Rick Neuheisel used to use a helicopter when he was at UCLA. At the time, people made fun of it and called him arrogant. Turns out, he was just ahead of the times.
Neuheisel used to be a coach I loved to hate, but since he's out of coaching I like listening to him on ESPNU. It started when he was at Colorado, he annoyed the hell out of me, then that dick move to ditch Colorado for Washington. I loved it when he got nailed for that neighborhood gambling pool on the Super Bowl, but now I like him!
I see that some reporter, probably new to the beat, got the treatment for asking a stupid question of Nick Saban yesterday. Video: Nick Saban Not Happy With Reporter's Signing Day Question
I have never understood how coaches who seem to have such contempt for reporters and others doing their jobs are able to recruit kids and their parents. Is there some switch they turn on and off? I understand the draw of playing for a top team (and top coach) like Alabama and understand that much of the recruiting is done by assistants, but still... I also get that sometimes a reporter will ask a question to stir the pot but this poor guy was just asking a dumb question. (I also get that the videos that get shared around the internet aren't those of coaches being nice and reasonable but only those that might show them being controversial). Oh well...
Coaches can get pretty testy these days...I've seen Bill O'Brien walk out of press conferences, or go off a reporter, Bellichek is never very friendly to them. Tom Herman when he was here in Houston got into it on a radio call in show with the host, and his wife was well known for going after people on Twitter. The now disgraced AJ Hinch has walked out on a few press conferences when the questions weren't to his liking. As far as parents go I doubt if many of them care about a dust up between a coach and a reporter. They are looking at what they can expect for Jr. In the case of Alabama, they see a lot of players making it to the NFL, and having a shot every year to make the CFP and win a championship. I remember a reporter asking a coach a really dumb question, in the category of do you still beat your wife, when he was coming off the field at half time...I think it might have been Lloyd Carr..and he just looked at her and said something to the effect that it was a dumb question and he wasn't answering it. Now as Bobda knows I'm not a Lloyd Carr fan, but I thought at the time...way to go Lloyd! Of course he eventually had to apologize I think because it caused a stink....I don't think he owed her an apology though.
Well my point was that if he is an asshole, how can he recruit well? Does he turn the charm on and the contempt off? As for Bellichick it's easier to be rude as an NFL coach because you don't recruit.
As to reranking I don't want to see a rerank of our 2019 recruiting because we lost quite a few of them either to grades, leaving or discipline. However the Gators are getting quite a few significant transfers.
I think that part of Saban's relationship with sportswriters is sometimes impatience and sometimes using these rants to send messages to the team. It obviously doesn't have much of a negative effect on recruiting and the vast majority of his players seem to have good things to say about him years after they have played for him. Sportswriters...not so much.
I would think that Saban is probably a much different person when meeting the parents of recruits. Also I hope parents have done their research and understand that Saban is a what he is, a big time winner whose players achieve a lot and move on to the next level at a high rate. He's not their grandpa.
I must say though that Brian Kelly can be as arrogant towards the media, and he's well documented to be (at least in the past) a hot head on the sideline. And he's also not at all popular with a lot of the fans who populate the internet ND boards. Yet it doesn't seem to affect parents perception of ND, we still get a lot of good players.
As many of you have already read two Ohio state football players have been arrested for rape and kidnapping. Always tears me apart to her this kind of news. Too early to pass judgement, but if they are found guilty, get their asses out of Columbus!
I agree Don, no fan wants this from their players. We had a similar situation a few years ago at Texas and it got complicated they were kicked off the team of course as the initial circumstances as reported were terrible. Eventually went to trial and were exonerated, the plaintiff was unreliable and changed her story a bunch of times. But by the time that happened their football careers were done at Texas. They both went to other schools to finish, one of them Montrel Meander is a DB with the Browns. Just recently as last year a Wisconsin WR was kicked off the team for sexual assault and expelled. He went to trial and was exonerated but the President of Wisconsin did not want to reinstate him as a student but eventually he was readmitted and played in 2019 for the Badgers. So bottom line is we don't know where this is going. But initially it sounds bad, as did the case of the Texas players and the Wisconsin player.
Some young men do stupid things. Especially when you consider the opportunities they have been given.
Met Jeff Brohm, Leroy Keyes, and Shaun Phillips and President Mitch Daniels at an event in Naples today. Gene Keady, Mike Phipps, and Bob Griese were there as well but didn’t get to meet them. Kinda cool for a nobody like me.
Wow, there were some real ND tormentors there. Phipps as I recall only beat ND 4 times. When I was a freshman I recall that Leroy Keyes was not only a talented offensive threat but that he played great D too. Outstanding player.