Say what?! Translating the peak college football coachspeak from Week 4 – Mike Leach delivers gold

You’re not going to believe what these five college football coaches said.

It was the SEC’s first week back playing, so the college football coachspeak was in rare form.

With seven SEC games on tap, there were plenty of reasons to watch these magnificent seven contests. Fate would have it the No. 6 LSU Tigers were upset at home by the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Though the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs overcame a terrible first half to beat the Arkansas Razorbacks, the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners fell to the Kansas State Wildcats in the Big 12.

Interpreting college football coachspeak is a skill akin to winning bingo.

Lincoln Riley on his Oklahoma team being upset by Kansas State for the second year in a row.

“We just made critical errors that gave them a chance,” said Riley. “Give [coach] Chris [Klieman] and Kansas State a lot of credit. When we made errors, he made us pay.”

Coachspeak Translator: Lincoln Riley is implying his team isn’t as good as he thought it was. Expecting to win their sixth straight Big 12 Championship, Oklahoma needs to win out and the Texas Longhorn’s only loss be to them in the Red River Rivalry. Even more telling, he recognizes that Chris Klieman is already doing more with less at Kansas State, so this could be an issue now.

Mike Leach on Mississippi State getting a huge road upset vs. No. 6 LSU in Death Valley.

“It’s better than average,” said Leach. “I’ll tell you that…That’s a lot of ghosts in this stadium. We played LSU because New England (Patriots), Green Bay and (Kansas City) Chiefs had somebody scheduled, so we played these guys. I’m really proud of these guys. I thought we played real well. We stuck in there during tough times and won the game.”

Coachspeak Translator: Mike Leach knew darn well if he ever got SEC talent to play and buy into his Air Raid offense, these are the type of performances he could expect. In just his first game at Mississippi State, he gave the university an unquestioned top-10 win in program history. With the likes of quarterback K.J. Costello and running back Kylin Hill, “The Pirate” isn’t afraid of anyone.

Ed Orgeron on getting upset at home by an unranked Mississippi State team as the No. 6 team.

“We have no excuses,” said Orgeron. “I told the team we’re going to find out what we’re made of,” Orgeron said. “Let’s go back to work.”

Coachspeak Translator: Ed Orgeron got a rude awakening 2020 is not 2019. While it’s too early to compare this year’s team to the atrocious 2012 Auburn Tigers, there is a reason this comparison is in the back of our minds. Orgeron has plenty of clout to get this right, but he has to wonder about the mental toughness of his football team. Are they ready to work or are they entitled?

Kirby Smart on Georgia’s reasoning behind switching from D’Wan Mathis to Stetson Bennett IV.

“We were on the headphones and we talked and we said we were struggling offensively,” said Smart. “We didn’t have a lot of rhythm and felt like we needed to change some things up. I don’t know how many drives we were into with D’Wan, it felt like five, maybe six, I don’t know how many total it was before we went with Stetson.”

“We just thought it would give us some energy. There are some things that he can do well and he’s different than D’Wan in some of his experience. It gave us a spark. It helped us out. He’s very decisive with the ball. He makes good decisions. He understands what the defense is trying to do to him. Getting to watch them a little defensively I think helped him.”

“Right now going forward we’ll decide this week how we’ll go forward. We’ve got to go back and watch the tape. Not all of those things that went wrong were D’Wan’s fault. I know a lot of people will blame D’Wan, fans, media, whatever, but at the end of the day, it’s on all of us to get it right. Not all those were bad decisions. Not all of those were bad throws.”

Coachspeak Translator: Kirby Smart did not anticipate D’Wan Mathis being this overwhelmed by the moment. He may have crushed it in practice, but this is an SEC road football game. Going with Stetson Bennett IV late in the first half was the right call. However, Smart knows they probably can’t win big with either of them, which is why it’s so critical for JT Daniels to start playing soon.

Nick Saban on the importance of getting true freshman Bryce Young live-game reps this early.

“I think it will be helpful in terms of his learning curve,” said Saban. “He’s the backup quarterback so we have to get him ready to play as well. We probably sacrificed a little bit offensively by giving him the opportunity to do that. Obviously, he was a little anxious out there in terms of how he played. It will be something to learn from.”

Coachspeak Translator: Nick Saban essentially told us Bryce Young isn’t close to overtaking Mac Jones as the Alabama Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback. While those live reps were big, he struggled against a quality Missouri Tigers defense on the road in his SEC debut. Though Jones looked impressive in his first start of the season, we may not see Young start games in 2020.

If we’re looking for a theme this week, it would be the importance of having confidence in the starting quarterback. While Leach and Saban seem to have that in spades, Riley recognizes Spencer Rattler isn’t a Heisman Trophy contender, Orgeron has come to grips with Myles Brennan not being Joe Burrow and Smart really needs Daniels to be fully healthy and star for the Dawgs.

Leach talking after the Mississippi State victory was everything we could have wanted and more.

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