Media and the Utes

I walked up to Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn, Tuesday, to interview him. Before I began, I half-jokingly said to him, “Are you getting tired of this yet?”

“Whew!” he said, shaking his head. “So tired.”

He even looked tired.

One aspect that is seldom considered in major college football is the mental drain of dealing with the media each week. Players have their studies and their football and, naturally, the media.
It’s not as all-consuming as one might think. At Utah and BYU, players are only available to the media up through Wednesday of a game week. That gives them plenty of room to concentrate solely on football and school.

Still, it’s a lot when you see Wynn answering the same questions repeatedly. Then you turn on the radio and hear the same questions there, too.

The number of media wanting to interview top college players has grown significantly. Though most colleges limit the number of bloggers who can attend practice and conduct interviews, there are still some dot-coms that are included, such as cbssports.com, espn.com, etc. Beyond that, the newspapers and electronic media have amped up their coverage, too.
More reporters, more interviews.

At Wednesday’s practice, the Deseret News alone had four writers (including a food writer), plus another who had e-mailed the publicity department to get quotes.

It’s a dramatic shift from the simpler times in the 1970s and ’80s. I remember interviewing a Utah State football player ON THE MORNING OF A ROAD GAME one year. I asked him some questions I guess the coach didn’t like, so he took the “extreme” step of banning game-day interviews.

Friday interviews? You were still good to go.

Now, with rare exception, media can’t talk to a player any later than 72 hours prior to the game.