re: Number 48 for Miles

quote:

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If that's the case, I offer the gold standard of competent speaking, Bear Bryant. His mumbled replies through a haze of cigarette smoke were generally unintelligible and typically not too profound. But, he did wear his hat at a jaunty angle if you were arguing for the "looking competent" criterion and, as an aside, he did win a few games (and even managed to lose some too).

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This anecdote is really inapposite and inapt. Bear Bryant experienced the majority of his success during an era that was vastly different than the current college football climate. Due to the advent of the Internet and virtually uninterrupted television coverage of college football, it is critically import to be mediagenic and convey competence through public appearances. Such appearances influence the media's perception of your program, determine the brand of your program, have an appreciable direct and indirect impact on recruiting, and also mold the expectations and attitudes of your fanbase. Many of the most successful modern coaches use the media masterfully. Pete Carroll is the most obvious example, but Saban and Meyer excel as well.

Now, is competent management of public appearances a sine qua non of a great modern coach? Perhaps not. However, it is indisputably HELPFUL. To pretend that we still linger in an epoch when college football was covered regionally by ink-stained beat writers who beneficently edited the words of husky voiced grunters is somewhat delusional.

(Finally, let me say that I believe that Miles has improved in this arena over his tenture at LSU.)