‘They still owe me’ – Mike Leach ready to face Texas Tech for first time since firing

College football bowl games sometimes create uncomfortable dance partners, whether it’s a coach facing his former team, schools playing for a second time in a single season, or one-time rivals finally meeting again after tradition was shoved aside for conference realignment.

But perhaps no bowl matchup has been as uncomfortable as Mississippi State playing Texas Tech in Tuesday’s AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee (6:45 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN App).

It will be the first time Bulldogs coach Mike Leach faces the Red Raiders after Texas Tech officials fired him in December 2009 for his alleged mistreatment of a player suffering a concussion. At the time, Texas Tech officials claimed they fired Leach with cause and owed him nothing. Leach and his lawyers still contend that Tech owes him millions of dollars for what he was due under the terms of his contract.

“They still owe me for 2009, the last time they won nine games, so maybe they’ll deliver the check,” Leach said earlier this month. “So we’ll see what happens [at the Liberty Bowl].”

Leach, who has a law degree from Pepperdine, is still fighting that legal battle a dozen years later — and he doesn’t seem ready to quit anytime soon. He has offered to settle with Texas Tech for $2.4 million, which would include an $800,000 longevity bonus he was set to receive the day after he was fired, plus about $1.6 million in other incentives he said he was owed.

Leach, 60, was the winningest coach in Texas Tech history with 84 victories from 2000 to 2009 when he was fired.

“It’s indisputable they owe me the money, no one can dispute that,” Leach told ESPN on Monday. “When it comes to the money, they don’t just owe me the $2.4 million. They actually…