Meet Ritchie McKay!

We've heard recently that Steve Alford may be campaigning for the spot recently (and forcibly) vacated by Ritchie McKay, over at the University of New Mexico. The Hair Gel has made a couple allusions to him, so why don't we take the time to get to learn a little bit more about him?

In my search for information about him, I stumbled onto a page written by New Mexico's scout.com page after he was fired. If you think I'm going to find an amateurish, poorly worded opinion column WITH LOTS OF ARBITRARY CAPS LOCK ABUSE and not give you a link, you have a lot to learn. CLICK HERE HOW LITTLE LEAGUE PARENT OF YOU.

As for Ritchie himself, he's got a website. And if you're a fan of blinking text, boy are you in for a treat.

The rest of the site is pretty barebones; among the handful of sparsely filled subsections, "My Faith" includes this phrase: "In this section, I hope that you will be inspired by the messages or testimony of others." There are, of course, no other messages or testimony.

Truth be told, I can't really manufacture any real contempt for the guy. He comes across as far more humble and less histrionic than Iowa's fearless leader. While he's every bit as, for lack of a better term, "openly Christian" as Alford is, the underlying sense of self-promotion is absent.

Even his goodbye letter is almost heartbreaking in its genuine courtesy, replete with small grammatical errors:

I just want to thank you so much for the overwhelming display of support for myself and our staff during our tenure at UNM. Even though I am disappointed that we cannot continue as the leaders of this program, I am sure and quite confident that UNM will hire someone that will continue to further the program in order to restore its' rich tradition. I have a lot of great memories of my time in Albuquerque, especially in the Pit, including but not limited to the great finish that we had in '04-'05, having a chance to coach such a great group of young men throughout my tenure. It has really been a privilege and a Blessing to have coached at my father's alma mater and like most all Lobo fans, I will be a fan forever.

Please don't feel sorry for us. Our faith leads us to believe that God has another path for us to follow and we are going to do that without looking back. So, thank you again for taking the time to read this and to write and support us. It is greatly appreciated and it won't be forgotten.

Jeez. Any way we can just trade UNM straight-up for this guy? I can handle a 17-13 season if the coach at least conducts himself with class like that.