This is where the college game differs greatly from the NFL game. Kids in college are not men yet and are still maturing and need help growing up, and when you're in the NFL you are expected to be a man and police yourself.
The fact of the matter is, we don't know anything other than what ESPN has told us about this. Was he really put in a closet or was the story skewed along the way to the ESPN headquarters? Everything ESPN does is to create ratings and boost their profits, and drama creates ratings. I'm not saying what Leach did was right, I'm just saying that everything is becoming pansified and the coaches (Mangino for example) are taking the rap for what the parents of the student-athletes don't like.
Football is a tough sport for tough guys and parents and students crying out about being yelled at and such is getting obnoxious and annoying. If there was physical violence then its a different story but getting in a kids face and yelling at him is not the coach being a bad guy, its a coaching technique that some people just cannot accept and therefore blame the coach for being a bad person.
That being said, I would love for Leach to come in here and lay down the law and let the players know what would be accepted and what wouldn't be accepted. As for telling Mitchell to do whatever you said, thats just dumb and a ridiculous comparison. The kid had a concussion and some reports said he was put in a press box with a stationary bike in it, so take that for whatever you want.