The beauty of Coach Prime is his openness and honesty about the process. Not a lot of coaches show you what it is really like behind the scenes and even fewer are entirely honest especially at press conferences. This exposes him to a ton of hate. The hate has always been there–since his inception as a player. People have always hated his bravado, his brashness, and the fact that his skills could never be questioned. Yet here we are in a space and time where he can be questioned. There is a great deal of latent racism in the idea of Prime.
He said, “are we the only one?” in reference to throwing kids off the team. In fact, he’s not. He’s not the only one in a number of ways. He is not the only one relying heavily on the portal. In fact Auburn added 40. LSU added 44 (new coach, who dis?). Prime’s squad isn’t in the top 10 of that particular list this year but all the talk is about the negatives. A foolish social media blast argued about how small his O-line was. Well, his line is the 6th in the FBS in that size metric people. argued made them dead last. Here’s the point: He exposes himself to criticism by being honest. The criticism was always coming. He doesn’t function the way other coaches do.
Here’s the raw truth: It doesn’t matter if he wins. He is going to be hated by who hates him and loved by who loves him. The haters want the lovers to join their side. The lovers want the haters to acknowledge or at least be proven wrong and have to face that moment of saying they were wrong. This is never going to happen. This is deeper than football or sports. It is a microcosm of the concept of polarization that we see in all aspects of American life. The problem is at the root of who we are as a people. We need to get to the point of understanding that these Scions like Prime just show us what the problems actually are.
Some Thoughts:
- Life is good.