On The Clock
Mike Gottfried

Mike Gottfried is ESPN's No. 1 college football analyst and one of the most respected on television. Before his television career Gottfried was a pretty good head football coach too (77-54-6), with stops at Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas and Pittsburgh (26-17-12).

The Pittsburgh Sports Report's George Von Benko recently put Mike Gottfried "On The Clock".

PSR: Your general thoughts on the Bowl Championship Series after the tweaking they've done to the system?

MG: I don't think it's much different. I still like the idea of a playoff or even the bowl system the way it is now and then play one game after the bowl system. Take two teams and play them for the championship—like last year—play probably Oregon and Miami.

PSR: What about in the area of recruiting—any changes you would like to see implemented there? MG: I think for the most part I agree with the recruiting rules. The one area that I think is wrong is that coaches— you know when you recruit a kid you are responsible for him and you get blasted if they get in trouble, which is the way it should be—you're responsible for them. But I'd like to see the head coach get out more and be able to get into the homes more. Now you're restricted to how many times you can get out to actually meet the prospect. It takes a couple of times to really get to know the character of a family and get to know the character of a young athlete and how interested he is in graduating, how interested he is in playing football for you and your university.

PSR: Are you a proponent of the bowl system as it is right now?

MG: Yeah, I like the bowl system. As a matter of fact we started a bowl—the GMAC Bowl down here in Mobile, AL. It has gone very well and last year we had an instant classic in Marshall and East Carolina 64-61. There are leagues like the Mid—American Conference and they really deserve more bowl bids than they get. They've only gotten one for all these years and when you look at the ninth SEC team or the eighth Big Ten team, I'm not interested in in those games. I'd like to have a more hungry team that really wants to be at the bowl game and it's a reward rather than something that's a daily occurrence.

PSR: Some of the changes that you wanted at Pitt have been instituted—such as more points of entry into the school.

MG: I think that's great because what I used to look at when we were competing against Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame and West Virginia and Syracuse and all those schools, we used to look at the point of entry—the business school, journalism school—different areas that you could get into at Penn State or Ohio State, and we were very limited. If we had business people, unless they were truly wanting to come to the University of Pittsburgh for football and not for an area of study, then we would have a shot. But if they were certain that they wanted to be in a certain area of study that we didn't have, we were probably going to lose them.

PSR: Do you still have the coaching bug and long to coach again?

MG: No I don't think so. I really am enjoying what I'm doing and what television has afforded me is an opportunity to start a boy's camp down here in Alabama and in Ohio for boys without fathers. So we have two camps in Alabama and we've had a camp in Ohio and I would like to take it national. You know I grew up without a father so I know the problem that causes sometimes. The father really affirms the young man and he gives him affection and attention and what I see is a lot of boys from the ages of eight to sixteen that are struggling a little bit.