Coach Speak or Outright Delusional?
So has anyone seen Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis’ comments post-Rutgers? Gattis and Harbaugh said that both QBs played great and they still can’t decide on a starter. Exactly what did they see on Saturday night? Folks, I don’t know what to make of this. This better be coach speak or else we have delusional coaches.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:23 AM ^
Coach speak
November 24th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
Outright delusional.
November 24th, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
Both!
November 24th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Yes, outright delusional coach speak.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:27 AM ^
Short of Izzo (see what I did there?), you don’t find many college coaches that call out individual players in the press.
November 24th, 2020 at 8:31 AM ^
The only major College Football coach that does that too is Brian Kelly. I still remember him throwing Kizer and his Center under the bus for how poorly their snaps and throws were while playing in an actual hurricane.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:31 AM ^
Brian Kelly really has nine lives. At ND he's survived a 4-8 season, a player rape scandal, games vacated by the NCAA, even the death of a student assistant due to negligence - and now he is secure in his job and has a top 5 team.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:59 AM ^
He’s the worst. Complete jackass.
November 24th, 2020 at 12:47 PM ^
50 shades of purple
November 24th, 2020 at 3:15 PM ^
Its not who you know, it’s knowing the location of where they are buried that counts.
November 24th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
The other guy who did this was Steve Spurrier. I loved it when he was at USC, and would listen to him on local sports radio down here. He would just dog his players out in the most hilarious, but sometimes vicious manner. But then Spurrier was a pretty unique guy, and he could pull that off in part because he was so funny.
November 24th, 2020 at 1:23 PM ^
Izzo calls out players in the press pales in comparison to how he call them out on the court. Just ask Aaron Henry.
November 24th, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
And that's a good thing.
November 24th, 2020 at 11:17 PM ^
Izzo, Kelly, and although he doesn't mention individual players, Mike Leach is not afraid to call out his team!
November 24th, 2020 at 7:28 AM ^
Harbaugh and Gattis aren't going to criticize a player to the media. They want Milton to keep working and striving to get better. With the o line having a lot of moving parts, there is a chance we see Milton again this year. The team knows behind closed doors and that's all that matters.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:31 AM ^
I get not wanting to damage a young player’s confidence, but don’t get why they are still heaping praise onto Milton when he’s looked pretty bad. Cade stepped in a put the entire team on his shoulders and they do this stuff.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:37 AM ^
Because their is a chance (with Covid) they may need him again before the season is over. At this point I'm not sure why people believe anything a coach says at a press conference.
November 24th, 2020 at 8:32 AM ^
Even if there were no pandemic, it's not unusual to need to use your backup QB at some point.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:58 AM ^
"don’t get why they are still heaping praise onto Milton when he’s looked pretty bad "
Because what's the harm in it? Let's say he does say Milton sucked. Then what? Does that make the team any better? Make Milton perform any better? No. So who cares. Everyone knows McNamara is gonna start next Saturday. Why complain about the coaches not ripping Milton?
November 24th, 2020 at 8:14 AM ^
Again, never asked for the coaches to rip Milton; but you don’t have to do this participation trophy style stuff either.
Just say what happened, Cade did a good job. Talk about Haskins, talk about Cade, they look stupid when they do this sort of thing.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:09 AM ^
It's about building confidence and believing in someone. If you discredit a player or don't acknowledge their ability to get better from week to week, you probably shouldn't be a coach. Who knows, maybe Milton puts together the best week of practice and is primed to beat Penn State. Highly unlikely given Cade's performance last Saturday but not impossible.
Also the last person who would give out a participation trophy is Harbaugh. Gonna have to take the L on this post, dawg.
November 24th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
^^^^never coached
November 24th, 2020 at 11:05 AM ^
Unlike you, who only watches the games, coaches are with them a lot, and yes their job is more than just winning. They need to develop them as players and human beings. While some people do need a kick in the pants every now and then, even in the media, many don't respond well to that style, and let's just assume that the coaches know more than us how to handle it.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
Not sure he should be criticized. It’s not like he was god awful. Just not good enough to get the job done and Cade is showing to be a lot better QB and the team seems to respond better to him. He brings an energy the team needs and it probably goes along with him being better at make plays and executing the game plan
November 24th, 2020 at 9:45 AM ^
I think Milton started 4/4 and then ended 1/8 Saturday. He was god awful.
November 24th, 2020 at 5:29 PM ^
OK, people are saying to not get premature about Cade because he did well against Rutgers... because Rutgers. Fine, but at the same time, Milton did poorly against Rutgers.
If Rutgers isn't so bad that a poor performance is godawful, then Cade's was really good. Pick one.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:30 AM ^
What if Milton starts on Saturday? That would be...something.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:43 AM ^
....idiotic!
November 24th, 2020 at 8:49 AM ^
Man don't even say that. No thank you! It would be something alright ... a bad dream something.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
Unfortunately it wouldn't shock me.
November 24th, 2020 at 5:33 PM ^
After last weekend, you would expect the coaches to start Cade. He's made an emphatic statement that he gives the team the best chance for a win against PSU.
Therefore Harbaugh/Gattis will start Milton.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:33 AM ^
Translation: we really don’t want Joe to transfer.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:57 AM ^
Bingo. Pretty sure I'm next on the depth chart at QB if he bolts.
So yeah, he played FANTASTIC!!!
November 24th, 2020 at 9:08 AM ^
Yes. As much as folks want to act like Harbaugh probably doesn’t truly know...this is pretty standard coach speak. You have a kid who is likely down from losing the job but that you’ll likely need again and also will need to stay the course in the program. I would like to believe the coaches will have their finger on the pulse and do as needed to keep Milton engaged. But I think anyone with eyeballs saw Cade is the play - even Harbaugh and Gattis.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:41 AM ^
Some of you have never played/coached sports and it shows.
if a coach is going to run to the media and bash a kid on his team he has no business in coaching. Conversations behind closed doors are always different than the conversations in front of cameras.
November 24th, 2020 at 9:40 AM ^
Similar to being a teacher. Or most jobs. Treat people with the utmost respect they deserve and oftentimes you get respect back.
November 24th, 2020 at 10:39 AM ^
This is absolutely true. That does not mean there are not huge issues "behind closed doors"...because all indications are that that is where the elephant is.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:42 AM ^
Coaches usually don’t help the other team prepare.
November 24th, 2020 at 4:11 PM ^
Thank you, at least part of this is not to name a starter so the other team totally rules out one QB.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:47 AM ^
I don’t think you should bash the coaches over this. Keeping QB’s on campus these days is hard enough without a benching - what are they supposed to say now?
November 24th, 2020 at 7:48 AM ^
I'm sure it's coach speak. The kids finally won a game after a brutal three weeks, so they have to keep it positive for everyone, including the QBs.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:50 AM ^
Always need two QB's ready to go with this OL and team.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:56 AM ^
Coaches lie to the press.
November 24th, 2020 at 8:05 AM ^
Yet another hot take post thread by a "very concerned" mgoblogger coincindentally with a new account (~3 weeks in this case and just hit 100pts before posting).
Can we please raise the threshold for making threads?
November 24th, 2020 at 8:14 AM ^
OP, you're not very smart, are you? Why the fuck would you expect a coach to drive a bus over a college player because he's had a couple of bad games? You don't think he already feels bad enough for having been benched in consecutive games? You think he should be treated like a professional, because he's earning so much money playing a game? How many coaches have you heard actually shit on a player for a bad game? I've heard Rich Rod do it - and it's one of the (many) reasons he was fired here, and the reason I lost respect for him as a coach before he was fired here.
What a dumb, shitty, childish thing to post...
November 24th, 2020 at 8:28 AM ^
See, never said throw Milton under the bus; but it’s stupid to make this whole “he played great” shtick.
Talk about Cade’s great game, talk about Haskins in the running game, talk about the freaking practices, but when you give us this “Milton looked great” speech you look like an idiot and make our team look like we don’t know what we’re doing.
Do you think any other coach in the country would talk about the guy they benched looking great? Say nothing, it’s not that tough; but to say something so untrue.
Also great ad hominem, by the way at the beginning.
November 24th, 2020 at 8:51 AM ^
It's a press conference, and he's trying to make his underperforming team feel better about themselves. Why does it bother you so much? Do you really need that emotion to drive more hate in you? Seems to me that you already have enough built-in hate to last a while...
November 24th, 2020 at 9:03 AM ^
Because let’s be honest, this backslapping participation trophy stuff was not good under Hoke. Comments ranging from last week’s we shouldn’t be embarrassed about how our line play looked against Wisconsin to this week’s comments about how great both QBs look just look and sound awful. It reminds me of Hoke not even being grounded in reality and making stupid statements about how they weren’t out of the Big Ten Championship race even after getting blown out and embarrassed repeatedly.
Would Bo have done this? I’m not entirely convinced. Let’s use Clemson as an example. Dabo Swinney talked about Kelly Bryant being a leader and great person and great teammate, but I don’t remember him praising him as a great QB when he made the switch to Lawrence.
November 24th, 2020 at 11:18 AM ^
Haha to directly contradict your own point -
In Bo's famous "The Team" speech he even says "We're not going talk about each other, we're not going to criticize each other... we're going to encourage each other."
Go away dude.
November 24th, 2020 at 3:28 PM ^
Would Bo have done this? I’m not entirely convinced.
“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft.
On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing”—Bo Schembechler