One of those moments when you wish you weren’t there.
The way Charlie Strong reacted to the question from WAVE-TV’s Kent Taylor Monday about whether the coach felt his Louisville football team was a BCS team was a little unsettling.
The question should not have been whether UofL is a BCS team. Of course it is, as long as it’s in a BCS Conference. The issue is whether Louisville is ready for a BCS bowl.
Strong looked at the questioner, paused and smiled, then started chuckling, spontaneously. He hadn’t anticipated the question and it took him by surprise. There was no coach-speak in his answer, no intent of sending a message to any players.
His reaction struck me as one of those off-camera moments, like a comment an individual has when he or she doesn’t know the mic is hot and video is on … except that the microphone was on and the cameras were rolling. Was he laughing at them, with them, or about them?
“If we’re fortunate enough to make it to a BCS bowl game, we’ll have them ready to go play,” he said. “But we’re probably not just yet ready to go, but if we get there. If you finish last in your class, they still call you doctor. So we’ll be that doctor.”
Strong has told his players more than a couple of times this season that they weren’t very good. But he was in their faces at the time, speaking directly to them. What said in the locker room stays in the locker room. This was a little different. His team may have a way to go, but his players have also made unbelievable strides forward.
A moment in time, no laughing matter, probably best forgotten. He will have them ready, regardless.
What Charlie has demonstrated throughout his tenure is his deep affection for his players. With that in mind, it seems unlikely he was laughing at them. My perspective is that he is pleased, somewhat amused and certainly surprised by what they have been able to accomplish. As a Cardinal fan, I have certainly been laughing with my friends about our possible bowl destinations given we started 2-4.
Howard Shellenberg once said that his losing players “might be dogs but they were his dogs”. Again I think to much has been made about Coach Strong’s comments!
Maybe I’m being a little too sensitive but I wouldn’t want the coach laughing about my teammates. It seemed demeaning for a coach to be joking about the talent level of his team. If they start agreeing with him that they aren’t a BCS bowl team, they may practice that way. It could be argued, however, that when he puts them down, they come back strong. However, he’s not above criticism even when he’s winning.
You are reading way too much into this. Nowhere in that tiny quote does he reference or even infer his team isn’t talented enough. He didn’t say they aren’t talented enough or that they aren’t a BCS team, just that they aren’t “ready” for it yet. It is the same thing Rick Pitino would tell you if you asked him if his team is a Final Four team now. Strong knows how talented they are, but also knows how immature, young, and injured they are.
Charlie is blunt and he is realistic. He is a coach with 2 national titles who has been to multiple BCS games. He knows what it takes for a team to be at that level. He also can see that his team isn’t there yet. If they go to a BCS bowl, he’s not going to fight it and he’s going to prepare them for whoever they would face, but he’s also not going to sugar coat it and tell them they are one of the best teams in the country. They aren’t, not yet. They lack maturity, experience, a cohesive offense (with a stable coordinator), and poise. They are winning on the road, but not at home. They are beating teams they shouldn’t, but also losing to teams they shouldn’t also.
Again the doctor reference was originally from Eric Crawford, so you can take up beef about that with him.
I do not see the problem with Coach Strong’s comments.
It’s great that Coach feels confident enough about his job here that he doesn’t have to resort to coach-speak. It’s also good that he sees room for vast improvement among our kids–to a point where we WILL be ‘worthy’ opponents for the top ten or twenty teams. Personally, I think there is room for improvement among the coaching staff as well–but that’s just me. Overall, it’s been a very positive step on the road back to respectiblilty.
I think it’s great to have a coach that doesn’t speak like a wind up coach doll. And I hope things go well enough that he is laughing here for years and years.
FWIW…Would rather have Charlie laughing and happy right now instead of skulking around arranging clandestine meetings with A.D.’s from SEC schools…keep laughing, Mr. Strong.
I’m surprised you took offense to this. Most people I’ve talked to dismissed this or simply enjoyed the coach laughing. He gave an honest answer to that question. He doesn’t believe that this team, riddled with young talent, is ready for a BCS game. He’s not talking about talent wise, just such an immature, inexperienced team might not handle it very well. This is a team that can’t handle the pressure of winning at HOME, a BCS game might be too much too soon for this team.
The “doctor” reference was something he took from one of Eric Crawford’s articles on the subject of UofL going to a BCS game. It wasn’t a slight towards his players, just the truth on how the rest of the league views the Big East. A conference with a BCS birth that shouldn’t have it.