Maggie Gray of Sports Illustrated recently interviewed Oregon Ducks and California Golden Bears football head coaches Chip Kelly and Jeff Tedford concurrently at their studios in New York City. The name of Willie Lyles was not broached explicitly; Tedford has made his feelings clear on the matter with Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News and at Pac-12 Media Day that Cal did nothing wrong, and Kelly has already stated he won't (and probably can't) comment on the matter until the NCAA investigation concludes in Eugene. But it was clear why these two coaches were approached for interviews at Sports Illustrated as opposed to anyone else on the Pac-12 East Coast media tour.
The video is below for you to enjoy.
For those who can't view the video, here's the bullet point summary, paraphrased.
- Kelly said the team is not distracted by the NCAA investigation and will let the process unfold. It's also impossible to monitor 100 players all the time. He's fine with the NCAA rulebook as is.
- Tedford believes that you have to take care of your program, and educate players on doing the right things and make good decisions with regards to the NCAA rulebook. He also believes one big problem is that many of the rules are up for interpretation, and there's more clarity needed for the rulebook.
For more on Oregon football, go to Addicted to Quack. For more on Cal football, go to the California Golden Blogs.