July 24, 2008
Quotable coaches
Sometimes, the first day of the Big Ten meetings can be interminable. Eleven coaches, one after the other, getting up and droning on about how excited they are about the season, etc and blah blah blah.
There was some of that today, but there were plenty of spicy moments as well:
*** Tops among them was Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. My colleague Bill Rabinowitz is working on a story for the paper, so I won't go into great detail, but Rodriguez addressed many of the issues he's dealt with over the past seven months.
I thought personally he said more than he should have said, but hey, it's great copy, so I'm not complaining. One thing of local interest was he said the toughest thing to deal with was the allegation of "eroding family values" leveled by outgoing guard Justin Boren, a Pickerington native who transferred to Ohio State.
Rodriguez opened with an ill-advised joke. In February, Purdue coach Joe Tiller got upset with Rodriguez stealing a recruit from him, referring to "a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil." Today, Rodriguez said, "I've been working all summer on my snake-oil concoction that I've been trying to give to Joe."
*** Penn State octogenarian Joe Paterno got fed up with repeated questions about when he might retire. Finally, flailing his arms, he screeched, "I don't know! Do you want me to spell that for you?" And then he did.
*** Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald on the increased expectations his program faces now: "Back in 1993 when I arrived (as a player), if we would have had six wins, we would have had a parade down Central Street, shut it down and had a big purple party here in Chicago. And things are changed and I'm excited about that."
*** Illinois coach Ron Zook acknowledged his challenge now, after a surprise 9-4 season, was to make sure the Illini aren't a "one and done" team.
*** If you're looking for who might be this year's Illini-like Cinderella story, I personally think Michigan State is a team to watch. They return a pretty decent QB (Brian Hoyer) and a stud running back (Javon Ringer), but most important, they are a sound football team under a very good coach, Mark Dantonio, entering his second season. The Spartans are building.