It was a long and emotional week in Arkansas in November 1998. Razors were further staggered by a 28-24 loss to No. 1 Tennessee a few days earlier. Then-coach Houston Nutt was trying to convince his team to advance to a game at Mississippi State that could win the SEC West and a rematch with the Vols.
“I met with the team 48 hours before the game – just me and them – and said, ‘Hey guys, let’s go to bed (early),’” Nutt recalled in a recent phone conversation with USA TODAY Sports. “Then my starting kicker gets a DUI that night.
It’s the kind of scenario that has tormented college coaches for generations: A player breaks a team rule, breaks a law or makes headlines for embarrassing reasons. Some media and administrators are pushing to punish the player in the name of upholding standards and to send the message that athletes do not receive preferential treatment.
And yet, the coach knows that excluding the player from matches as punishment could not only hurt the team’s chances of winning, but also jeopardize its future. own job.
Nutt ended up suspending the kicker, Todd Latourette, who was one of the best in the SEC that year. And without a kicker he trusted, Nutt missed several field goal opportunities, including one from 36 yards out. Arkansas lost 22-21, and Nutt has regretted it for a quarter century.
“I hurt a good team,” he said. “I even had a few seniors come up to me before the game and say, ‘Hey Coach, if you let him go on a trip, we’ll take responsibility and run him for you.’ We’re going to make him vomit on Sunday.
“I would give anything to say, ‘That’s a great idea.’ »
If the same scenario had happened today, Nutt might have had a different solution at his disposal. As top college athletes make more and more money from so-called booster collectives that recruit players to give them a name, image and likeness, the idea of fining players for misconduct has gained traction in the college sports ecosystem.
In other words, just as college football has emulated the NFL in recruiting, training, analytics and even player compensation, it’s no surprise that coaches and administrations are turning to sanctions financial as a form of discipline rather than traditional remedies such as suspensions or marches from the stadium. .
“We think it’s effective,” said a Power Conference athletic director, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about how the issue could be used as a weapon against their school during recruitment. “We think that got (the players’) attention.”
There are, of course, many issues that would require a more serious response than fines. An accusation of sexual assault or domestic violence, especially when a player has been accused of a crime, such as Georgia wide receiver Colbie Youngshould be handled by policies that eliminate any temptation for a school to put that player on the field while a case is pending.
But college coaches have long been mythologized as all-knowing arbiters of right and wrong, charged by administrations and fans alike to be father figures, mentors, protectors and – yes – judges and juries on matters outside ground.
This role has not necessarily served coaches well as a profession. When an athlete makes a mistake but continues to play, it fuels a deep cynicism that the coach’s only interest is winning at the expense of everything else. But when a coach suspends a key player and loses, will he get credit for sticking to his principles?
Don’t count on it – not in today’s “win-now” culture.
“When I started, they gave you maybe a five-year window, but that’s closed,” Nutt said. “Now it’s two, maybe three at most, and we have to see the results.”
There are signs that college coaches are actually eager to shed the disciplinary burden that has long been considered one of the most important parts of their jobs.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy appeared to be one of those coaches at Big 12 media days while explaining why he didn’t suspend star running back Ollie Gordon over a driving arrest drunk this summer.
Although Gundy also engaged in clumsy pretzel logic that drew backlash for appearing to downplay drunk driving, he repeatedly referred to the fact that Gordon makes NIL money and that the best decision for Oklahoma State football would be for him to play.
“We can say these guys are not employees, but they really are employees,” Gundy said. “These guys get paid a lot of money, which is good. But there has to be an edge to what they’re doing for them to be able to, for lack of a better term, face the music and own things.
Although he failed to put it perfectly clearly, there is a reasonable argument that Gundy is right: while Gordon may be a student representing a university, he is a grown man who earns well over six figures to play football.
Are his poor choices off the field a reflection of Gundy or Oklahoma State football? Is it reasonable to put your teammates in danger of losing a match? And perhaps more clearly, what is the impact of the withdrawal of a player on the collective responsible for paying him?
When it comes to money, it becomes a more complex mix of agendas and incentives.
“I think the majority of coaches would say, ‘It’s basically the NFL now,’” Nutt said. “And at the end of the day, they’re paid, they’re employees, so you’re going to treat them like that. What strikes them is not so much the running of a stadium – although I’m sure they still do that – but it’s the wallet. I can see how that would be a real motivator.
This question has always marked major divisions between college and professional football. No one will hold Mike McDaniel responsible if a Miami Dolphins player is arrested. No one would accuse John Harbaugh of having a poor locker room culture in Baltimore if there were any off-the-field embarrassments.
And yet, this has long been the default narrative for some coaches like Urban Meyer after a series of horrific incidents in Florida or, now, Kirby Smart in Georgia after a series of arrests and citations of players for reckless driving, excessive of speed, running and aggression.
“In high school, if a person makes a mistake, it’s the parents’ fault. If a person makes a mistake in the NFL, it’s the player’s fault. And in college, it was the player’s fault “coach and that’s probably still the case because that’s how people look at him,” said Todd Berry, former president of the American Football Coaches Association and longtime college coach. “If you wanted a change in behavior, the best way to achieve it was with playing time. Now, that’s not really the case because of (transfer freedom). So I think you’ll see “Some coaches handle this differently because the whole problem is how do you get this change in behavior? For some it might be about money.”
Although Georgia doesn’t talk in detail about a fine structure or how that has correlated with the number of arrests, Smart suggested at SEC press days this year that his program is moving in that direction. to try to reduce the number of off-field incidents.
“I actually think the best key is the pocket because you look at what the NFL has done, their model is set,” Smart said. “If you ask any of our players what they’d rather have, they want their money. When I say substantial, it’s very substantial in terms of the hits that some guys took.
A less generous reading of this comment – especially in light of the fact that Georgia’s reckless driving problems have persisted even this season with the arrest of cornerback Daniel Harris in September – would be that Smart welcomes something that he can use as a deterrent for misconduct other than suspensions that could jeopardize his championship aspirations.
But Smart also clarified that the fines imposed by the Georgian collective do not fall under its jurisdiction. As an NFL coach, he can focus primarily on football and leave the moral dilemmas and off-the-field drama behind. After all, they’re not paying her $13 million a year to be a nanny.
“Coach (Frank) Broyles would always tell me,” Nutt said, referring to his legendary athletic director and coach at Arkansas, “’Houston, I really like the way your players are graduating, I love the way they get involved in the community. But remember, I pay you to win.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken
This article was originally published on USA TODAY Sports: College football coaches have a new way to discipline players: fine them
