The real issue with Hauck isn't player misbehavior...

[garizzalies]

Some of you excuse and explain away behavior in Hauck that you'd never excuse if someone in your office did it.

What behavior by Hauck are you talking about?

 

[grizrgood]

Coaches are human and make mistakes in life, on the field etc. I have done some things over the past year that I look back on and think "damn I wish I would've handled that better"! I'm not saying that everyone (BH included) can/will recognize and correct past mistakes but I believe most intelligent people do! Does BH deserve to have is entire body of work judged by his relationship with a few reporters many years ago dictate the rest of his coaching career? It's also difficult more me to understand why so many are holding him directly accountable for the actions of very few players that made dumb and childish decisions just because he recruited them to play football for the U of M. They are young men that probably didn't take the guidance and leadership that was offered. What the hell is he supposed to do that he didn't do? That question could be beat to death about every coach in the country.

 

[bigsky33]

I'm curious about this, since it's my profession, but what relationship with media do you expect your head coach to have? I've had both good and difficult relationships with coaches I've covered, but almost always based on some kind of mutual respect. Even the ones who felt pushed by me at times understood that I came at them from a place of fairness, and if I erred, we discussed it privately. John Harbaugh and I had a lot of discussions like this. He was mad, and then he was conciliatory in private after we hashed it out like men. Reporters used to be able to call Read and Mick at their houses if they really needed reaction to a story. Obviously the times change, and there are uncomfortable elements of modern college culture that maybe didn't exist in the 80s or 90s (like players pistol whipping drug dealers and holding them at gunpoint) but it seems so often "stuff I don't like" gets translated into "stuff that feels biased to me."

Here is what a college coach should do, in my opinion with regards to the media: Teach his players to be respectful and unafraid of speaking with them about non-controversial subjects. If the Kaimin or the Missoulian wants to do a feature on the quarterback, encourage it. This is called preparing them for real life, dealing with people in a professional polite way. If it's a controversial issue, simply tell them to decline comment. "Thanks, I know you have a job to do, but I'm going to refrain from comment here." That's not difficult. It's actually highly beneficial to the school's larger representation. You know who does this? The Naval Academy, realizing this is an important part of molding young men into adults. No players or assistants are ever off limits and neither is practice. Yet somehow they're consistently successful, beating teams with way more talent.

Some of you excuse and explain away behavior in Hauck that you'd never excuse if someone in your office did it. And then dress it up as "don't be a pussy. It's football." Yet somehow NFL coaches handle themselves with maturity and respect all the time. Even Belichick, who can be gruff and dismissive, will give good answers to fair and thoughtful questions. And privately he is often quite friendly with the media.

All the energy spent nursing grudges over petty things can be better directed elsewhere. Men who behave like tyrants eventually make everyone weary. What's strangely ignored by overzealous fans is that college football coaches, by nature, are also educators. If you say they aren't, then let's drop the sham of amateurism. If your student newspaper asks you a question (or series of questions) that's unfair, how is cursing them out in a press conference fulfilling that part of being an educator? Take them aside, tell them what you find unfair, agree to disagree and move on. Who did turning that into a national story benefit? Certainly not the university. At least Hauck had accomplished something at UM when he behave this way though. Stitt closed practices and refused to let the media interview his quarterbacks and many of his players based on his amazing success at a school smaller than most Texas high schools.

You nailed it! I do not agree with PR's response. If Hauck is hired it may mean more wins on the field but will be a negative on the University as a whole. You are right. Most peoples first contact with the University is through attending athletic events. First impressions are lasting impressions!

 

[PlayerRep]

I'm curious about this, since it's my profession, but what relationship with media do you expect your head coach to have? I've had both good and difficult relationships with coaches I've covered, but almost always based on some kind of mutual respect. Even the ones who felt pushed by me at times understood that I came at them from a place of fairness, and if I erred, we discussed it privately. John Harbaugh and I had a lot of discussions like this. He was mad, and then he was conciliatory in private after we hashed it out like men. Reporters used to be able to call Read and Mick at their houses if they really needed reaction to a story. Obviously the times change, and there are uncomfortable elements of modern college culture that maybe didn't exist in the 80s or 90s (like players pistol whipping drug dealers and holding them at gunpoint) but it seems so often "stuff I don't like" gets translated into "stuff that feels biased to me."

Here is what a college coach should do, in my opinion with regards to the media: Teach his players to be respectful and unafraid of speaking with them about non-controversial subjects. If the Kaimin or the Missoulian wants to do a feature on the quarterback, encourage it. This is called preparing them for real life, dealing with people in a professional polite way. If it's a controversial issue, simply tell them to decline comment. "Thanks, I know you have a job to do, but I'm going to refrain from comment here." That's not difficult. It's actually highly beneficial to the school's larger representation. You know who does this? The Naval Academy, realizing this is an important part of molding young men into adults. No players or assistants are ever off limits and neither is practice. Yet somehow they're consistently successful, beating teams with way more talent.

Some of you excuse and explain away behavior in Hauck that you'd never excuse if someone in your office did it. And then dress it up as "don't be a pussy. It's football." Yet somehow NFL coaches handle themselves with maturity and respect all the time. Even Belichick, who can be gruff and dismissive, will give good answers to fair and thoughtful questions. And privately he is often quite friendly with the media.

All the energy spent nursing grudges over petty things can be better directed elsewhere. Men who behave like tyrants eventually make everyone weary. What's strangely ignored by overzealous fans is that college football coaches, by nature, are also educators. If you say they aren't, then let's drop the sham of amateurism. If your student newspaper asks you a question (or series of questions) that's unfair, how is cursing them out in a press conference fulfilling that part of being an educator? Take them aside, tell them what you find unfair, agree to disagree and move on. Who did turning that into a national story benefit? Certainly not the university. At least Hauck had accomplished something at UM when he behave this way though. Stitt closed practices and refused to let the media interview his quarterbacks and many of his players based on his amazing success at a school smaller than most Texas high schools.

You nailed it! I do not agree with PR's response. If Hauck is hired it may mean more wins on the field but will be a negative on the University as a whole. You are right. Most peoples first contact with the University is through attending athletic events. First impressions are lasting impressions!

Hauck is terrific at athletic events and with Griz fans. People really like him. He smiles all the time. He's funny. He's articulate. He has a lot of personality. Many women related well to him.

Wins on the field and the excitement back would be a huge plus for UM. Hauck would automatically bring a lot of (positive) interest to Griz football and UM.

 

[SoldierGriz]

I'm curious about this, since it's my profession, but what relationship with media do you expect your head coach to have? I've had both good and difficult relationships with coaches I've covered, but almost always based on some kind of mutual respect. Even the ones who felt pushed by me at times understood that I came at them from a place of fairness, and if I erred, we discussed it privately. John Harbaugh and I had a lot of discussions like this. He was mad, and then he was conciliatory in private after we hashed it out like men. Reporters used to be able to call Read and Mick at their houses if they really needed reaction to a story. Obviously the times change, and there are uncomfortable elements of modern college culture that maybe didn't exist in the 80s or 90s (like players pistol whipping drug dealers and holding them at gunpoint) but it seems so often "stuff I don't like" gets translated into "stuff that feels biased to me."

Here is what a college coach should do, in my opinion with regards to the media: Teach his players to be respectful and unafraid of speaking with them about non-controversial subjects. If the Kaimin or the Missoulian wants to do a feature on the quarterback, encourage it. This is called preparing them for real life, dealing with people in a professional polite way. If it's a controversial issue, simply tell them to decline comment. "Thanks, I know you have a job to do, but I'm going to refrain from comment here." That's not difficult. It's actually highly beneficial to the school's larger representation. You know who does this? The Naval Academy, realizing this is an important part of molding young men into adults. No players or assistants are ever off limits and neither is practice. Yet somehow they're consistently successful, beating teams with way more talent.

Some of you excuse and explain away behavior in Hauck that you'd never excuse if someone in your office did it. And then dress it up as "don't be a pussy. It's football." Yet somehow NFL coaches handle themselves with maturity and respect all the time. Even Belichick, who can be gruff and dismissive, will give good answers to fair and thoughtful questions. And privately he is often quite friendly with the media.

All the energy spent nursing grudges over petty things can be better directed elsewhere. Men who behave like tyrants eventually make everyone weary. What's strangely ignored by overzealous fans is that college football coaches, by nature, are also educators. If you say they aren't, then let's drop the sham of amateurism. If your student newspaper asks you a question (or series of questions) that's unfair, how is cursing them out in a press conference fulfilling that part of being an educator? Take them aside, tell them what you find unfair, agree to disagree and move on. Who did turning that into a national story benefit? Certainly not the university. At least Hauck had accomplished something at UM when he behave this way though. Stitt closed practices and refused to let the media interview his quarterbacks and many of his players based on his amazing success at a school smaller than most Texas high schools.

You nailed it! I do not agree with PR's response. If Hauck is hired it may mean more wins on the field but will be a negative on the University as a whole. You are right. Most peoples first contact with the University is through attending athletic events. First impressions are lasting impressions!

Yeah, winning will generate poor first impressions. :roll: Dumb post. Stay in the litterbox.

 

[ilovethecats]

if we're so quick to assume that hauck won't roll the conference like he once did because it has changed...why do we also assume that it'll be the exact same when he gets back in terms of off field stuff?

 

[hilinegrizfan]

Coaches are human and make mistakes in life, on the field etc. I have done some things over the past year that I look back on and think "damn I wish I would've handled that better"! I'm not saying that everyone (BH included) can/will recognize and correct past mistakes but I believe most intelligent people do! Does BH deserve to have is entire body of work judged by his relationship with a few reporters many years ago dictate the rest of his coaching career? It's also difficult more me to understand why so many are holding him directly accountable for the actions of very few players that made dumb and childish decisions just because he recruited them to play football for the U of M. They are young men that probably didn't take the guidance and leadership that was offered. What the hell is he supposed to do that he didn't do? That question could be beat to death about every coach in the country.

Exactly. It's so ignorant to blame a coach for the off the field actions of a player. Is he supposed to put tracking devices in them and tuck them in at night? He can only control what they do on the field and the punishment for off the field issues. Which he did.

By this logic, if I were to get a DUI tonight would my boss at work be held accountable? Should he lose his job because he hired me and I got in trouble outside of the workplace?

Anyone who knows or played for bobby is aware that he is probably the biggest disciplinarian out of any coach at UM. He clearly stated the rules and if you broke them you didn't play or were booted from the team. To expect a coach to be responsible for off the field shenanigans of 100 20 year old kids is just plain ignorant.

 

[Yossarian3345]

There is always a vagueness to the unfairness attributed to Kaimin reporters and Missoulian reporters and never specifics. It's often couched with "I don't want to get into it" but then repeated. Certainly journalists make mistakes in tone, or in occasional aggressiveness, or, as my performance on this thread has shown, in spelling. Football coaches make mistakes too, but there is no expectation they own up to them. I've been a player (a bad one), a professor and newspaper advisor (good one), and a journalist (decent one, I think) over the years. I don't think press coverage of what happened at UM was always fair, as I said. As a journalist I would have covered some of the same, but some of it differently. But as an alum, how I'd want my coach to react to that coverage (fair or unfair) is the same. Be mature and respectful while trying to diffuse tension, not escalate it. Brian Billcik used to play the "media is out to get us!" card over and over until people finally realized, man, this dude has no other arrow in his quiver. And then it was over for him. It was a great distraction from the truth that he couldn't develop a quarterback. Bit of a digression, but the point is, great coaches don't have time to nurse weird grievances. They teach. They work. The other stuff is wasted energy. (See: Saban)

These is sometimes this weird allegation on this board that Missoula liberals are anti-football and they won't "get behind the team" and that's reflected in how some people treat the media. That's a shame, because every Montana liberal (-'d I grew up in Missoula so I know many) likes the Griz a great deal. As I saw on another thread, literally every bar has Griz stuff on the walls. Everyone owns Griz gear if some kind. It seems what a lot of fans want is to root for players who aren't doing bad things, people they can feel good about rooting for and spending money supporting. In truth, we all want this, but asking the administration and the head coach to deal with this professionally is weirdly cast as being anti-Griz. Isn't that weird? If you love the Griz, wouldn't you want them to be the best representation of Montana's values?

Here is what I'll say about Hauck as a coach. Great at understanding defense and special teams. I miss the old dynamic Griz offenses. I'm sure after Stitt's sloppy run there is a strong desire to see more on the field discipline return in those areas. So I get the longing. I'm hopeful he can understand this time around he represents the entire university, though, not just people who think he can do no wrong.

 

[SoldierGriz]

if we're so quick to assume that hauck won't roll the conference like he once did because it has changed...why do we also assume that it'll be the exact same when he gets back in terms of off field stuff?

Here's what I know - new streak begins next season. Get ready for it.

 

[PlayerRep]

See new thread on how much the UNLV student newspaper sports reporters loved Hauck.

 

[Jack bradley]

We would all like to go back to the good old days like it was. Was told by an old man; "in life you can't go back". Sure hope they search the country for new, young blood. There is no instant fix.

 

[ilovethecats]

if we're so quick to assume that hauck won't roll the conference like he once did because it has changed...why do we also assume that it'll be the exact same when he gets back in terms of off field stuff?

Here's what I know - new streak begins next season. Get ready for it.

possibly.

here's what I know...
hauck will be your head coach.
he instantly brings excitement to the conference.
he won't win the conference every damn year like last time
he won't tolerate off-field idiocy
his "I hate everything Bozeman" drivel will lose it's luster because he inquired about coaching here...

congrats

 

[garizzalies]

Some of you excuse and explain away behavior in Hauck that you'd never excuse if someone in your office did it.

What behavior by Hauck are you talking about?

There is always a vagueness to the unfairness attributed to Kaimin reporters and Missoulian reporters and never specifics. It's often couched with "I don't want to get into it" but then repeated.

 

[jtgriz2]

if we're so quick to assume that hauck won't roll the conference like he once did because it has changed...why do we also assume that it'll be the exact same when he gets back in terms of off field stuff?

Here's what I know - new streak begins next season. Get ready for it.

possibly.

here's what I know...
hauck will be your head coach.
he instantly brings excitement to the conference.
he won't win the conference every damn year like last time
he won't tolerate off-field idiocy
his "I hate everything Bozeman" drivel will lose it's luster because he inquired about coaching here...

congrats

Damn I agree with everything except the drivel comment (it will gain luster)...And with a bobkittie fan to boot...WTF??? :lol: