Trailing 31-24 at home at the half against Stanford Saturday, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly was frustrated by both his team’s play and an apparent lack of quality time with the officiating crew as he headed off the field toward the locker room.
During what is most times and at best a bland, drivel-laden “interview” with a talking sideline Barbie, Kelly allowed said frustration to get the best of him, insinuating that Cardinal head coach Jim Harbaugh and the officials were somehow friendly and intimating it was affecting the way the game was being called.
For those who can’t click on the player because your boss is one of those hyper-sticklers who insists on his employees doing actual work while on the clock, here’s Kelly’s money quote, when asked by ESPN’s Erin Andrews why he was yelling at officials:
“I just want to know why they won’t come talk to us, I think Jim and him [the lead official] got friends, I don’t know. I just want some explanation on some things.”
That comment in particular did not sit well in the Pac-10 offices, and, for his mini-outburst, was on the receiving end of a public reprimand, which in some corners is also referred to as a slap on the wrist.
“The Pac-10 has specific rules that prohibit our coaches from making public comments about officiating, and this prohibition specifically includes comments that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference’sofficiating program,” commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “The Conference expects each Pac-10 coach to adhere to our standards of conduct and to conduct himself orherself in a manner which will reflect credit on the institution and the Conference.”