So What's Really New About College Coaches Saying And Doing Dumb Things?

Mike Gundy And Mike Leach Are Just The Latest Examples

It was a little less than 20 years ago that a Rutgers basketball coach named Kevin Bannon devised a unique way to try to improve his team’s free throw shooting. For every missed foul shot during a practice session, a player had to remove an article of clothing. For the team’s worst foul shooters, that deficiency in their game proved to be particularly revealing – and embarrassing.

Bannon, who viewed Rutgers as his dream job, was fired as a result.

Those naked free throw contests are not to be confused with the behavior of a Rutgers coach who followed Bannon 10 years later. Mike Rice could be seen on reels of practice tapes verbally and physically abusing his players, resulting in his firing, a national scandal and one of the funniest skits in Saturday Night Live history. Google it. Melissa McCarthy is hilarious as a deranged college basketball coach.

The point is that college coaches, despite their lofty tax brackets, are really no different than anyone else. They do stupid things. They say stupid things. They can act like petulant brats.

Anyone who saw Bob Knight launch chairs across a basketball court toward officials during a game knows that.

So why are we surprised and/or outraged when Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy and Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach make tone deaf comments about serious topics, as both did recently?

Gundy, noted scientist, epidemiologist and Tiger King wanna-be (Come on. The guy has a mullet in 2020), essentially shrugged off the coronavirus pandemic, advocating for a quick return to campus so he can get practice in. That ran counter to the university’s stated position, but Gundy is "a man" as he reminded us of that during a press conference rant a while back and the reality is his only concern is football and his football team.

At one point, after referring to the Coronavirus as “the Chinese flu,” Gundy said, “I don’t want to try and make this so much more different than the common flu.”

“They are 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 years old and they are healthy, and they have the ability to fight this virus off,” Gundy said of his players, oblivious to how the virus also spreads. “If that is true, then we sequester them, and continue because we need to run money through the state of Oklahoma.”

Because Oklahoma State football practice is really what maters right now.

Leach, whose oft-clownish behavior and disdain for defense makes him one of the more quotable coaches in college football, tweeted an image of a woman knitting a noose with the comment, “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf.”

Memo to Leach, who has been sequestered in Pullman, Wash., for a few years: Noose jokes in Mississippi really don’t play well.

Now the school is making Leach to take a tour of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Again, why should we be surprised and/or outraged when college coaches say and do stupid things? What makes them different from anyone else?

Hugh Freeze was the head football coach at Mississippi before he was caught making calls to escort services on his university phone. He was fired for that.

The examples of stupidity are as frequent in the college coaching ranks as they are in any other profession. Big contracts don’t make people any smarter or give them better judgment.

One of my favorite examples of tone-deaf cluelessness is really more innocent and naive in nature. In 1983, Notre Dame beat Boston College, 19-18, in the Liberty Bowl to finish a 7-5 season.

As coach Gerry Faust accepted the Liberty Bowl trophy on the field, he conveyed his thanks over the public address system and declared that Notre Dame was eager to return to the Liberty Bowl next year to defend its championship in the game.

A public relations person tugged at Faust, pulling him away from the microphone and explained to him that, no, Notre Dame would not be returning to the Liberty Bowl the following season.

Notre Dame has not played in the Liberty Bowl since then.