Doug Gottlieb talking to Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal on Wednesday, September 15th.
Gottlieb: “I’m not going to bury the lead, I’m not going to soft-sell it, I’m just going to ask you – there is a job in your conference that just came open; when people mention your name for said-job what would your response be?”
Cristobal: “My response is Go Ducks.”
Gottlieb: “Any chance that you at least have a conversation about it?”
Cristobal: “I’m telling you again ‘Go Ducks’, I’m not sure why you brought me on this interview, I was under the impression that we were talking about the Oregon Ducks and what-not. Since we’ve gone this route I will reinforce it again – Go Ducks, so here I am buddy.”
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Doug Gottlieb: “So, here’s the problem with his defensiveness in the answer. If you want to take issue with ‘hey, ask it right out of the gate instead of warming him up’ or whatever, I gave him a chance with ‘hey, if somebody threw it out there what would you say?’ and he said ‘go Ducks.’ And then I said ‘is there any chance you would even have a conversation?’ All he has to say is ‘NO, not interested.’ Why wouldn’t you say ‘no, not interested'? He didn’t say ‘maybe’, but if we really want to parse words he didn’t say ‘no.’ If you want to end all speculation then end all speculation. Even if he says it I know people are going to be like ‘Nick Saban said that too!’ but you’re allowed to go ‘you asked me that one in September and things changed by the time we got to November.' Or said ‘I spent some time thinking about it and realizing I wanted a change’ or whatever. But if the answer is unequivocally ‘NO’ then don’t you just unequivocally say ‘NO’? If you want to say then no say, ‘NO’. If you want to say yes then say ‘YES’ otherwise you go ‘I don’t know, maybe.’ You could still be leaning 'no'. His felt like a ‘maybe.’ Saying ‘GO DUCKS’ is not even really close to an appropriate answer to the question. It feels like a crazy person in the room going ‘GO DUCKS!’ Did it seem weird to anybody else?? Am I supposed to not ask the question?” (Full Segment Above, Full Interview From Wednesday at the Bottom of the Page)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb discuss and defend his awkward interview moment with Oregon football coach Mario Cristobal earlier this week, as the two shared a brief cringeworthily exchange in the beginning of the interview when Gottlieb asked Cristobal about his potential interest in the USC opening in the wake of Clay Helton’s firing.
Check out the audio above as Gottlieb defends his hard-hitting opening question, and talks about other notable instances of ‘coach talk' when it comes to them discussing major job openings publicly when unknowingly asked by reporters.
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