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Coaches get too much Credit?


I have been thinking about this topic for quite some time. College football coaches, for the most part, walk around like they know something that everyone else doesn't. Furthermore, they treat people (media and fans mostly) like they are aren't capable of understanding what it is to be a coach. In my estimation, the only credit they deserve is for actually competing for and being awarded the highly sought after positions they are in. Beyond that, most of these guys are complete idiots from a decision making and social interaction standpoint.

They deserve less respect in press conferences, not more. They deserve less leniency and more reproach from the fans who have created the demand and prestige that is their current job, not the opposite, which has been the trend. These guys are not the football geniuses they want us to believe. They should answer more direct questions about their strategies after a game. They should answer every question about player personnel and their rational behind playing certain players over others with data and sound reasoning.

I don't think I need to rehash the specifics from the episodes of complete failure that plague the college football coaching ranks in recent memory. But each of the following, in their own way, has contributed to cracking the facade of dedication, disciple, higher standards, and control that coaches built to keep commoners out of their inner circles. Bobby Petrino, Urban Myer, Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel, Mike Leach, Pete Carroll, Butch Davis, George O'Leary...I could go on, but i don't want to relive the past problems that led each of these coaches to quit, get fired, have health issues, go into hiding or worse.

What I want is transparency. For the most part these are public institutions, these men work for the government and are compensated better then the president, their bosses, and all other public employees for that matter. They should be held to account, in detail, for their coaching decisions, personnel decisions, and discipline decisions in real time, not after a scandal they either orchestrated or covered up has come to light.

I dont want to hear panned answers like: we are going back to the drawing board, we are going to keep working, we are getting better each day, or so-and-so violated a team rule and we are handling internally... I want the substance behind your decisions and until we start getting it, and you as a coach can prove the genius you purport to have, time and again, with great decisions that lead to consistent good and respectable results, we the media and the fans will no longer allow you your sacred pulpit. Coaches should not have the ability to restrict any access to a football program at a public university. There should be no security clearance firewalls to a program.

You dont have to tell us what plays your gonna run, but you better be willing to answer why you did, because your fan base knows what plays you should run, and they can tell you why, and you know what? There is a good percentage of them that thinks about football as much and for as many years as you have.. And you really know what? Believe it or not, that is all it takes to have a good grasp on football. There is no limited amount of good football knowledge that only coaches are privied to.

You dont have to tell us exactly why one guy plays and others dont, but at the same time you better not have a Jeremy Lin sitting on the bench for 4 years that doesn't get taste of the field because of someone elses recruiting stars.

Give us real information and your reasoning, don't isolate yourself, live with the criticisms as it is the job, and maybe, just maybe, your inclusiveness will garner support, decrease the likelihood of small issues becoming big scandals, and improve your chances of not being a target if it does hit the fan.

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