Watching Coach field questions and interact with the media on his weekly press conferences has been entertaining. Every coach has their own style, and I suppose the media themselves prefer interacting with certain styles more than others.
Coach Pittman is very matter of fact. To the point. He answers the question asked and usually elaborates minimally on his answer. He often uses “coach speak”, yet comes across as genuine in his responses. He gives the impression that he has been prepped by a combination of a defense attorney and Bill Belichick, yet he remains his engaging, likable self. It’s actually amazing that he’s only been a head coach for 10 months, because he handles himself with the press like a seasoned veteran.
Coach’s response to Bob Holt and the end of Thursday’s presser was particularly entertaining to me. Holt was asking about the status of Brown and Burks.
Coach: “Mo, he’s getting better, and Burks, he’s also improving”
Holt: “You’re the only guy I’ve ever heard call Brown, Mo. Where’d you pick that up?” (a question I’ve heard Holt ask once before)
Coach: “It says Mo on the back of his jersey. Mo Brown”.
Holt: “I guess Montaric is too long to fit on there, huh?”
Coach: “I don’t know. Hey, he’s playing pretty good. If he wants it on there, we’ll toss it on there. But it does say Mo on the back of his jersey.”
Holt: “I never noticed. My eyes aren’t that good”.
The temporary nature of honeymoon aside, we seem to have the perfect coach for our program. He already acts like he’s been doing this for a long time.