Five days before his team played the University of Hawaii, Wyoming football coach Craig Bohl announced that his punter, Tim Zaleski, was injured and not likely to play against the Rainbow Warriors.
Five minutes, 46 seconds before his team played Wyoming — and after the subterfuge of putting another player in quarterback Cole McDonald’s No. 13 uniform during warm-ups — UH coach Nick Rolovich had it announced that McDonald was injured and would not play against the Cowboys.
Two coaches, two vastly different approaches to announcing injuries.
The polarity of their positions makes for the kind of interesting debate, both in the stands and in the coaching community, that has persisted for years but might not be around much longer. By this time next year, or not long after, colleges are likely to go the way of the NFL and adopt some long-needed form of standardized injury report.
In 2019, or so, it is a good bet the Rainbow Warriors could be saying in midweek their quarterback is “probable,” “doubtful” or “out” for that week’s game the way we’ve become accustomed to hearing from the pros.
Not because college coaches are abandoning their gamesmanship or overcoming their paranoia, but because of the spread of legalized sports gambling prompted by a landmark Supreme Court decision earlier this year.
As more and more states choose to offer wagering on sports, including college football, college administrators are having to come to terms with a changing landscape, the huge sums expected to be bet on the sport and what inside information might be worth. That’s why some, including the Big Ten Conference, have asked the NCAA to adopt a uniform reporting format and the NCAA has undertaken a gambling impact study.
Commissioner John Swofford, whose Atlantic Coast Conference had been the only major college league requiring member schools to list injuries for conference games for a decade until this year, told the Associated Press that he expects an NCAA-wide policy by next season.
Part of the reasoning is underlined by what happened this week. Some UH players said they knew on Tuesday that McDonald, whose exact injury has yet to be publicly disclosed, was unlikely to play against Wyoming. When McDonald did not practice early in the week word began seeping out and a Las Vegas betting line that had listed UH as a 3.5-point favorite eventually flipped to listing the ’Bows as 3.5-point underdogs well
in advance of kickoff on game day.
Philosophically, when it comes to the “I” word, Rolovich belongs to the “no injury information” school of thought, wanting to hold onto any edge he can. He has even gone so far as to deny after the game at San Jose State that ironman running back Dayton Furuta had played with a foot injury, despite waiting until the waning minutes of the third quarter to employ his top running back and glowing postgame testimonials by teammates of Furuta’s ability to play with pain.
Meanwhile, the 60-year-old Bohl, well before McDonald’s situation came to light and not referencing the ’Bows, addressed his philosophy Monday the week of the UH game when listing the Cowboys’ injuries. “I want to be real clear on this, I’m giving you (the media) information not because I’m a good guy but because I think it is the right thing to do,” Bohl said at his weekly Laramie, Wyo., press conference.
Some coaches, even Alabama’s Nick Saban and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, noted for tight control, have regularly discussed injuries. Others, such as Stanford’s David Shaw and Washington State’s Mike Leach who hold less tightly to the reins, are strongly opposed. Some coaches just have a blackout because their peers do it.
“I think there is a trend in college football where nobody talks about anything, so I’m gonna continue to talk about guys’ (injuries) and if I ever get in a gray area I just won’t really mention it,” Bohl said last week, expanding on his philosophy. “But … you guys have all the right to (ask). But it does kinda chap my butt that a lot of my colleagues out there, they don’t say anything …”
Next year, willingly or not, they might finally be all on the same page.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
