This is my letter to the web, who never wrote to me...Well, OK. I plagiarized that from Emily Dickinson, but it still works. This is just a little post to perhaps “enlighten†some who seem to spend the majority of their time bah-humbugging certain candidates for the coaching search because they have said they aren’t interested.
For every post about certain coaches there is an immediate version of, “My gawd. He’s done said he ain’t a comin! Why can’t ya’ll just let it go?†That list includes Nick Saban, Greg Schiano, and a host of others who jumped up and screamed, “Not me!†at the top of their lungs in the last couple of weeks.
If you do not understand the very precarious position coaches are placed in, you immediately feel that anyone who says they are not interested then goes somewhere else is a lying scumbag who is not to be trusted. The sad fact is that the nature of the job makes lying necessary. All coaches who are currently under contract are under contracts that detail why they may or may not be terminated. Being terminated for some reasons does not guarantee their buyouts, and could leave them high and dry if they were perceived as disloyal. Also, they might be interested, but just not sure if the deal will work out.
Coaching is a job that demands a special relationship between coaches and their players. If that relationship were to be damaged because of the perception that the coach was seeking another job, it would definitely affect team production. Coaches simply cannot come out and say they are interested in another job. They must emphatically deny it or risk complete meltdown. Most leave themselves wiggle room by using weasel words like “planâ€Â, or “my intentionsâ€Â, “I won’t address rumorsâ€Â, etc...Some flat out lie, but the results are the same.
Let’s look back at some great coaching quotes from the past....
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From the Saban to Miami days...
"It's speculation--that's all that it is," Saban said. "I don't know how else to say it, or how else to deny it."
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Or Tuberville to Auburn...
"That speech was more of an 'I don't know what's going to happen after tonight,'" said linebacker Armegis Spearman. "But if you read between the lines, he was letting you know that that was going to be his last game with us."
It was actually his last day. Tuberville was in Auburn 12 hours later and officially introduced as the Tigers' coach a day after that.
Tuberville talked about being a "Rebel at heart." He once told reporters that the only way he would leave Oxford was "in a pine box."
Two weeks later, Tuberville left Oxford on a private jet for Auburn where he became, presumably, a Tiger at heart.
Tuberville, a really good football coach, left Ole Miss for more money, better facilities, a better chance to win. Nothing wrong with that.
But he didn't leave with much grace or class
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Of course you all remember fRan...
He dismissed reports in Texas newspapers that he would be the Aggies' new coach and called one "idiotic." He said he had "never wavered" on his intentions to return to Alabama next season but never promised he would stay.
"The first week they brought it up, he was just like, 'Don't worry about it. Just focus on the game,"' Alabama center Alonzo Ephraim said. "That's just his personal life. I don't think it will hurt our program."
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Now those are just a few of the examples that come up all the time. “Coach speakâ€Â, as some call it, basically means, “Leave me alone. I am not going to risk my team and my job until all the details are either worked out or dismissed.â€Â
