Texas OC Joe Wickline countersues after Oklahoma State sues for breach of contract
Oklahoma State and Texas offensive coordinator are suing each other.
The school filed a lawsuit against Wickline last week for breach of contract. This week, Wickline fought back with a countersuit.
Wickline left Oklahoma State when coach Charlie Strong was hired at Texas. In his contract with Oklahoma State, he owed the balance of the contract ($593,478) if he left for another position and was not his new team's play-caller. The school wants that money. Wickline doesn't want to pay it.
He says he's calling plays for Texas. Oklahoma State says he isn't. When Wickline was hired along with offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson in January, Strong said Wickline would call plays. In March, Strong said the two would share playcalling duties and Watson would have the final say.
And here's where it gets even trickier. Texas quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson has been referred to recently by media as the team's playcaller, something that the Austin American-Statesman says Texas has not moved to correct.
For what it's worth, Watson referred to himself in the singular first person Wednesday when asked about scripting plays during the Iowa State game on Saturday. On Monday, Strong credited Wickline with adding quarterback runs for QB Tyrone Swoopes into the playbook.
Per the American-Statesman, Oklahoma State says in its lawsuit that “Wickline is neither the offensive coordinator, nor does he have play calling duties" and he is nothing more than an assistant who made a lateral move.
Wickline's lawsuit says that the Oklahoma State “lawsuit is baseless and its sole purpose is to interfere with coach Wickline’s ongoing employment relationship with UT and the UT contract.”
Oklahoma State first sent a letter to Wickline in March, dated shortly after Strong's comments about sharing the playcalling duties. Via ESPN:
"It has now come to our attention that you do not have 'play-calling duties,'" OSU athletic director Mike Holder wrote in his March 24 letter to Wickline. "Instead, it appears that your head coach has confirmed that Shawn Watson, not you, will be calling the plays. Thus, in reality it appears you unilaterally and voluntarily terminated the contract to make a lateral move and as such a waiver of the liquidated damages clause of the contract is not triggered."
For more Texas news, visit Orangebloods.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
