Montana coach freezes out student paper

Hauck has mastered the art of talking without saying much. Most vanilla answers you could ever imagine.

As for the Kaimin, I think both sides are at fault. On one hand, the student reporter pushed too far when asking about the assault thing. He had done his research and had enough facts to write the story. He asked for a comment, Hauck didn't walk to talk. Hardly the first time that's ever happened. When a subject doesn't want to respond, you don't have to ask the same question over and over. You move on. I suspect the student reporter will learn this.

For the record, I admire the paper for doing the Trumaine Johnson story. I'm just saying the reporter pressed the issue too far with Hauck once it was clear the coach wasn't going to say anything.

Many of us have done stories where a subject didn't want to talk. You get your info from other sources and write the story from there and just say "So-and-so declined to comment".

Hauck, as the adult, the professional, should be bigger than that. He should let it go. He doesn't accomplish anything by carrying a grudge for an entire season. His behavior is making the entire program look bad. Report is he has the players refusing to talk to the paper as well. Whether that's a coach's order or the players' own decisions is unclear.

Nobody wins in these things.

 

Even though Hauck is a smug son of a gun, I got a few tremendous quotes after the game I had to cover.

 

Some interesting comments on the Billings newspaper site:

Casual Fan said on: October 21, 2009, 5:29 pm
To the student newspaper: Way to scoop the mainstream media and local newspaper! Great job! My advice to you, continue doing what you're doing. Keep asking questions, even if the immature Coach and players refuse to answer. My suggestion is quote them verbatim, whatever their response, and continue making them look like idiots in your paper -- it really does work. Eventually they'll tire of looking like idiots and start answering the questions.
Above all else, do NOT be intimidated by Hauck. He's minor league. If you can't handle him, you might as well find a new career path.
As for you, Coach Hauck, you can try to cover up the wrongdoings of your players, but once the cat is out of the bag, you best take responsibility and move on. Instead, you got into a hissy-fit and got mad at the students for reporting the news. Now look at what you've done. You've drawn national attention to yourself. You deserve all the negativity pointed your way. My suggestion to you is, apologize to the student reporters and start acting like an adult.


jtshombre said on: October 21, 2009, 5:06 pm
Well it confirms the impression he's given me, that he's a class A tool. There is a double standard going on here, MSU fired their coach over player conduct, but when it happens in Missoula, the team the whole state has adopted because they've won for a few years, well now, he can't be responsible for the conduct of his players and now he won't even answer questions to the student newspaper about it?

Wow, the maturity level of the Missoula head coach is truly stellar, and a shining example that represents the best of Montana schools & sports, (heavy sarcasm obviously).

Makes me even happier that I went to MSU. Football shouldn't be the sole criteria by which a school is judged, and Mr. Hauck is certainly making a national impression and making all of Montana look bad.

Grow up Bobby...

 

i've seen bobby act like a dick to another reporter before — give the one-word answers and act smug. it never hit me that maybe he confused the poor guy for being with the campus paper.

 

We had something like this happen to us when I was the sports editor of a student paper at a BCS school. I wrote a (factually correct and admittedly pretty scathing) column saying that the coach there had pretty much sealed his fate following another huge loss and said he would be fired at the end of the season. I took no personal shots but pointed out his less admirable coaching traits. He didn't lock us out of full media interviews but he wouldn't answer our questions if he knew where we were from. I remember I sent a reporter to practice one day and he walked away from her when she told him she was from our paper.

Oh, and turns out he was canned at the end of the season. The accompanying editorial cartoon was kickass though. I'm still proud of that package and wouldn't do it over again.

 

Of course, the MSU situation involved drug dealing and a murder. Pretty sure that would get anybody fired.

 

To be fair, a Grizzly football player did commit a homicide on Bobby's watch. But a two hung jurys failed to conclude whether or not it was murder. And several football players robbed a drug dealer last year and pistol whipped him.

 

I was surprised that the Missoulian didn't have up-to-date Macs. Usually, colleges are good about keeping at the forefront of technology.

 

There's a side of me that would love to cover this coach. . .I'm at a stage of my life -- and career -- where I would tell him what an ass he is.

 

Sounds like Montana football players have a bit too much time on their hands.

 

He was in Baghdad. His name is Bob.