Last Chance U: HC yelling at assistants

I often wonder if guys like your friend have their experience shaped by having a "lesser" motor than the headers.   Not that means they are inaccurate in their assessment of the disposition of the coaches (being A-holes) but I do think that some of it may be because they don't operate at the same level of intensity either.  

I have a kid at Indy that played for me and graduated 2 years ago.  Not scripted 100% real.  "Coach, Coach Brown cusses everyone out his favorite word is MF'er he even cussed his own mom out on the practice field one day."

Well he did kick the Michigan bounce back off.... Kingston the RB... so not entirely true.  

$heeeit so would I, but like you said, the stories he told me, man i think if wind up losing that job

give me 150 a year and i might be ok with that

As others have said, it's a like a lot of things: is it being done in moderation or all the time, is it being done for a reason or just because you/the HC is throwing a temper tantrum, and does it have the intended effect? Nick Saban chews out assistants all the time because (1) he can, he's Nick Saban, (2) the assistants will take it (they are being paid a lot, get to coach at Alabama and it's great on the resume, (3) because usually (I'm told) there's a specific message Saban is trying to get across, and if saying it quietly doesn't work he's not afraid to yell it and (4) he (I'm told) will chew out assistants as a way to send messages to players (something Bill Walsh -- another guy who people said was not easy to coach for -- used to do a lot and talked about a lot). Indeed, Walsh said he'd frequently step into a drill if he saw players without good technique or some other issue and rip the coach in front of his position group, on the theory that it would actually bond the assistant and his players because they'd see their coach getting ripped for something they were responsible for and they'd often try harder for their assistants, so long as Walsh was picking out something real (and coachable).

Does that work? Probably, or at least a lot of the time. Are (3) and (4) more important... or (1) and (2)? Can you do (3) and (4) if you're not Nick Saban or Bill Walsh? Do a lot of coaches yell and scream just because they can, not because they have a point? Probably? Also, football is a game for people with thick skins, but I think we all know there's a lot of "football behavior" that probably wouldn't fly in just about any other environment (which might be good or bad).

The upshot is selective yelling ("ass chewings") is another tool in a head coach's toolbox to get people (players and coaches) to perform at the maximum of their capability, but I'm guessing that at least more than 50% of it is probably unnecessarily and often counter productive.

sounds like my first year varsity position in 2009....

Great post. Something that’s not being explored is that other sports have the same crap happen. We had a baseball coach at a small college in the state get recorded basically calling all of his team lazy pieces OS. The way I put it was tame.

Football is just the big thing to talk about these days

Yeah I don't know if id still be employed if someone smacked my headset off especially on national TV, my biggest pet peeve was always those guys who think they can kick your ass just because they are your boss.

Heard he not only refused to do the interview, but  threw a reporter out of not just his office but wanted him escorted off campus for "daring to wear a blue shirt in his office" .

One story I was told second hand so take it or what its worth, 

A coach around here coaches one of the top HS programs in the country, perennial powerhouse , was invited there for a camp and clinic, so they go up, when he arrived there Meyer is nowhere to be seen

They get ready to attend practice, Meyer comes out , completely ignored him and his staff , he says OK I get it , so they sit and observe quietly, he said he walks around with what amounts to body guards, so he didnt approach until practice was over ...."Urb" a he calls him was standing there watching his players leave, with one other coach , so he walked over and felt he maybe should introduce himself and thank Meyer for bringing them up etc....

Meyer , told him to basically go away , and told him "look unless you have something to offer me (player wise) then deal with my assistants" the "guards" then ask the coach to step away and nobody saw him after that.

He vowed to never deal with him again  

Considering he was walking towards him, it doesn't stand up.

if you ever read Urban Meyer's book the stuff written here makes sense. Football is my passion so I read a lot of books. I have read 2 saban books, 1 Bobby Bowden, Lombardi, ect. But Urban's book is all Me, Me, ME, Me....I read it after a book on Bear Bryant, and I was like "wow what a ego maniac".....

I don't think Harbaugh is an a-hole. I do think he is nuts, though.

Harbaugh doesn't come off as an {censored} to me either. Although, at times he seems aloof. Possibly he's in his own head with his thoughts because there are times when he comes across as just odd or different.