Coaches' bark adds spice to an already flavorful college football season

Pointed realignment rhetoric. An old-school lack-of-toughness dig. And a new-school insult: They’re fighting for clicks! All this side drama made its way into our college football viewing experience on a Saturday chock-full of marquee matchups.

And the viral sound bites from a handful of perturbed coaches serve only to add a hefty dose of spice to an already flavorful season.

Ohio State’s Ryan Day vs. Lou Holtz.

Washington State’s Jake Dickert vs. ESPN’s Lee Corso.

Oregon’s Dan Lanning vs. Colorado’s alleged clickbait marketing strategy.

All three coaches sounded off Saturday as early-season ratings continue to surge across all power leagues. 

The tenor of the season? Feisty and edgy. And it’s all the more interesting for it.

Pac-2 teams are trying to win on the field and not be left behind off of it. Colorado’s team branding strategy comes under fire by an Oregon coach whose entire athletic department is boosted by the marketing maven who embraced Deion Sanders pre-game – Phil Knight. And Day is mad at an 86-year-old Notre Dame booster named Holtz, who won the national title in South Bend when Day was 9 years old.

Coaches are keeping receipts, players want all the smoke – and fans (whether they grasp the Gen Z lingo or not) are here for it all.

Viewers tuned into college football’s big weekend

In total, 10 games Saturday attracted at least two million viewers – and Michigan–Rutgers nearly made it 11 despite a 24-point Wolverines victory, according to Sports Media Watch.

Flora Kelly, ESPN’s vice president of research, tweeted that, excluding rivalry week, Saturday was the most-watched regular season college football Saturday ever, with nearly 12 billion – yes, billion – total minutes consumed across all rated networks.

It’s more evidence underscoring heightened interest in this college football season. Doomsday predictions by NIL critics had no merit.

The biggest number came from the much-anticipated primetime showdown between Ohio State and Notre Dame. Official data on Tuesday elevated the game’s viewership to 10.6 million. The game had all the savory ingredients, with two national brands and a climactic ending, in which Ohio State scored in the final seconds against 10 Notre Dame defenders.

It was NBC’s most-watched regular-season game since the fabled 1993 so-called “Game of the Century” between Notre Dame and Florida State in South Bend.

The Fighting Irish coach from that game, Holtz, entered into the fray last week by saying Notre Dame would beat the Buckeyes because of a physicality advantage. Minutes after Saturday night’s win, Day’s mind was squarely on Holtz’s attempt to wake up the echoes.

“I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now,” Day said. “What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio. And it’s always been Ohio against the world. And it’ll continue to be Ohio against the world.”

But in a couple of months, it will be Ohio State against Michigan, and that’s a much more formidable battle for Day than trying to find the whereabouts of an 86-year-old on a late Saturday night.

Fighting for clicks vs. fighting for wins

Across the country, Oregon’s 42-6 annihilation of Colorado attracted 10.03 million viewers despite the Ducks early on ending all suspense regarding the outcome. The most memorable aspect of the broadcast was when ABC showed Lanning’s pre-game speech. The viral clip captured Lanning firing up the Ducks by hurling an arrow directly at the perpetually viral Buffaloes.

“They’re fighting for clicks,” Lanning hollered. “We’re fighting for wins.”

Coach Prime’s squad has been the sport’s most talked about and most celebrated team for a month, with network morning shows fawning over his impact and their resurgence. Don’t expect that spotlight to dim this week, as the Buffaloes (3-1) prepare to host USC on Saturday, a matchup sure to be a ratings bonanza regardless of the final score.

ABC’s strong Saturday began with a robust 6.71 million watching the best the ACC can offer: Florida State-Clemson. The Seminoles remained in prime position for a College Football Playoff berth by eliminating Clemson from that discussion in overtime.

WSU one of college football’s best stories

Two of the best stories in college football emanate from the Pacific Northwest, where Oregon State and Washington State stand as contenders in a loaded Pac-12, which boasts four schools in the top 10. Both OSU and WSU are winning in court against their own beleaguered commissioner – and on the field.

The two remaining schools in a league that will otherwise dissolve after this year engaged in a competitive 38-35 game, with Washington State remaining undefeated and wielding a massive chip on its shoulder.

After the game, Dickert took issue with what Corso appeared to say on ESPN College GameDay. It’s unclear whether Corse called the game the “no-one watches bowl” or the “no-one wants us bowl.” Either way, it drew Dickert’s ire.

“I caught something this morning, I was watching GameDay, and Corso comes on and he says ‘The no-one watches bowl,’” Dickert said. “And I don’t really understand that. What’s the merit, once again? Because the facts say people watch the Cougs and the people watch the Cougs more than every team that’s left over in the Big 12.”

Dickert is right – people do watch the Cougars. Some 1.48 tuned in Saturday on FOX, a number that eclipsed the 1.32 million who watched two other Pac-12 contenders, UCLA and Utah, earlier in the day on the same network. Both OSU and WSU, abandoned by conference members who spent the past year pledging unity, are stories sports fans can rally behind.

As October fast approaches, the temperature of coaches’ rhetoric is rising. The tenor is feisty and edgy. And at least for one Saturday, it had nothing to do with anything uttered by Deion.