Tuesdays with Gorney: Coaches Gone Wild
It’s Coaches Gone Wild out there.
The age-old tradition of coaches being polite, even complimentary in public (while surely being more brusque behind the scenes) is surely over after the last few weeks.
Maybe it’s today’s culture. Maybe it’s the age of social media where coaches want a viral moment. Maybe it goes back to the fact that every second should be spent recruiting. Maybe it’s the Deion Sanders Effect on some people.
Who knows what it is, but things have changed in the coaching community as of late. What once was said only behind closed doors, only said privately, only said off the record, is now right out for everyone to see.
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Example No. 1: Oregon coach Dan Lanning.
ESPN announcers said multiple times during the Oregon-Colorado broadcast Saturday that Lanning had given them unprecedented access to the Ducks’ locker room. Now it’s clear why. So Lanning could deliver a pointed and unequivocal shot at Sanders and his Colorado team.
“Rooted in substance, not flash,” Lanning said. “Rooted in substance. Today we talk with our pads. You talk with your helmet. Every moment. The Cinderella story is over. They’re fighting for clicks, we’re fighting for wins. There is a difference. This game ain’t going to be played in Hollywood, it’s going to be played on the grass.”
After posting a 35-0 halftime lead, Lanning wasn’t done.
“Not done yet,” Lanning told ESPN sideline reporter Katie George. “We were composed, we executed at a really high level but not done yet. We’re not satisfied. I hope all those people that have been watching (Colorado) every week are watching this week.”
Lanning laid it on pretty thick.
This week on Fox’s sports-talk show Undisputed, Keyshawn Johnson claimed to have talked to people who said opposing coaches – more than ever – had been feeding Oregon thoughts about how to beat Colorado. Johnson didn’t name names but it was certainly an interesting comment.
Sanders came to Colorado in unorthodox fashion – telling the team to basically hit the bricks because he was bringing his Louis Vuitton with him aka Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders and others – and much more.
Wearing I Ain’t Hard to Find sweatshirts or having the Prime logo on his Colorado gear or regularly saying he keeps receipts could be off-putting. Ever been around football coaches or anyone with a competitive bone in their body? None of them are going to take that lightly.
Love him or despise him, Sanders isn’t going to change and he has resurrected a completely DOA football program quickly. He made no excuses after Saturday’s slaughter, called it a “good old-fashioned buttkicking” and said he would make “no excuses.”
But he didn’t go down without a fight in the post-game, either.
“If our confidence offends your insecurity, that’s a problem with you, not us,” Sanders said.
And later: “Teams are trying to beat me. They’re not trying to beat our team. They keep forgetting I’m not playing anymore. I had a great career. I’m serious. I got a gold jacket I didn’t buy. I’m good but that’s what it really is.
“I don’t say something just to say it for a click, contrary to what somebody says. Yeah, I keep receipts.
“You better get me right now. This is the worst we’re going to be. You better get me right now. I got messengers. God bless him, though, he’s a great coach, he did a great job. Take their shots, they won. I don’t shoot. I don’t do that. They won.”
If only the Pac-12 wasn’t disintegrating, this could be a fun matchup to watch in the future.
Example No. 2: Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
Former Notre Dame coach and 86-year-old college football commentator Lou Holtz, sitting on the South Bend campus and talking about that night’s game on "College GameDay" said something that offended Day. It was this:
“He has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan twice,” Holtz said. “And everybody who beats them does so because they’re more physical than Ohio State.”
It was the perfect setting for Holtz to say something outlandish or controversial but maybe not entirely untrue. A softball was served up and Holtz swung big. Even Ohio State fans must admit that Michigan muscled them the last two years, two blowout wins for the Wolverines.
Holtz seemed to forget that Ohio State had won eight-straight before that and if not for an errant kick (the least-tough position in maybe all of sports), Ohio State would’ve beat Georgia and played TCU for the title last year.
Day took offense – and he yelled about it after Ohio State sneaked out of Notre Dame with a win on a last-second touchdown run when the Irish only had 10 players on the field.
“Toughness,” Day said on NBC. “Toughness, that’s it. Physicality across the board, finish it off, having guts. I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now. What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio. It’s always been Ohio against the world. It will continue to be Ohio against the world. I love those kids and we have a tough team.”
So much for coaches claiming they’re so entrenched in game-planning to read the press clippings. Maybe Day is protesting a little too much or maybe he means it. Either way, Holtz’s comments got him going – right after the game and later in his post-game press conference.
Even Ohio State players got involved in the Holtz hate in the locker room.
“Where you at Lou Holtz?” Ohio State players were heard saying on social media. “They must’ve forgot. They must’ve forgot. They must’ve f***ing forgot.”
Example No. 3: Washington State coach Jake Dickert.
After pulling off a huge and impressive win over Oregon State, Dickert talked about a lot but especially took exception to what he thought Lee Corso said on "College GameDay" – except, Corso didn’t say it.
“I was watching GameDay and Corso comes out and says, ‘The No One Watches Bowl',” Dickert said. “I don’t really understand that. What’s the merit once again? The facts say people watch the Cougs. The people watch the Cougs more than every team that’s left over in the Big 12.
“Coach Corso, he’s at the point now where they give him the sheet and he reads off it and he tries to make a joke and it didn’t even make sense. It’s well-documented what ESPN has done to try to get our league to where it’s at.”
Either Dickert misheard him or he’s super bitter about Oregon State and Washington State being left out to dry as the only two Pac-12 programs to not find a future home yet.
Because Corso called it the “Nobody Wants Us Bowl” which again might not be exactly fair but it is accurate up to this point in conference realignment.
Wherever all this goes – and whatever is going on with coaches voicing more opinions and being more public in their protestations, I’m here for it all.
Like ultra-troller Lane Kiffin famously said before playing Alabama in 2021, “Here we go, get your popcorn ready.”
Of course, Ole Miss lost that game 42-21 but who remembers that part?