[Husker] Coach vs. Media (was News Conference)

[David Elfering]

David I absolutely agree with you. As long as there are news organizations
and opinions there will be pieces like the one from Chatelain. This isn't
new and coaches have to find ways to cope, hopefully ways that don't include
making the matter worse.

The old adage about what happens when you jump into the mud to wrestle pigs
will provide them guidance :)

Bottom line, reporters have a publish or perish environment. They will make
mistakes, be misguided or just stir up the muck. The only thing coaches can
control is their reaction to it. To do otherwise is paramount to jumping
into the mud while giving the original point of contention more spotlight.

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 9:26 AM, David Strong <gobigredlist at gmail.com>wrote:

> **Warning...this post is kind of long and just my own opinion and probably
> not worth reading.  All other opinions respected.**
>
> I followed this for a while until it is now just worn out.  It seemed there
> was plenty of blame to go around.  I thought the original article by Dirk
> Chatelain was pretty chippy.  He took some shots and the whole tone of the
> article was negative and condescending towards Pelini.  Even when he was
> slamming TM, it seemed like it was just to get to Pelini.  The article
> seemed to be written by a guy with an agenda.  OK, big deal, who cares?
> Pelini's behavior in the presser was once again that of a petulant
> 6-year-old.  "What do you think?" "What do you think?"  "I'm done with
> you."  "Maybe someone can ask a question worth answering".  I next expected
> him to bust out with "I know you are but what am I"  All of this in front
> of
> the national press on a national stage after the best win of his head
> coaching career.  Just when I was starting to think his bumbling with the
> press was somewhat endearing, I am reminded how immature he is.  It's not
> endearing and it's not a positive.  Yeah, yeah, I know, he has his player's
> back.  Negative newspaper articles have been around forever.  Now TM is
> starting to act like BP in his pressers.  TM needs a better role model for
> this.
>
> It is interesting to watch the knee-jerk backlash against the press.  Like
> they are an evil organization not to be trusted.  I love reading all the
> articles, and listening to podcasts, listening to sports radio, and
> watching
> "college football live" and "gameday". and all the other things that come
> under the heading of press or media.  Some is good, some is bad, some I
> agree with, some I don't.
>
> It's also interesting to watch the knee-jerk backlash against anyone who
> critiques the coach or players.  Look, we are fans and proud of it.  No
> need
> to write the word fans with quotes around it like it's some kind of badge
> of
> shame.  We praise the good things and criticize the bad things.  We agree
> with some things, disagree with others.  This is sport, it is the nature of
> sport.  It is ok to do so.  We are fans of the sport.  And if you criticize
> a player's or coach's performance, you are not "attacking him", or "turning
> on him" or "throwing him under the bus".  But there is a difference in
> saying "TM has trouble holding onto the ball, is an erratic passer, has an
> awkward throwing motion, and sometimes makes bad decisions"  compared to
> "TM
> has stone hands, throws like a 5 year old girl, and is stupid."  A good
> example is Rob Zatechka's latest blog post.  Here's the good, here's the
> bad, here's what I like, here's what I don't.  It not personal, it's sport.
>
> The OSU game?  I felt like everyone else.  I was pretty down when it was
> 27-6 and the team had shown exactly zero on both side of the ball.  It felt
> bad, like we couldn't even represent here in our new conference, like our
> qb
> wasn't very good, like we were exposed now that we played better
> competition.  etc. etc.  (I wasn't readly to boo though.  I have never
> booed
> a Nebraska player for anything.  Many groans though!)  Then when the game
> turned around I was happy and excited and celebrated after a great win.  I
> was happy and glad for Taylor to have led us to the win and cheered for
> him.  Is there something wrong with all that?  I am a fan...maybe I should
> put quotes around that word.
>
> Whew!  Got that off my chest.  If you read this far, probably now thinking
> that you can't get those few moments of your life back.  You were warned!
>
> Wear red, be LOUD
>
> Dave
>
> Agreed.  I'd be much more interested to know what Lee thinks Bo needs to
> > say.  Clearly the questions he gets don't seem to get to the nuts and
> bolts
> > of the offense or defense, what worked, what didn't, etc.  But I'm not so
> > "red-colored-glasses" here to think that Bo would actually answer any of
> > those either.
> >
> > Its interesting that almost every media guy who's sat down with Bo and
> had
> > a conversation with him seems to say that he's a great guy and a good
> > communicator.  It seems the guys shouting questions at him after a game
> seem
> > to have a problem.  Connection?  Someone commenting on Barfnecht's
> article
> > mentioned that most have already written their piece and are just asking
> > questions to get a suitable quote to attribute to the coach.  Bo doesn't
> > oblige.
> >
> > I don't get the animosity between these two groups, I don't know what the
> > media wants, I don't know why Bo is so obstinant about answering inane
> > questions, and I don't know where anyone goes from here.  Calling Dr.
> Tom??
> >
> > Nick
> > --
> > "If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish
> thing."
> > Anatole France
> >
> >
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-- 
---
David Elfering
aroundomaha at gmail.com