On the Call in the Pac-12 Conference

College football coaches tend to talk to the media and fans in what I like to call “coach speak”. Coach speak is simply giving answers that are pretty mundane. The coaches don’t say anything controversial. Coaches don’t want to give the media, opposing teams, or opposing fans anything to chomp at for their upcoming game.

Today on the conference call was really no different than any other conference call.

Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre who has the surprise team in the conference was upbeat about his team. Winning tends to make coaches be a bit more optimistic about their teams chances going into any game.

“The young kids have got a taste of winning and they want more of it.” Coach MacIntyre explained.

Kyle Whittingham of the Utah Utes was relieved to get out of Corvallis with a win last weekend. His team’s next opponent are the UCLA Bruins who currently sit at a record of 3-4. That doesn’t worry Whittingham.

What does worry Coach Whittingham?

The talent that UCLA still possesses.

“We have told the players that the Bruins are still a team to reckon with. That 3-4 record doesn’t mean that they can’t beat us. We have to play a complete game to win.” Whittingham said.

When listening to Stanford head coach David Shaw one is struck by his soft spoken manner and his honesty. He’s one of these coaches that thinks on a different level than many other coaches.

He likes to talk about how clean his team plays. He was happy with the win, but not with how clean his team was against Notre Dame.

“Special teams were good for us. Offensively we had turnovers, penalties. Things that made life tough for us. Defensively, we made stops, but we still need to clean up some things on defense.” Shaw said.

The coach that made the most noise was UCLA head coach Jim Mora.

Last week in the Bruins loss at Washington State there were some people who thought that UCLA were warming up on the Cougar side of the field. Washington State wide receiver Gabe Marks made some comments in reference to the Bruins warming up in Cougar territory. That is were Coach Mora differed in opinion.

“He is misinformed.” Mora said of Gabe Marks remarks.

That set off the twitter universe. Pictures were tweeted showing that Gabe Marks may have been correct in his view of this controversy. Some people were calling Mora a loser for not acknowledging he was wrong.

Nobody is going to get Coach Mora to admit this at all. Mora is not worried about this. He’s more concerned with wins and losses.

At the end of the day, nothing was said that was way out of the ordinary. These coaches are looking to win their next game and then move onto the next game. The coaches don’t want to put bulletin board material up for the opposing team.