Say what?! Translating the peak college football coachspeak from Week 2
By John Buhler
College football coaches tell us things without actually saying anything.
If you can learn to interpret college football coachspeak, you can claim you are bilingual.
Saturday was glorious, as we saw the ACC and the Big 12 back in action on the gridiron. While it was a great day for most ACC programs, it was a rough weekend for those who root for teams that aren’t exactly Big 12 blue-bloods. From Tom Herman to Mike Norvell, I have looked at their post-game pressers and have interpreted what they were trying to tell us after Saturday’s games.
Get smarter on Tuesday by learning how to interpret college coachspeak.
Lincoln Riley on Spencer Rattler’s first start as Oklahoma’s quarterback
“I think just his overall poise and game,” said Riley. “Some guys can get too up for these things, especially your first one, and I thought he handled it the right way. I mean, he certainly had energy and juice, but he didn’t let that consume him and he didn’t try to do too much and that’s always some of your chief concerns.”
“I’m proud of the way he handled the situation. Your first start is always an experience and an emotion that you can’t really duplicate or predict until you just go in there and truly experience it. So I think his kind of calmness and poise allowed him to have a clear mind and make a lot of good decisions.”
Coachspeak translator: Even though it was Bobby Petrino’s overmatched Missouri State Bears Spencer Rattler put a whooping on, what Lincoln Riley is implying is Rattler has the overall composure to his game to allow his Oklahoma Sooners to play for a national title in the next year or so. Rattler may have the talent of Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray but has the awareness of Jalen Hurts to win big at OU.
Tom Herman on spreading the ball around at receiver offensively this season
“Spreading the wealth is probably going to be a common theme,” said Herman. “We don’t have a guy like Devin Duvernay right now, but we have a few guys that are plenty good enough to make a difference in a game.”
“I thought Mike Yurcich had a good plan for the game. We were fairly inconsistent at receiver during camp. We wanted to find out who was made of what and really proud of how that unit stood up.”
Coachspeak translator: By adding Mike Yurcich as the Texas Longhorns’ new offensive coordinator, quarterback Sam Ehlinger will push for a Heisman Trophy and see his draft stock rise by virtue of spreading the ball around in this Air Raid system. If he can be a better version of Dak Prescott at Mississippi State, Ehlinger may end up getting drafted as his as Tim Tebow did coming out of Florida back in 2010.
Dabo Swinney on his talented group of freshmen
“This is a really, really good group,” said Swinney. “I’m going to be surprised four or five years from now if this doesn’t really prove to be what they were on paper. They were the No. 1 class in the country for a reason.”
Coachspeak translator: Dabo Swinney expects Bryan Bresee and D.J. Uiagalelei to win national championships at Clemson as their star players in two years. Both played, as well as third-string quarterback Taisun Phommachanh, in Saturday’s blowout victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. With elite recruiting on their side, who is going to beat the team with an SEC roster playing an ACC schedule?
Mike Norvell on Florida State’s upset home loss to Georgia Tech
“Disappointed and hurting for our guys,” said Norvell. “Obviously, we missed out on some opportunities tonight. We struggled to sustain momentum. We struggled to sustain drives. Had some missed opportunities throughout the course of the game. It was definitely heartbreaking to come up short in that one. I think our guys definitely battled throughout.”
Coachspeak translator: Norvell is admitting his Florida State offense was terrible and was the biggest factor why the Seminoles were upset at home by the Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech. While he does have respect for Yellow Jackets head coach Geoff Collins, his team didn’t respect the rebuilding ACC Coastal team from Atlanta and paid a big price for it on Saturday in Tallahassee.
Brian Kelly on running Kyren Williams’ performance in victory over Duke
“He did something that hasn’t been done here in 25 years,” said Kelly. “So, I mean from that perspective, receiving yards over 90, rushing yards over 90, pretty good opener for him. There’s a lot that he can build off of this, certainly.”
“I just think that for an opener, that’s a really good performance and something to build off of. Certainly, there’s a number of run reads and blitz pickups and things of that nature that he’s going to get a great, I think, learning curve from, but obviously a really good day.”
Coachspeak translator: Ian Book may get the bulk of the notoriety regarding the 2020 Notre Dame football team, but the reason the Irish will contend with Clemson for the ACC Championship this year is because of running back Kyren Williams. He doesn’t have to be Travis Etienne, but if he can put together performances as he had against Duke, Notre Dame can get back into the College Football Playoff.
The constant with these five Power 5 programs are new faces making an impact, mostly good, but some bad. While the young talent may elevate teams like Clemson and Oklahoma even further, a dearth of it may lead to a rough season for Norvell at Florida State. If what we saw out of Notre Dame and Texas is sustainable, maybe they’ll be the ones to crash the playoff party in January?
We’re only getting started in this year, so we have plenty to learn by interpreting coachspeak.
For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.