Tuesday Top Ten: Coaching Rants

Recently, Matt Mahanic, a Division III golf coach at a Christian college (Huntingdon College in Alabama), got a little over-excited after his team finished poorly at a tournament and went on a profanity-laced tirade for the ages at his team on the van ride back.  (Thanks to Holt for the link.)  As the story points out, you need to listen to the first 1:55, where Mahanic is calm, to truly appreciate the manner in which he blows up.  It's D-III golf, but the tirade suggests these players (well, except one) just threw the seventh game of World Series after killing all of Mahanic's family members.  I guess Mahanic was prone to this type of behavior, which is probably why one of his players was sick of putting up with it and decided to tape it.  Needless to say, Mahanic got fired.

A couple years ago, I posted my Top Ten Best Sports Rants, which featured coaches, players, and broadcasters going on rants.  In honor of Mahanic's brilliance, this list features my top ten favorite coaching rants, be it at players, the media, other coaches, or fans.  There is some overlap with my previous list, but watching/listening these never gets old, so I am at peace with the overlap.  Enjoy.

10. Kevin Borseth on offensive rebounding.

After a 2008 loss to Wisconsin, Borseth, the Michigan women's basketball coach, got a little testy with the podium and the issue of offensive rebounding.

9. Mike Gundy is a man and is forty.

After Gundy (Oklahoma State's head football coach) had been getting slack from local media about switching his starting quarterbacks, he finally blew his top at a press conference, defending criticism that had been levied at the benched QB.

8.  Herm Edwards explains why you play football.

7.  "Be a dog."

Here is Coastal Carolina football coach David Bennett trying to make an analogy about cats and dogs in 2011.

6. John Chaney threatens to kill Jim Calipari.

In 1994, after a particularly testy contest between Chaney's Temple Owls and Calipari's UMass Minutemen, where there were a couple flagrant fouls by UMass players, Chaney went nuts on Calipari.  I think we can all agree that the world would have been better had John Chaney followed through on his threat.

5. Jim Mora: "Playoffs?"

This is what happens when you ask the coach of a team that is having a subpar season about his team's playoff chances.

4.  Hal McRae throws a phone

A reporter asks then-Royals manager a question about a potential substitution after a loss, and this happens.

3. Dennis Green suggests crowning the Bears.

After the Bears came back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to beat the Cardinals in 2006, this is what Cardinals coach Dennis Green had to say.

2.  Bob Knight's greatest hits.

Trying to narrow it down to one Bob Knight rant was tough, so I didn't.  (1) The first is my favorite, a tirade he had during the 1991 season.  The best part of this is that he was yelling at a team featuring two future All-Americans, two future first-round picks and a second-round pick, the future all-time leading scorer in the Big Ten, and a team that would go on to win the Big Ten title that year and go to the Final Four the next year.  I guess they took what he had to say to heart.  "You fucking guys will run til you can't even suffer."  I'm not sure what that means.  (2) Knight discusses Damon Bailey's future during a 1993 press conference.  (3) Knight goes off on a reporter at Assembly Hall.  "Can we try it again, Coach?"  (4) Knight discusses the phrase "game face."  (5) Knight goes off on an NCAA Tournament official after a 1995 game when the official thought Knight was not going to be doing a press conference.  (By the way, click here if you want to see SportsCenter's Top 10 Bob Knight Sound Bites, some of which are included here.  Very solid.)

1. Lee Elia tells the Bleacher Bums how it is.

This has to be #1 because it is a rant against the fans.  Elia was the Cubs manager from 1982-1983. On April 29, 1983, he went apeshit on Cubs fans. As a Sox fan, this rant is particularly vindicating.  "85 percent of the world is fucking working.  The other 15 come out here.  It's a playground for the cocksuckers."  Priceless.  Do not turn this up at work, unless your boss is a Cardinals or White Sox fan, or unless you want to be fired.