1) When the coach consistently says you have to recruit better, is there any worry in upsetting or losing the team?  To me, it seems a little damning of the current players. – Mark from Pittsburgh

Chris Coleman: That’s a good question. I see where you are coming from. At the same time, at his post-game press conference following UNC’s loss to Notre Dame, Mack Brown was asked what UNC could do to prevent more losses like that in the future. His answer was that UNC could recruit better and that it’s hard to beat teams like Notre Dame who sign a lot of good classes. Last I checked, Brown had recruited a lot of good classes (on paper) in his own right. But that’s beside the point.

Brown making those comments didn’t seem to affect UNC’s players any, at least not last week against the Hokies. That was a game the Tar Heels dominated from start to finish. I didn’t see any morale issues as a result of what he said after the Notre Dame game.

Sometimes what coaches say in press conferences matters, but sometimes it doesn’t. Players know what their coaches are dealing with when being interviewed. Players get interviewed, too, and they understand that sometimes they get asked questions that either they can’t answer or they shouldn’t answer honestly, so they sort of just make something up as filler. In fact, it’s likely that most players don’t even read the comments Pry makes to the media.

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