Larry Brown Sports

Stanford head coach David Shaw was understandably thrilled when his team defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl on Sunday, but he didn’t need to take it out on ESPN reporter Heather Cox. By that, I mean Shaw could have simply taken a few minutes for an interview. Typically the network that hosted the game is given that luxury, but Shaw wanted nothing to do with it.

As you can see from the video above, Shaw was in a hurry to get to the trophy presentation. In his defense, it appeared he was being rushed along. Cox was obviously unhappy about it, as evidenced by the audio you heard of her saying, “Are you kidding?”

Shaw conducted the interview later, but the awkward exchange was entertaining. Cox clearly isn’t accustomed to that happening. Had she used the Holly Rowe approach to getting an interview, the Stanford coach and his cronies probably would have known she meant business.

Nick Saban has never been known as a media-friendly coach, but his response to Heather Cox during a halftime interview on Saturday was rude even for his standards.

Bama was leading Michigan 31-7 at the half and running backs T.J. Yeldon, Jalston Fowler, and Eddie Lacy had all seen action. Cox decided to make that the focus of her halftime interview as Saban was coming off the field.

Here’s how their exchange went:

Cox: Offensively you do have three running backs that are making an impact. How does running back-by-committee help your offense?

Saban: I don’t think it’s running back-by-committee. I think it’s a lot of good players getting an opportunity to play, so, you know, I don’t know what’s wrong with that.

Easy there, Saban. Nobody said there’s anything wrong with it. The only thing that’s wrong is you lashing out against Cox over an issue of semantics. She was throwing you a softball question that was a lead-in to praise your running backs, but instead you bite her head off. I’m not sure if Saban dislikes the term “running back-by-committee” for recruiting purposes, but that was really overboard.

I’ve always been against in-game interviews because I feel like they are extraordinarily invasive and that they add very little to telecasts, but there’s still no reason why Saban had to react the way he did. Now you know exactly why high school players voted him the most intimidating coach in the country.

Video via Ride The Pine