EDITORIAL: As the college football landscape continues to undergo monumental changes, we’ve noticed there is a vocal group telling us what is wrong with so many of the changes. We’ve also noticed that those in the vocal group are the same ones refusing to do anything to force the corrections. We ask, where are the coaches with the integrity to speak up?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” That quote from 20th-century social anthropologist Margaret Mead was about social revolution. For our purposes, we are going to convert the world she references to the college football globe. And for our further purposes, the small group of citizens is the college football coaches. We will leave “thoughtful” and “committed” out of the equation for now. Sure, they are committed to their jobs and their programs. But it takes a certain level of intestinal fortitude to stand up for the game as a whole.
Where Are the CFB Coaches With the Integrity to Speak Up?
Dabo
Last month, Dabo Swinney went public with what could have been the first shot heard in the revolution. He did more than just complain about player tampering from another school. Swinney listed days, dates, times, and most importantly, he named names. He gave specifics about Luke Ferrelli being contacted by Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding while the linebacker was in class at Clemson. He was planting the flag for the movement of change in the game. It was rather Quixotic of him. “It’s total chaos. We have to fix this chaos that’s going on in college football,” Swinney said during the press conference. “And if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules, and we have no governance. It’s really just that simple.”
But more than that, he called for his colleagues to do the same. “I’ve had a bunch of coaches over the last week that have reached out to me,” Swinney said. “And they’re going, ‘Well, let me tell you what’s happened to me. Let me tell you what I know. Let me tell you my story,’” he said. “I want to challenge all of those coaches that have reached out to me. I want to challenge all of them. You need to step up and call it out,” Swinney said. “Otherwise, don’t complain. You either step up and you be an example to young coaches in this profession and be people of integrity or just shut your mouth and don’t complain again.”
And you know how many coaches have publicly stepped up since that Swinney press conference two weeks ago? How many of the thoughtful, committed tribe of coaches have spoken up since Dabo’s first shot? We will save you the trouble of Googling the answer. It is zero.
The NCAA
The NCAA has launched an investigation into Swinney’s claims against Ole Miss. There is also an investigation into Ole Miss for allegedly tampering with a player from Fresno State. No one from Fresno State has gone public, although the school reportedly has Swinney-esque receipts when it comes to the tampering of receiver Josiah Freeman.
And how many of the remaining 134 coaches have filed a complaint with the NCAA? Just as importantly, how many have come out in public support of what Swinney is doing? We are still at zero. The lack of fortitude in college football coaches is noticeable, if not for any other reason, because they will be the first to complain about the system. Last Word’s college football reporters have seen it and heard it. Coaches talk about things that are wrong with the current system, but when it comes to naming names, other than everything being the fault of the NCAA, they have nothing to add.
The Ties That Bind
The conclusion starts to develop that the coaches are afraid. They don’t want to call out a future employer or colleague with whom they will be sitting at many coaching functions throughout the year. There is a certain amount of practicality mixed with cowardice in that case. Nike is going to send a bunch of its coaches and their wives on an off-season trip, and your comfort in a social setting outranks doing what is right for your profession. Of course, the other potential answer is the whole pot-kettle thing. It’s hard to call out others for something you have also done. The silence from the coaches leaves the audience to come to its own conclusions.
A Choice To Do Little
And it’s not like they don’t have clout. They meet every January at the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention. The last day is always devoted to a four or five-hour session of debate and voting on a significant topic for college football’s big picture. Their vote then goes to the NCAA DI council for final approval, which happens nearly without fail.
This year, with coaches complaining about the calendar, the signing period, the portal timing, and so much more, the brave coaches took all four hours to decide that players should get nine games instead of four to play and keep their redshirt status.
Coaches are under AFCA direction not to discuss the closed-door session. Still, many outlets get coaches to talk on background, as we did. While most coaches sprint for the exits to avoid the media, one ACC coach told Last Word about how frustrated he was that the group took four hours to decide that, “One very non-critical issue.” One Big 12 coach told us, “For a group that complains about a lot, they sure took a lot of time to decide not very much.”
No one knows what, if anything, the NCAA will do if it finds Ole Miss violated tampering rules in the cases of Clemson and/or Fresno State. And likely every coach in the country is waiting to see. They are just choosing to quietly sit out a pivotal moment in the game that holds their career.
Main Image: The Greenville News
