My week at ESPN for the the CFB coaches “Car Wash” was quite eventful. If you missed part one of my recap, check it out here. I was in Bristol for the week while almost every SEC, Big 12, and Pac-12 coach came through to appear of the ESPN family of shows. Next week the ACC and Big 10 coaches will be in Bristol if anyone thought they got left out.
The second part of of my week of course included coaches interviews, but Thursday really started when news broke that Ray Rice would only be suspended for two games stemming from him knocking his then fiancee out and dragging her from an elevator. While I was in a different world of sorts with the college coaches, that was certainly the news of the day in sports on Thursday.
Back in my world, I was trying to run down some more Big 12 coaches and did get time with Gary Patterson of TCU and Art Briles. Here are their highlights.
Gary Patterson on the open QB competition:
“Oh yeah right now all five of them will be throwing. The two older ones, Matt and Trevone will be the first two guys and then we will go from the other groups.”
Art Briles on what Bryce Petty has to do to become a national name:
“Do what he did last year. He has the name recognition now where he didn’t a year ago. He threw for 4200 yards, 33 TDs and 3 INTs last year and if he can do that, he can win the Heisman. If not, he will be scratching at it.”
If Thursday was about the Ray Rice suspension, then Friday was about the reaction to Rice’s punishment. It’s interesting being at ESPN when a controversy happens because unless it happens in the particular area you are working in, you really don’t know something is happening. Of course I am referring to Stephen A. Smith’s comments about addressing women’s role in prevent violence against them. I didn’t learn about his comments until a couple hours after the fact since I was in another building interviewing Pac-12 coaches. The whole situation was well chronicled here but I will say this: no one should put their hands on anyone no matter what type of “provoking” is going on unless life threatening. Simple right??
I also had a chance to chat with the VP of Programming & Acquisitions, Ilan Ben-Hanan. We talked about the process of ESPN picking what college football games end up on which network and the coverage map decisions behind the scenes. It was a great discussion that would make for another great article down the road. I did manage to get time with five Pac-12 coaches though and here are the highlights.
David Shaw on using the lower than expected preseason rankings as motivation despite recent success:
“I would say we use it for motivation. A lot of guys will be motivated by that because we want to play on the big stage. We have won more games against division one opponents than anybody in college football the last four years. So our guys may see it as a bit of disrespect, but I understand it also because we lost some Seniors, captains, and great players. People don’t know really know what we have until we start playing.”
Mike MacIntyre on keys to getting the Colorado program turned around:
“Well there are a lot of keys to turning a program around. Last year was our first year and we made strides. Just keep showing the progress and keep improving. We are getting good athletes there but we have to give them time to mature and grow. This conference is heavy laden in Senior QB’s or 4th year QBs that will be moving out shortly. When that happens we have to be prepped and ready to go. For example we have a guy Gilbert, freshman DE for us played at about 210 and now he is at 235. He is 6’4, can rush the passer and is athletic. So just that maturation process is going to get us there. You can’t just flick a switch and make it happen. Our administration is committed though and we are building a $143M football facility so that helps our players that are there now understand our commitment level and helps in recruiting.”
Chris Petersen on what he wants to instill at Washington that he did at Boise State:
“Well I think it’s our whole process. We have been doing this for a while and we kind of know one way which is our way. So it’s very hard to say one thing but it’s everything. How we lift weights, how we practice, how we treat each other in the locker room, how we go to class, all those things. It’s really the whole process.”
Mark Helfrich on what it means to have Marcus Mariota bypass the NFL Draft:
“It’s huge and I think its speaks both to our program that a guy is willing to do that among others. Then it absolutely speaks to his character and the type of guy he is. He has already banked his degree. He is such a competitor and great teammate, its going to do so much for his credibility as a leader and that just ramps up when can look at him and know what he turned down. That gets his team’s attention.”
Steve Sarkisian on managing expectation levels at USC:
“I’d say this, whether you are a coach, player, professor, or student you choose to come to USC knowing what the expectations are before get to USC. The expectations are high but you know what we chose to come there to be the best and be part of an elite university and football program. I don’t really worry about them though. I have a firm belief we are going to achieve a lot of great things and I can’t wait to get started quite honestly.”
I will never be able to say that my week at ESPN wasn’t eventful. There was so much news that broke during my time there and it was really interesting to see the real time reaction to all of it and how schedules change and days get turned upside down because of them.
The actual event I was there for, the CFB coaches “car wash” could not have gone much better. I appreciate everyone from VPs, Programming Coordinators, ESPN Images, PR, etc that went out of their way to make my week impactful. I want to say a huge thank you to Mike Humes who invited me up to Bristol and coordinated most of what happened for me.
