The up-in-arms race

Maybe it's because they have to deal with more stupid questions now than before.

Maybe it's because they're making gobs more money now than before.

Maybe it's because they don't need the media nearly as much as before.

Maybe it's because hardly anyone is playing any defense these days.

Maybe it's a mix of a bunch of things.

Whatever the cause, a lot of coaches sure are acting like crybabies these days.

Remember when Mike Gundy went off on his "I'M A MAN! I'M 40!" rant a few years ago? That was one of the stories of the year. Now similar meltdowns (albeit not as spectacular) seem to happen every week.

By now Steve Spurrier's scorched-earth Ron Morris rampage has been discussed plenty, so not a whole lot to add here other than ... wow.

John L. Smith's bizarro world has been a hot topic too.

But until this morning, I had no idea Jim Mora went absolutely nuts on camera crews for being in the wrong place at a UCLA practice. Columnist T.J. Simers provides the details here with some subtle skewering of Mora.

This week, Mora announced the schools' sports information department is incompetent.

I've thought so for years, with the sports information department putting out a news release every week reminding the Bruins just how crummy they have been — noting this week the team hadn't won in Boulder since 1984.

Something needed to be said, but to hear an insider such as Mora say so publicly after kicking some of these haters out of practice was obviously a tremendous step forward for UCLA.

And you have to admire the way Mora sent the traditional "it's us against them" football message to his team.

According to witnesses, it was like someone shredding a tackling dummy, or tossing fresh meat to a pack of animals.

He berated an unassuming sports information assistant in front of the whole team for allowing a TV cameraman to stand in the wrong place.

In doing so, he gave the sports information assistant an earful of some very impressive obscenities, which of course the young players would expect from their demanding leader.

Then Mora forced the guy to make the walk of humiliation off the practice field.

Across town, Southern Cal coach Lane Kiffin got bent out of shape when someone asked about the status of an injured player.

In Starkville, Dan Mullen pitched a fit when someone asked about some guys who might or might not have been injured.

And the worst might be Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, who pulled off the impressive feat of degenerating from a man into a petulant baby in the span of a few minutes.

In fairness, I'm opining from afar and don't know the full context of some of these meltdowns. There have been occasions where folks from elsewhere have been misinformed in some of their shots taken at people around these parts, so it's possible some key details are being missed.

But what is it with some of these coaches? Why so many cases of this stuff? How can they preach mental toughness to their teams and then show zero mental toughness in the face of fairly innocuous questions and developments?

Maybe it's the latest frontier of competition. They've always tried to one-up each other with X-and-O schemes, talent acquisition, facilities and all that. Maybe now they're trying to show who can be the biggest brat.

Just call it the up-in-arms race.

LW