Pac-12 Coaches Respond To Jason Collins, Gay College Football Players

With Jason Collins recently coming out as the first openly gay athlete in one of the four major American sports, everyone has been weighing in on the subject from across the sporting spectrum. Stewart Mandel is currently at the Pac-12 meetings in Phoenix (where one topic being discussed is the subject of eight game conference schedules) and was able to accrue some quotes from several football coaches.

Stanford head coach David Shaw was the most progressive voice on the subject:

"I'm more excited about the reaction to his announcement than the announcement itself," Shaw said Tuesday. "Hopefully we'll eventually get to the point of, who cares? Can he play with his back to the basket? Can he play defense? Can the kid sack the quarterback? Whatever time frame it is until we get to that point, hopefully it's sooner than later."

Cal head coach Sonny Dykes issued a more matter-of-fact statement, saying that it'll probably be inevitable that someone in the sport of football (or on the team) will come out and admit to their sexual preference.

"It's gonna happen," said Cal coach Sonny Dykes,. "This will be the first step in people being more comfortable in talking about these types of things."

Dykes also seemed to accept the reality of the situation.

#Cal's Sonny Dykes on whether he thinks he's coached gay players before: "I would definitely say we all have at some pt."

— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) April 30, 2013

Steve Sarkisian seemed to take a wider viewpoint and look at how his student-athletes would view a player admitting to a non-familiar sexual identity.

"As college football coaches, we're educators first," said Washington coach Steve Sarkisian. "This is another example for us to continually educate our young people to continue to live the right way in our society."

Jim Mora has already lended his voice to the subject in a video he did with UCLA athletics.

You Can Play UCLA Student Athletes (via MrRecoy84)