LA Times to stop attending USC and UCLA practices

Mike Riley should be every college football beat writer's dream coach. His open door policy is magnified by the assholishness 40 miles to the south, where Oregon closes practice to everyone but those with deep pockets and has a head coach who says zip.

 

Lane Kiffin apparently has a sense of humor.

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And like anything that puts UCLA in a negative light, news of Mora's displeasure with UCLA media personnel along with kicking out the rest of the media quickly spread across town, prompting Kiffin to open his post-practice interview by telling reporters, "I love my SID."
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I would think that if I was pursuing a degree it would be difficult to schedule all my required my classes and get over to the practice field and get into uniform by 11:00 A.M.. But I suppose that just means I am naive to believe anyone in Corvallis cares about athletes getting a degree.

 

To me there is a middle ground on this. A coach I covered allowed practice to be open on Tuesdays for the whole time and was closed the rest of the week.

It allowed the beat writers to gain some insight, see how much injured players were able to do, etc. But provided the staff other days to put in trick plays, chew guys out, etc., without hacks being around.

Everybody wins.

The problem with too many coaches is that they enjoy being a dick for the sake of being a dick too much for my taste.

 

Nah, you ain't naive. But some classes may be available in the afternoon as well.

I've found it interesting that you get some basketball teams that practice at 6 a.m. or so, which allows the players plenty of time to go their classes, and gets them in bed early instead of staying out late and potentially getting in trouble.