Big Ten Media Day 1: Observations
by Kevin Fishbain
July 25th, 2008
What I learned, in a nutshell, at Big Ten Media Day 1 which is devoted to 15 minute press conferences with each head coach:
1.) Every team believes they can win the Big Ten Championship
2.) Every team is focusing on the first game of the season and nothing else
3.) Every team needs to wait until practice begins in August to answer position questions
4.) The spread offense is effective.
The day was full of clichés, coach-speak, and a few laughs. Here are some of the highlights:
- Referees will be stricter on players that target defenseless players. The officiating video showed highlights of bone-jarring hits that will now be 15 yard penalties. I found the hits to be good television, but I guess they’re dangerous.
- Horse-collar tackles will now be a penalty. They went to the vault to find a clip of Plaxico Burress getting taken down by a horse-collar tackle as a Spartan. It’s amazing that horse-collar tackles was allowed this long in college football, yet celebrations aren’t, which leads me to…
- No celebrating! Do not spike the ball, do not taunt, and do not flip into the endzone! This rule drives me crazy. I understand the motivation behind it, but I think a player is allowed to have a little fun after getting a touchdown, maybe not a first down or a tackle for a loss, but a game-changing touchdown deserves some celebrating. Now to the coaches:
- Ron Zook started it off by giving his own team bulletin board material by saying that the country thinks they might have been “one year and done” after last year’s run to the Rose Bowl. Nice strategy Ron.
- Next up was Coach Pat Fitzgerald, king of coach-speak. He gave these good nuggets: “Finishing is a way of life” and “Everything happens for a reason” in reference to the Duke loss and Tyrell Sutton’s injury. He did mention some redshirt freshmen that have stood out, including Al Netter and Ben Burkett on the O-line, Charles Brown at wideout, Vincent Browne, Ben Johnson, Michael Bolden, Jordan Mabin, and David Arnold on defense. He also expects Tyrell to ‘bookend’ his career with a similar season to his freshman year. Fitz’s best quote was probably in reference to the expectations in Evanston changing-that if they had won 6 games in 1993 (his freshman year) there would have been a “purple party” in Evanston and Chicago.
- Bret Bielema won the comedy award. First he referred to Badger fans getting extra time to tailgate for their two night games as “having more time to relax in the parking lot before games.” He took a crack at 2 consecutive questions about Michigan (”it’s good to be at a Michigan press conference”). He shot down a question about their soft non-conference schedule that made one reporter look silly and emphasized his appreciation, twice, for the Big Ten officials, “the best in the country.”
- Joe Tiller did not wear a suit or tie, just a Purdue polo, and I guess he’s allowed to do that, so all the power to him. Nothing too exciting from Joe, except for his love for trout fishing in Wyoming.
- Jim Tressel talked a lot, but I don’t think he actually said anything. Teddy Greenstein of the Trib asked him about Carson Palmer’s comments in which he replied with “whether they’re talking good or talking bad, keep them talking.”
- Poor Indiana coach Bill Lynch. When Tressel’s press conference ended, the lunchroom opened, even though the ‘lunch break’ wasn’t until after Lynch, so when his name was announced many reporters left the room. Despite calling Kellen Lewis an outstanding football player and raving about his athletic ability, Lynch ended his conference by saying the QB job is technically up for grabs considering Lewis missed Spring Practice due to a suspension.
- Mark Dantonio led off after the lunch break. He continued the trend of talking a lot without saying anything. He made a baseball reference about how they’re on first base right now, and he held the record for longest opening statement of the day until…
- Minnesota’s Tim Brewster. My, oh my, Timmy was fired up today. Fellow WNUR staffer Stephen Woldenberg at one point whispered to me “I feel as though I’m getting yelled at.” Brewster should look into motivational speaking if this whole coaching gig doesn’t pan out. I guess he’s sick and tired of the Gophers losing and he made it clear, crystal clear, that his team is going to change that. He mentioned just about every player on his roster with high praise gave the conference another cliché with the “you need to take 2 steps backward to take one step forward” line. Brewster made sure to mention his 16th best recruiting class in the country. It’s safe to say everyone left that room knowing Brewster meant business. Whether or not that will translate on the field to a team that won 1 game last season, well, time will tell.
- Everyone, including me, was waiting for Joe Paterno. How could you not appreciate the 81-year-old ball coach? As I watched him speak, it amazed me that he is able to successfully coach at that old of an age. He made it clear that he was sick and tired of the retirement questions, however one writer didn’t get the message. Joe responded by spelling out “I d-o-n-t know” emphatically. He responded to a question about Terrelle Pryor by saying it was a dumb question to ask him and rarely looked at the person asking him the questions. He skipped his opening statement, which I guess is standard for Paterno, and discussed Tiller’s fishing hobby: “You catch three of them, you look at one and they all look alike, what the hell.”
- Kirk Ferentz was another snoozer. With all the controversy surrounding his program he put it aside and discussed the floods in Iowa. He did say that his players need to make better decisions off-the-field, but it was an otherwise uneventful interview.
- Rich Rodriguez concluded the coaches’ press conferences. He said he was a realist, and proved it by saying that Michigan lost probably some of the best offensive players in team history. In response to the two quarterbacks he doesn’t have (Pryor and Ryan Mallett) Rodriguez said “I only talk about players who play for Michigan.”
Tomorrow should be a little more exciting as the players get involved and the setting is a little more relaxed. But, Media Days are like anything in sports, you can’t catch yourself looking a head-you have to take it one day at a time.
