Commentary

Pac-12 Coaches Questionnaire, Part 3

Originally Published: August 25, 2011

ESPN.com Illustration

Now that you know which Pac-12 schools have the coolest mascots, Page 2 invites you to delve into the final part of our coaches questionnaire below.

Click here for the Pac-12 Coaches Questionnaire, Part 1

Click here for the Pac-12 Coaches Questionnaire, Part 2

Click here for the SEC Coaches Questionnaire

9. Not counting yourself, who's the best dressed coach in the conference?

Coach	Answer	Comment
Jon Embree	Lane Kiffin	"You know, Lane has got some gear. He'd definitely be No. 2."
Dennis Erickson	Paul Wulff	"He played for me."
Chip Kelly	Dennis Erickson	"I wouldn't be. I'm honest, so I would never vote for myself."
Lane Kiffin	Mike Stoops	"He's totally changed. He drinks fancy wine now. He reads the same magazines as my wife. He's got designer clothes on all the time."
Rick Neuheisel	Mike Stoops	"You know who it's gonna be? It's gonna be Mike Stoops, because he's single. He's kind of a fashion guy."
Mike Riley	Lane Kiffin	"Well, it's not me. John Robinson once, while we were in the locker room getting changed after practice, said, "You don't care one bit about clothes, do you?"
Steve Sarkisian	Mike Stoops	"I think I'm the best-dressed guy. Without a doubt. Look at these shoes!"
David Shaw	Lane Kiffin	"The rest of us coaches believe his wife does a nice job picking out the duds for him to wear."
Mike Stoops	None	"Me. They can't compare. I can't give anyone else credit for that."
Jeff Tedford	Lane Kiffin	None
Kyle Whittingham	Rick Neuheisel	"I've only been around these guys one day! ... Let's go with Neuheisel. He's always got that clean, preppy look going."
Paul Wulff	Mike Stoops	"That's not easy, because there's nobody I'd say was good."

Results: Mike Stoops, 4; Lane Kiffin, 4; Dennis Erickson, 1; Rick Neuheisel, 1; Paul Wulff, 1. (Stoops wins on tiebreaker by voting for himself anyway.)

10. What coach has influenced you the most?

Coach	Answer	Comment
Jon Embree	Bill McCartney	"I was in his first recruiting class at Colorado, then I started as a volunteer coach under him and got hired full time by him two years later."
Dennis Erickson	Robert Erickson	"My dad influenced me a lot. He was a high school and college coach for years. ... Jim Sweeney ... Jack Elway."
Chip Kelly	Many	"My high school coaches. My coaches in college. ... Ray Tellier at Columbia, Jim Margraff at Johns Hopkins, Bill Bowes at New Hampshire, Sean McDonnell at New Hampshire."
Lane Kiffin	Pete Carroll	"Being with him for six years at such a young age ... anytime you're having success you take from it, so I'd definitely say Pete."
Rick Neuheisel	Homer Smith	"He was just a great teacher. ... I got to play for him and coach with him. No question, the No. 1 reason why I'm in the profession is because of him."
Mike Riley	Bud Riley	"The thing that influenced me the most was how much my dad loved the game of football. ... The most important thing was the relationships he had with the players."
Steve Sarkisian	Many	Pete Carroll, for sure, LaVell Edwards and my junior college coach John Featherstone [at El Camino JC in Torrance, Calif.].
David Shaw	Many	"Denny Green ... Bill Walsh ... Brian Billick ... Jon Gruden ... Bill Callahan."
Mike Stoops	Ron Stoops	"My father had a big influence. ... He was a coach and teacher. ... He was a very detailed and organized high school coach and very successful."
Jeff Tedford	Jim Sweeney	"The discipline and the toughness. The attention to detail. The perfection that he expected always out of his coaches and his players."
Kyle Whittingham	Fred Whittingham	"My father. No question about it. ... Everything I do or have done defensively, scheme-wise, philosophically has come from him."
Paul Wulff	Dennis Erickson	"I think he's a players' coach in so many ways, and I thought he always allowed the players to be who they were."

Comment: The Pac-12 coaching fraternity is clearly thick with football bloodlines.

11. What's a hobby or recreational passion of yours that might surprise people?

Coach	Answer	Comment
Jon Embree	Golf, music	"I don't know if it will surprise people, but I like golfing and I like music. I'd love to be able to go to concerts and do any of that stuff."
Dennis Erickson	Golf, reading	"I'm an avid golfer. Not a good golfer, but I'm an avid golfer."
Chip Kelly	Golf	"I don't think it would surprise people. ... [It's] what most coaches do."
Lane Kiffin	Golden Tee	"I have a Golden Tee machine in my house."
Rick Neuheisel	Golf	"I don't know that it will surprise anybody, but golf. I love to play golf."
Mike Riley	Reading, music	"[My] favorite author is John Lescroart. [My] favorite musicians are John Prine, Gary P. Nunn, Kelly Willis, Bob Schneider, Augustana and Counting Crows' older stuff."
Steve Sarkisian	Boating	"Boat to work on Lake Washington."
David Shaw	Basketball	"I practice with my 8-year-old daughter and my 6-year-old son. That's the level I'm at right now, since I don't have time to play enough."
Mike Stoops	Shopping	"I'm good at it. I know what fruit to pick out. ... I'm a regular. If they don't see me for a while, they ask me where I've been."
Jeff Tedford	Yard work	"It's relaxing. To me, it's therapy. Get out and cut things down and move things around and work hard and sweat."
Kyle Whittingham	Many	"Surprise? I don't know. I'm a tennis player. Snow ski. Water ski. I don't really have any unusual hobbies. I started golfing this year. ... Wakesurfing."
Paul Wulff	Farm animals	"My daughter has show pigs that she shows in FFA and 4-H. I love working with them and helping her buy them."

Comment: Yep, our suspicion has been confirmed. Football coaches do indeed enjoy playing golf.

12. Cap or visor?

Coach	Answer	Comment
Jon Embree	Visor	"I wear a cap during camp, but I just like wearing visors. Convertible or hardtop, right?"
Dennis Erickson	Visor	"I've done both. I've been a visor guy the last couple of years."
Chip Kelly	Visor	"I just like visors."
Lane Kiffin	Visor	"I was always intrigued by [Steve Spurrier], watching him at Florida. You know, just the way he ran the offense and his confidence and his visor."
Rick Neuheisel	Cap	"I'm a cap guy. ... As I get older and my hair thins, much more of a cap guy."
Mike Riley	Cap	"It's kind of in honor of my dad. My dad was a baseball cap guy, from Wallace [Idaho] High School all the way to the Canadian Football League."
Steve Sarkisian	Visor	Black visor. All day. Every game. ... I just started wearing a black visor when I was an assistant, and I never changed.
David Shaw	Cap	"I've had a sunburn on top of my head before, and I won't let it happen again."
Mike Stoops	Visor	"Just the style."
Jeff Tedford	Cap	"Because I don't wanna burn my bald head."
Kyle Whittingham	"Usually neither and never sunglasses."	"If the sun is a factor on our sidelines, I prefer a hat. It is my belief that a visor should only be worn by 'The Head Ball Coach.'"
Paul Wulff	Cap	"If it's sunny and warm, I wear a visor. Anything else I wear caps, so I just generally wear caps more often than visors."

Results: Visor, 6; Cap, 5; Neither, 1.

Click here for the Pac-12 Coaches Questionnaire, Part 1

Click here for the Pac-12 Coaches Questionnaire, Part 2

Click here for the SEC Coaches Questionnaire

Thomas Neumann is an editor for Page 2.

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