put everything behind us and we just decided to go out; Ruffin McNeill did a great job. We just blocked everything out and had a good week of practice. It was the best week of practice we've had, I think, this year. So we just blocked everything out, had a good week of practice and that's what led to our victory today."

Asked then if there was a feeling of relief once Leach's firing came down, Lewis said, "I'm not really going to comment on that. I don't have anything to say about that situation."