Coaches avoid media with excuses, unwarranted pride
By Tim Casey
Assistant Sports Editor
He walked from the Irish locker room, through a door leading to the adjacent media room, clenching a bottle of water in his right hand. He made his way up to the front of the room, his head angled towards the floor.
When he advanced to the front, he placed the bottle on the ground and stood in front of a podium. In full view were about 50 people — sports information assistants, some coaches and various others, including members of the media.
Moments earlier, the defense had beaten the offense 39-31 in the annual Blue-Gold scrimmage. Now it was time for head coach Bob Davie to address the media.
The dreaded media.
It was an interesting spring covering the Irish football team. On more than one occasion, Davie chose not to talk to the media after practice.
Never mind that before the spring began, reporters, Notre Dame's sports information directors and Davie had decided after each practice that Davie would talk to the media in a group in front of the gates facing Touchdown Jesus, on his way into the locker room. This was done to please Davie, so he wouldn't have to spend a half-hour rehashing the news of the day (or lack of it) one at a time to a dozen different people.
All we wanted to know was simple things, like how the players were performing, or an injury update. It wasn't like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, who broke the story on Watergate, asking President Nixon about the scandal.
A year ago, there were two scrimmages prior to the Blue-Gold game open to the media. But after a 5-7 season, the first NCAA violation in school history and a few disciplinary suspensions, a tight-lipped Davie refused to open up any practices, save for two when the Irish hosted a high school coaching clinic.
And when he did open practice, the Irish ran about 10 percent of their offensive package. Even on Saturday, according to Arnaz Battle, the Irish playbook consisted of eight inside runs, five drop-back passes and six play-action passes. No option, no quarterback draws, no clue on how Battle or the Irish will perform in the fall.
Maybe Davie has exhausted all the other excuses — the lack of talent, the injuries, the difficult schedule. Davie has become like a golfer who shoots an 82, then says that if he hadn't missed four three-foot putts and had scored a birdie on a hole instead of a triple bogey, he would have broken 75. The excuses have become legendary.
Maybe now he wants the public to believe the media leaked information to opposing teams' coaching staffs, leading to the demise of the 1999 Irish.
Maybe that explains why when I questioned Gary Godsey about what the offense was working on in practice, he said he wasn't allowed to share that information. This was after the second practice of the spring, before the Irish even wore pads.
Or maybe the media excuse explains why Davie was upset that Clifford Jefferson told me the secondary would play more man coverage this fall. Bet Purdue quarterback Drew Brees is having trouble sleeping after hearing that news.
The coach-media relationship has always been strange. Coaches would love for media members to be like Aristotle's friends of utility, where the object of the relationship is the value obtainable from the friend. In other words, when the team wins, the media is welcome. But when they lose or some scandal arises, stay away, let them share their sorrows amongst teammates and coaches.
Too bad it doesn't work that way. The goal of journalism is to be accurate, to portray intelligent news judgement. I'm sure there are students on this campus who believe The Observer should stick up for our fellow student athletes, that we should avoid criticizing the losing teams.
But that would be naïve.
To write that the outlook for the 2000 Irish team is "excellent" just because Davie said so would be foolish. If the Irish were winning the national championship, or even contending for it, the optimism, the "positive" outlook on the team's future would get the publicity. But now, with a relatively inexperienced team, an unproven coach and a brutal schedule, it's difficult to find much on the field optimism.
This isn't to say that Notre Dame football is terrible. Far from it. There are plenty of things to take pride in: the commitment of the coaches, the off-field contributions of the players to the local community, the high graduation rate. These are things that matter a lot more in the long run than whether or not the Irish beat USC in 2001.
But when a player sells his complimentary tickets or another gets suspended for numerous violations of parietals are we supposed to not print that because he's a fellow student? Of course not.
Davie's feelings about the media were never more apparent than on April 6, after the fourth practice. When reporters had finished asking questions, Davie shared a story. Earlier that afternoon, Dick Vermeil, the retired St. Louis Rams coach who was in town as a speaker for Ara Parseghian's Nieman Pick Disease Foundation, met with Davie.
"He was telling a story of how two years ago they were 4-12," Davie said of the meeting with Vermeil. "Everybody said he was too old and the game was behind him. It's funny how you talk about passion and coaches showing passion. He said two years ago he showed all that passion and people thought he had lost his mind because they were losing and he should get out of the game. All of a sudden, he's that same guy who showed the passion now and they [reporters] said they won [the Super Bowl] because of his passion."
"It's amazing what winning does," Davie added. "[Vermeil] shared that with the team, and I thought it was a good message."
It was a great message. But has anyone ever criticized Davie's passion? If you've ever seen Davie following a game or especially the Sunday after a loss, it's clear that passion is not an issue. He works every day, all year long, trying to turn this program around.
But he'll always be judged by victories. Winning does change everything.
If the Irish start next year 4-0 and contend for a national championship the same media that has criticized the Irish will write "positive" articles.
And the same Davie will address the media next spring, after every practice, in front of Notre Dame Stadium.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily thoes of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, May 1, 2000
