Coach V Show

The speaker discusses two topics: Coach Prime and the best team in college football. He talks about his history as a Florida State fan and his admiration for Coach Prime. He expresses some concerns about Coach Prime denouncing his ties to Florida State now that he is coaching at an HBCU. The speaker also acknowledges Coach Prime's success at Colorado and praises him for turning the team around. Hey, everybody. How you doing? Hey, this is Coach V. Today, I'm going to discuss two specific topics that got me kind of burning, so I want to get that off my chest and get that to you. You are more than welcome to throw some opinions and give me some of your own thoughts in the comment section, but I want to talk about Coach Prime. I know everybody's doing that. This is my first show, and I haven't touched that topic. I just kind of sat back and watched and said, I'm going to wait and touch on that when it's my time to make my first show. And then I want to talk about the best team, I feel, at least in my opinion, the best team in college football right now. And it's going to shock some people because of my history with college football and who I like and don't like, and that's all right. But I'm going to get into that. But I got stats to back all that up. And I coach football, so I kind of look at things from a coach's perspective. I understand what makes a great team, a sound team, efficient team from a defensive, offensive, and special teams perspective. And it's not just, you know, I'm not just somebody that's just making a video trying to tell you who I think is the best based on scores and, you know, margin of victory and, oh, my God, they blew this team out, but almost, well, I don't care about none of that mess. I'm looking at all the statistics that coaches use to determine how well a team is playing, how a team that's not playing well, so we're going to dive into that. I'm going to give you a little bit of background on me. I'm born and raised from Detroit and then moved out to the West Coast over 20 years ago. Haven't really looked back. I will say I do miss home. The older I get, there's something about home that attracts me more and more than it ever did. I have a son now and we talk about that a lot. Like I said, I'm from Detroit and I look forward to going back and visiting and taking him home. He talks about just today he was actually playing soccer in my living room. It's kind of a boys' playroom, so basketball hoop up here, soccer net, and I hear him over there and he's talking about the Lions are playing against the, oh my God, who was the other team he was saying? Shoot, I forget now, but it was the Lions was playing against somebody and I was like, I'm surprised that he's saying the Lions and not my team. I'm a 49er fan. So I was surprised to hear that, but I know he hears about Detroit a lot and that he started to put all of the NFL teams kind of together. I shouldn't say all, but he's putting, he probably knows about a good six or seven of them just by name, by sight, by seeing their helmets, seeing their uniforms. So he's getting into that, but I want to take him home so he can see where his dad is from and see where his granddad is from too. But without further ado, I appreciate that. I'm going to get into, I'm going to first start with Coach Prime and there's been a lot going on with Prime and I'm going to go back to my beginnings in college football, as a college football fan. So I started out as a big Florida State fan, okay? And we're talking early 90s and I can tell you exactly, 1991. And that's after, for those who don't know, Prime went to Florida State. There's the whole thought that, you know, Prime put Florida State on the map. And I'm here to tell you that's true, but not true. They put each other on the map. Prime is not the reason Florida State was on television. He was not the reason they were in the limelight, they were ranked number one. He was one of the reasons, of course, because he's one of the best players in the country at the time. He had a lot of flash, but also with that flash, he had a lot of substance too. Deion is arguably one of the most electrifying college football players of all time. And I will be the first to tell you, he is the GOAT corner in NFL history. Anybody who tells you any different, you're just hating or you can like Rod Woodson. I know he's kind of the other one that's mentioned, you can like Charles Woodson. Nobody, nobody in the history of the league shut down receivers like Prime did, okay? Only the best got to him, only the best caught touchdowns and passes against this guy. I'm talking about Jerry Rice, I'm talking about Michael Irvin, I'm talking about Andre Reid. For those who don't know who that is, he played for the Buffalo Bills during their stretch of four straight Super Bowls, okay? We forget about him now, but he is, at the time, he was a top five wide receiver in the NFL, okay? So, Prime, like I say, they both put each other on the map, okay? Coach Bowden is legitimately what put Florida State on the map. Somebody had to go recruit Prime, right, he didn't just walk up there because he wanted to. Somebody had to go recruit him. That means a lot. So, to me, I'll just kind of leave that there. They gave each other the nationwide, the national exposure. He didn't just put Florida State on the map, but he certainly had a huge part of it, all right? So, it does bother me a little bit, and also, I don't think I said this part, but I traveled to a lot of Florida State games back in my day. From 96 was the first year I went, the last one I went to was 2007, and that's from, I lived in Michigan, and then I moved to Los Angeles, and I still went to games. And then, 2007 is when that traveling stopped, but I didn't stop becoming, I didn't stop following the team. I was, I started on my own college coaching journey, and so, I kind of stopped going to games, not on purpose, I just stopped going to games because my focus became me and my own career, and, you know, over the next 15 years, 14 years, I got, I ended up working at the Power Five level, and then, once I was done with that, I never went back to Florida State, and that's actually kind of this year, last year, last year mostly. I watched some games, but I watch it because I'm just, I'm a fan of college football, and I want to see how good they look. I want to see other teams as well, so I don't just watch Florida State like I used to. As my friends know, when I was in college, it was, do not come to my dorm room, my door is closed, I had the War Champ playing on repeat, I was deep. I had a shrine, I called it, a Florida State blanket covered a part of my dorm room that had all this stuff, paraphernalia, it had basketball jerseys of Charlie Ward, it had Warwick Dunn's jerseys home and away each year, it had an E.G. Green jersey number 19, a Peter Ward jersey, and by the way, if you don't know who Peter Warwick is, you better go YouTube that boy, okay? So I had programs from the game, I had pretty much everything you could think of, okay? So, and now here we are on the back end of it, I have not returned as a fan for multiple reasons, and honestly, one of them being the name, I've kind of come to a different view about their name, and I just had to put it as an African American man, I don't know, I just don't, I just, I don't agree with a team that should have the name of another human being. So I'm going to leave that there, that can become a touchy subject, that's for another day, if we get to that point. So I do have a problem with him denouncing, kind of, I guess in a sense denouncing that he went to Florida State, because now he claims HBCU, and I felt like the only reason he started doing that is because he started coaching at HBCU. And I know he has a degree from an HBCU, I understand that. But it does bother me a little bit that he, the program that helped put him on the map, put him in the league, allowed him, I shouldn't say allowed him, but where he played football, baseball, and ran track, the reason he became a major league baseball player and an NFL player, part of it, of course, is his own talent, but he displayed that talent at Florida State, made his mark there, made his name known wearing seminal gear, wearing FSU, and so that whole, now all of a sudden, oh, I'm HBCU, that bothers me just a little bit, that's kind of turning your back on, basically, kind of the hand that fed you. I do have a little bit of an issue with that. However, I love Prime, okay, I love Deion Sanders, always have, always supported him in the league, I didn't care when he was, of course, he was a 49er for, I think it was, I think it was just that one year, then he went over to the Cowboys, I still love them, I couldn't stand the Cowboys, I still love them. Now that he's coaching, you know, I do, I like what he does, I know he is the consummate of, Prime is who he is, you either love him or you don't, and like I said, I love him, I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the coaching style, maybe I'm just old school, I kind of come from the 90s football world, but I also understand that he's doing what it takes to make Colorado a winner, like he is absolutely doing that. So I don't have a problem with what he's doing, it's just some of the things he says that bothers me, and I'm going to go into that a little bit. So the first issue I had was when he came out and they beat TCU, now I know everybody was acting like TCU was some, I love how the media was hyping TCU up as the runner up in the national championship game, like let's be real, like that wasn't even close to the same TCU team. Please understand that, that was nothing like the previous TCU team, you know how many players they lost, okay? However, for Colorado, who has been terrible since the early 2000s, I still remember them, I was actually working at UCLA, when Colorado walked in there with this running back, Chris Brown, wore number 42, this dude had to be 6'2", 220, he was an absolute monster. And I just remember them bashing UCLA into the ground, okay? Now, that same year I think they bashed Nebraska into the ground as well. With that said, for Prime to do what he's doing at Colorado is absolutely phenomenal. To have that team at 4-3 right now is absolutely phenomenal, okay? So I don't have an issue with that, but what I did have an issue with was, after beating TCU, the whole do you believe, and calling out a media member because he wanted to see you do it on the field before you even got there, and calling out a media member because he wanted to see you do it on the field before he said, yes, oh my God, you are the God of coaching in football, yes, I believe. That's unnecessary. Unnecessary. People are allowed, just like you, Prime, to have differing opinions. It's no different than Prime telling one of his own players, show me on the field. Talk the game, go out there, right? Do it on the field. Well, Prime, that's all they want you to do. That's it. Just go out there and do it on the field. No need to call nobody out. It's unnecessary. Go out there and do it on the field. That is what will call the mind. Just because you beat TCU and you went 1-0, come on, man. Come on. That was unnecessary to me. Then I'm going to go into Colorado State. Let's be real. Okay, they shouldn't have even been that close to losing to Colorado State. Colorado State sucks. But I understand it's a rivalry, right? His players were talking a ton of crap. I've seen the videos and stuff, especially Travis Hunter. Dude is a great player. He was saying some stuff that was completely unnecessary prior to that game. Now, maybe, maybe Colorado State was talking trash, too. Maybe it was before. Maybe it was through social media. I have no idea. However, shouldn't have been that close to losing that game. Okay, Colorado State lost that game. But then I'm going to go into the SC and before that, the Oregon game. Now, I'm going to be real. Those are two teams that were better than Colorado. There's no issue with, there's no, ah-ha, we got you, prime, by losing those two games. They should have lost those two games, especially without the two, well, two of their best players, Travis Hunter and Shiloh Sanders. Deion's an other son besides Shadour. Like, like, like, let's, let's, like, let's be real. They were not better than Oregon, right? They were not better than Oregon, right? And I have no problem with what Dan Lanning's saying, none. I saw a lot of people, to me, were taking that as a black versus white issue. Like, that was a white guy saying this about a black coach. And that's, to me, that's the line that it got, it got spewed into. But I don't think anybody said it. And I know there's the issue of a lot of black coaches saying things about prime, too. I get that. And just so people know, just so people know, I'm gonna pivot here just a little bit. There's a lot of disdain for prime in the HBCU world. And I'm saying that not because I think it. I'm saying that because I've heard it. Who did I hear it from? Never you mind. How did I hear it? Where did I hear it? From the mouths of HBCU coaches. This ain't through the grapevine. This ain't three, four coaches that say, hey, man, you know who said this and that? No, no, no, no. I'm on Zoom hearing these coaches. These are the head coaches at some HBCUs, okay? Now, we already saw what happened with him and Eddie Robinson Jr. I'm sure most of you seen the press conference. If you haven't, go look it up. The press conference of Eddie Robinson Jr. after the game between Jackson State and Alabama State. And I apologize if it's not Alabama State. Is he coaching after his, did he follow his son? I mean, did he follow his father and coach at Grambling? I apologize. I don't know quite what college he was at. But however, I do know he's not the only coach that has an issue with pride. And I'm saying that, again, because I've been on platforms. I've been on Zoom where multiple coaches are speaking out about it, okay? Whatever their issue is, that's them. I'm not agreeing with them or disagreeing with them. I'm just telling you how they felt, okay? So, again, I don't have a problem with the Oregon loss. Oregon was a better team. What I did have, what I did think was, I'm not sure why he got into the press conference and started saying there wasn't a, there's no gap in talent between Oregon and Colorado. Yet, there is. There's a huge gap in talent between those two schools. Now, maybe that was our first loss. Let me save some face. Yeah, okay. There's a huge gap, huge gap. SC, huge gap again. Just not on defense. Like, SC's defense is terrible. So, but again, I have no problem with those two losses. Matter of fact, in the SC game, I mean, they showed a ton of heart without two of their best players and basically almost came back and beat these guys. No issue with that one, but Oregon laid it to them. I mean, listen, Oregon's one of the top 10 teams in the country. They should have. There was a different motivation though, let me tell you. Different motivation. And again, I'm going to go back to it. I have no issue with what Dan Lanning said. Is Colorado looking for clicks? I mean, yeah, you can see it that way. I mean, I don't know if I quite see it that way, but I get what he's saying. But I also understand that Dew was motivating his players. And let me tell you, you didn't watch that game? Go back and watch it if you can. Oh, he did exactly that. That was his job, motivate his players. Now, I've seen also some people saying, oh yeah, so Oregon 8, like with all those uniforms, they like playing for clicks, right? Oh, first off, let me explain to you that those uniforms were there well before Dan Lanning got there. And they're going to be there well after Dan Lanning leaves. When Dan Lanning took that job, he took on the thousand uniforms that even I've lived in Oregon, okay? Yeah, I've given Ducks fans plenty of crap about all the uniforms. They look so good losing and losing and losing in the BCS championship game, losing in the playoff, losing to whatever team, and not making the Final Four, not winning a national championship. Yes, I've given them all the crap in the world about it. However, trust me on this, then I'm just, I don't know Dan Lanning. I've heard some things about him because I've worked with people who worked with him, who have worked with him. He's a no-nonsense guy, doesn't care about all that flash. Trust me when I say he ain't coming there looking at the uniforms. He ain't the one deciding what uniform they wear. So for everybody that wants to say Dan Lanning talking about all these, you know, playing for clicks or whatever he said, yeah, he meant that. Because that ain't his style. That's just the school he ended up getting the head coach job at, period. He don't give two craps about those Dan uniforms. So that was that. I don't know if that made you feel good to say that, like you're evening the score with him for saying it. But yeah, he don't care about those uniforms. That's a field night thing. And to be real, it works. It works because it brings recruits. Now, what Prime is doing in Colorado, what Prime is doing in Colorado, it works. Why? Because it's going to bring in recruits. Trust me, you're going to have a lot of decommitments already saying, I'm going to Colorado. I'm decommitting just so I can go to Colorado. Because my time at Power Five, I had guys on the phone already recruited and committed to another school telling me if I come out there and visit and I get an offer, I'll decommit. Now, whether they're going to tell the truth or not, hey, decommitments coming down the dozen, man. You're doggone right. They're going to get some decommitments from Colorado to leave Colorado. They're going to get something that's going to come to Colorado. So, understand that Lanning meant every word he said. He don't give two craps about those uniforms. As far as he's concerned, you can have a home, a way, an alternate, and maybe one more alternate, and we're good. That ain't his choice. Okay. So, the next thing I want to talk about, I got two topics left that I want to, matter of fact, I'm down on, all right, so I got one more. Today, I was going through YouTube and I saw a video of Prime talking to his players after, I want to say it was after the SC loss. It may have been after the SC loss. I believe it was. He was wearing a jacket that said Coach Prime. I'm imagining myself being a coach, right? It's what I do. I got a jacket on. I got my Colorado hat on, and I got a jacket on that does not match the color of the jacket that I'm wearing. I'm wearing a jacket that does not match the color of the jacket that I'm wearing. That does not say my program. After the game, it says my name. Now, listen, that man is more than capable of doing what he wants to do. That's his choice. But as a player, as a former player, number one, that would turn me off. You can't sit here and talk to me about being all in. That's what the video was about. It was about being all in or all out. Don't be halfway in. Don't be putting your toe in. Like be all in or be all out. About being selfless for the program. Meanwhile, you're telling me this while you're wearing a jacket that says your name. So again, maybe that's not again, but maybe that's the new way of coaching. But that would bother me. And as a coach, I would never, ever do that. To me, personally, that's putting me, the me, over the other me. That's putting me, the me, over the kids. Over these boys that I said, come on into this program. I'm going to make you better. Okay. Moving on. College football. My love itself. Best team in college football. We've seen Georgia the last two years. We saw Alabama before that. It's been the SEC for the longest. Trying to think, what was the last non-SEC school to win a national championship? Was it Florida State back in 2013? Okay. I have to look that one up. But right now, maybe Ohio. Did Ohio State win it 2016, somewhere around there, 2017? Oh, Clemson. Clemson. Totally forgot about Clemson. They've fallen off pretty hard. Anyway, right now, best team in college football. It's not even close, either. And we're talking about a team I grew up, although number one, I grew up in that state. I grew up hating these boys. And that's the Michigan Wolverines. All my friends know, anytime Byrne's talking about college football, there's always going to be some bad mouthing about Michigan. Yeah. You know why? Because y'all fools up there acting like Michigan is something special. There ain't nothing special, man. Y'all talk about Bo Schembechler like he was God. Man, that fool never even won a national championship. We're talking like he got five, six of them things. He ain't got none. None. Woody whooped that dude's ass on the field every year. I'm exaggerating. I've always loved giving my friends crap, and they all know it. Which I believe they don't like talking to me because of it. Talking to me about college football. But I've become extremely objective, and I don't care about who I like and don't like in my judgment. Since I got into coaching, I've slowly turned that bias into objectivity. I'll admit whoever I think is the best. It don't matter to me who really is or who really isn't. It could be the team I despise the most, but I don't care. It could be the team I despise the most, which honestly back in the day, I mean, yeah, it would have been Michigan. Back then, I would have never said it was Michigan, even if they were. I would have never said it. I would have never gave them that satisfaction. But in reality, like I said, once I started coaching, once I got up to the power five level, it was like, hey, man, whoever's good is good. Give these coaches they flower. Give these coaches they flowers, man. Like I'm not going to sit here and just keep hating on it. Michigan, I'm not just saying it based on what I think. Some of the best stats that coaches use, you want to talk about third down percentage? How well you convert your third downs into first downs? Do you keep your drives alive? Do you keep possession of the ball? Penalties, are you disciplined? Right? Are you beating yourself? Red zone defense. When your defense is kind of breaking or when your defense is bending, let me say, do you break or how often do you break? Obviously, at some point, we're going to give up a red zone touchdown, right? But how often do you break? How well are you stopping the run? How well are you stopping the pass? Scoring defense, right? Now, if you want to just use the top ones, the top three, I would say third down conversion penalties, red zone defense, and always turnover margins, always going to be up there, right? So between those four, usually most coaches pick two or three, and those are their favorite ones. Usually third down is their penalties. For me, turnovers is the other one. But red zone defense has become a lot more important to me over the years. And obviously, total DM. Michigan, nobody is better than Michigan at any of this stuff, man. They don't turn the ball over very much. And that's huge, especially for a ball control offense. When a ball control offense turn the ball over, you are putting yourself at a major disadvantage because you're not a four wide, throw it deep. You're not a Washington, okay? That's a perfect example. You're not Washington who can score in three plays, okay? And one minute because you just chug it deep and your turnover don't matter as much, right? Michigan is doing it the old school way, like Bo and Woody. Running the ball, playing great defense, being efficient, right? Not beating themselves, being disciplined. Last year, the year before, it was Georgia. It was Georgia by a mile. Which is why when they played Georgia, you knew they were going to smash Michigan. It wasn't even a question. Now, Georgia don't look quite as good. They're still not terrible. For anybody who thinks Georgia is all of a sudden out of the picture, no, they're not. Do I think they should be number one? No, no. I think Michigan should be number one, but I understand how the pollsters think. Until Georgia loses, you're not going to win back-to-back national championships and still be undefeated the next year and they're going to supplant you with a team that you smashed, even if it was two years ago. Because they want Michigan to show on the field that they're better than Georgia. Now, Georgia would need to keep losing or keep winning by some small margins. Michigan would need to keep winning by these large margins. Here's the one issue with Michigan. Their schedule is terrible, which is not Michigan's fault. The schedule is not the team's fault. It's not the program's fault, but their schedule is terrible. Now, it's about to get a little better. I didn't quite look at it. I know they got Ohio State, duh, right? I'm sure. I don't know if they play Penn State, but we're about to see a lot coming up this week when it comes to Penn State and Ohio State. Now, that's the other team I want to talk about is Penn State. Their defense is ranked up there, right with Michigan in just about every single category. Looking at those two, that should be fun to see how those two end up. I'll look at it right here. Michigan's got Michigan State. They should crush them. They got Purdue. It's at Michigan State, so we'll see. Who knows? Then they got Penn State, Maryland, and Ohio State. Now, those are three good teams to play back-to-back-to-back. Now, Maryland might not be ranked. Maryland might not be the name. Maryland might not strike fear in anybody's heart, but two with little brother. Two with little brother is the quarterback in Maryland, that kick and ball. Mike Locksley, the head coach at Maryland, he's got those boys balling about as best as Maryland can since Ralph Friesen was there back in 01 when they tried to battle with Florida State. But Michigan's got to go to Happy Valley on November 11th. If Penn State wins next weekend against Ohio State, wow. But right now, my money, my money right now is on Michigan, and I actually going to, I am going to legitimately predict that Michigan is going to win the national championship as long as they stay healthy, because one of the things that derailed them last year was Blake Coram's injury. That hurt. That hurt a lot. That third down percentage that I talked about, they're ranked fourth in the country. In third down percentage. Penalties, you want to know how disciplined they are? They're ranked number two. They're ranked number two, which means they do not beat themselves. Red zone D, red zone defense, number one. Rush D, number 10. Number 10. Highest ranking they have. Yeah, number 10. Still not bad. Let's not act like that's flabby. Like here we got how many Division I schools did they go up against? Like they still got, they're still number 10, okay? Scoring defense, number one. Number one. Who's number two? Penn State. Penn State's number two. Penn State's number two in rush defense. So they actually are better against the run than Michigan is. Total defense, Michigan is number two. Turnover margin, they're ranked number 11. They could be a little bit better than that because Penn State is number two in turnover margin. But I fully will tell you, I will take Jim Harbaugh over James Franklin in a game. If James Franklin is going to finally make Penn State, if he's going to put them on that If he's going to put them on that Joe Paterno level, that Michigan game and Penn State next week, that is when he needs to do it. But I don't trust him. I don't trust that he will beat both of those teams. He's got Michigan at home. He's got them ripe. I just don't trust him. I just don't think there's any other coach, honestly, in the country that runs a tighter ship, defense and offense, discipline than Harbaugh right now. Right now. Right now. I'm not saying last year. I'm not saying the year before. I'm talking about right now. Please do leave your comments. Any opinions you have, any thoughts you have, please share. If you disagree, it's all good. Let me know. I'm sure some Ohio State fans hear that. Some Penn State fans hear that. Oh, I'm going to hear it. That's all good. I know it sounds like I might be bashing Prime. I'm sorry that I don't see everything that he does as perfect. I don't. I think he's doing a hell of a job. But there's some things he's doing that I don't particularly care for. It's no different than a fan of a team being able to say, man, I don't think my team's going to win today. They did not play well. I love my team, but they did not play well today. My 49ers, they did not play well today against the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland Browns defense got in that ass. That's OK. It's OK to say that about your team. It's OK to say it about somebody you like. Don't mean they're perfect. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. This was my first show. You're more than welcome to let me know some things. I'm a talker. I don't like just throwing out basic opinions. I like giving details to those opinions and why I have them. So that's why when I'm talking about Michigan, I'm giving you a rundown of why I think they're the best. And yes, I've seen them play. I test as well. But a lot of it comes in the statistics as well. And I know numbers can sometimes not tell the full story, but I do believe they tell about 80% of the story. OK. So again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I will be back with another show. I'm not sure when. Again, this was just something I did off the rip. I wasn't really planning on doing it. I just jotted some stuff down, and I just turned on this, found this audio here, and I just went with it. This was fun. I look forward to doing it again. Peace.