superman7515
December 3rd, 2013, 12:12 AM
http://www.udreview.com/sports-commentary-let-s-talk-professionalism-1.3124665?pagereq=1
On the football field, Dave Brock is an energetic head coach who isn’t afraid to run 10 yards off the sideline and get into the face of an official. But of course, he won’t talk about those encounters in the media, as his blasé answers to tough questions are boring enough to make Bill Belichick proud.
But after the Hens squandered a 22-point fourth-quarter lead to Villanova Saturday, effectively ending their season, Brock finally showed some emotion in his postgame press conference. When I asked junior defensive end Derrick Saulsberry what he thought of Villanova players saying the Hens “didn’t want it” on their way into the locker room after the game, Brock interjected.
“Those kids were making comments because they’re kids,” Brock said angrily. “They don’t even mean that. Have the professionalism to understand it.”
I stand by that question. But if coach Brock wants to talk professionalism, we can do that.
In the fourth quarter of Delaware’s matchup with Jacksonville University, junior quarterback Trent Hurley threw an interception with his team up by 17 points. The interception was returned for a touchdown that almost let the Dolphins crawl back into the contest.
After the game, Hurley told me it was supposed to be a running play, but he audibled into a pass. In retrospect, he had his best receiver, Michael Johnson, in one-on-one coverage on the outside. You can’t fault Hurley for trying to make a play. But when I asked Brock who called the play, he told me it came from the sideline and went into detail about why it was called.
Those are two different answers from two of the most high-profile members of our university’s flagship athletic program. To me, smart money says Hurley changed the play at the line of scrimmage and Brock, unaware Hurley had already given an answer to the same question, told a story to protect his quarterback.
I didn’t believe it for a second.
Shielding your quarterback from media scrutiny is one thing, but going to such lengths to hide such an insignificant mistake was shameful and, dare I say, unprofessional. In fairness, it’s possible Hurley was mistaken and the play call actually did come from the sideline, but the quickness with which Hurley answered my question leads me to believe otherwise.
From that moment on, I took everything Brock said for the rest of the season with a grain of salt. And unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time Brock showed his true colors.
The week leading up to Delaware’s matchup with Navy, we decided we wanted to write a feature story detailing how Brock worked his way up from a player at Ferrum College to a Division I head coach. We cleared the story with the sports information director, Scott Selheimer, who scheduled the interview.
Our reporter showed up on time, walked into Brock’s office and asked him how he wound up at Delaware. At that moment, Brock decided he didn’t want to answer any questions directly relating to himself. When I asked Scott for an explanation, he was perplexed as to why Brock wouldn’t talk.
After every loss, Brock always said he wanted the focus to be on his shortcomings, not the players. But yet, when we wanted to do an entire story focusing on him, he refused. You can’t have it both ways.
Regardless, if Brock didn’t want to have a story written about himself, that’s his prerogative, but he could have told us before we scheduled the interview. Wasting the time of a student reporter trying to write one of our paper’s most high-profile features of the year displays a sheer lack of respect to all the students who spend hours upon hours every week working at The Review.
If the Delaware football team had made the playoffs this year, perhaps it would have been easier to overlook Brock’s antics. If he was successful, then who am I to question the methods to his madness? In a way, he was right when he said it was ridiculous to insinuate the players “didn’t want” to win on Saturday. The players gave it everything they had, but their coach let them down.
Villanova quarterback John Robertson said Delaware’s conservative late-game defensive strategies made it much easier for the Wildcats to pull out a miraculous comeback. The Hens played a three-man front for the majority of the fourth-quarter, which allowed Robertson to buy time in the pocket and complete 10 of his final 12 passes en route to the upset.
Brock said he stuck with the three-man front because it had worked at earlier points in the game. But this isn’t Madden. You can’t run the same defensive scheme repeatedly and expect a Walter Payton Award candidate in Robertson to be fooled for long. Despite Villanova’s consistent drives against Delaware’s defense, the Hens dropped back eight defenders and watched Robertson tear their season to shreds.
That’s not on the players. They don’t call the plays. That blame falls solely on the shoulders of Dave Brock. So Brock can get angry and question my professionalism all he wants, but next week he’s going to watch 24 other teams play in the NCAA Tournament. If he wants to know why Delaware won’t be one of them, all he has to do is look in the mirror.
I’ll be focusing on basketball season.
On the football field, Dave Brock is an energetic head coach who isn’t afraid to run 10 yards off the sideline and get into the face of an official. But of course, he won’t talk about those encounters in the media, as his blasé answers to tough questions are boring enough to make Bill Belichick proud.
But after the Hens squandered a 22-point fourth-quarter lead to Villanova Saturday, effectively ending their season, Brock finally showed some emotion in his postgame press conference. When I asked junior defensive end Derrick Saulsberry what he thought of Villanova players saying the Hens “didn’t want it” on their way into the locker room after the game, Brock interjected.
“Those kids were making comments because they’re kids,” Brock said angrily. “They don’t even mean that. Have the professionalism to understand it.”
I stand by that question. But if coach Brock wants to talk professionalism, we can do that.
In the fourth quarter of Delaware’s matchup with Jacksonville University, junior quarterback Trent Hurley threw an interception with his team up by 17 points. The interception was returned for a touchdown that almost let the Dolphins crawl back into the contest.
After the game, Hurley told me it was supposed to be a running play, but he audibled into a pass. In retrospect, he had his best receiver, Michael Johnson, in one-on-one coverage on the outside. You can’t fault Hurley for trying to make a play. But when I asked Brock who called the play, he told me it came from the sideline and went into detail about why it was called.
Those are two different answers from two of the most high-profile members of our university’s flagship athletic program. To me, smart money says Hurley changed the play at the line of scrimmage and Brock, unaware Hurley had already given an answer to the same question, told a story to protect his quarterback.
I didn’t believe it for a second.
Shielding your quarterback from media scrutiny is one thing, but going to such lengths to hide such an insignificant mistake was shameful and, dare I say, unprofessional. In fairness, it’s possible Hurley was mistaken and the play call actually did come from the sideline, but the quickness with which Hurley answered my question leads me to believe otherwise.
From that moment on, I took everything Brock said for the rest of the season with a grain of salt. And unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time Brock showed his true colors.
The week leading up to Delaware’s matchup with Navy, we decided we wanted to write a feature story detailing how Brock worked his way up from a player at Ferrum College to a Division I head coach. We cleared the story with the sports information director, Scott Selheimer, who scheduled the interview.
Our reporter showed up on time, walked into Brock’s office and asked him how he wound up at Delaware. At that moment, Brock decided he didn’t want to answer any questions directly relating to himself. When I asked Scott for an explanation, he was perplexed as to why Brock wouldn’t talk.
After every loss, Brock always said he wanted the focus to be on his shortcomings, not the players. But yet, when we wanted to do an entire story focusing on him, he refused. You can’t have it both ways.
Regardless, if Brock didn’t want to have a story written about himself, that’s his prerogative, but he could have told us before we scheduled the interview. Wasting the time of a student reporter trying to write one of our paper’s most high-profile features of the year displays a sheer lack of respect to all the students who spend hours upon hours every week working at The Review.
If the Delaware football team had made the playoffs this year, perhaps it would have been easier to overlook Brock’s antics. If he was successful, then who am I to question the methods to his madness? In a way, he was right when he said it was ridiculous to insinuate the players “didn’t want” to win on Saturday. The players gave it everything they had, but their coach let them down.
Villanova quarterback John Robertson said Delaware’s conservative late-game defensive strategies made it much easier for the Wildcats to pull out a miraculous comeback. The Hens played a three-man front for the majority of the fourth-quarter, which allowed Robertson to buy time in the pocket and complete 10 of his final 12 passes en route to the upset.
Brock said he stuck with the three-man front because it had worked at earlier points in the game. But this isn’t Madden. You can’t run the same defensive scheme repeatedly and expect a Walter Payton Award candidate in Robertson to be fooled for long. Despite Villanova’s consistent drives against Delaware’s defense, the Hens dropped back eight defenders and watched Robertson tear their season to shreds.
That’s not on the players. They don’t call the plays. That blame falls solely on the shoulders of Dave Brock. So Brock can get angry and question my professionalism all he wants, but next week he’s going to watch 24 other teams play in the NCAA Tournament. If he wants to know why Delaware won’t be one of them, all he has to do is look in the mirror.
I’ll be focusing on basketball season.