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Editor's note: For the full audio of Norries Wilson's comments at the press conference, visit the DP's sports blog, The Buzz.

I don't know how Columbia coach Norries Wilson usually interacts with the media. But I had the privilege of sitting in on the first-year coach's press conference the other day after Penn's 16-0 win over the Lions, and in short, it was the most entertaining one I have ever been to.

Wilson ranted and raved for over six minutes saying things like: "There are assistant coaches on [Penn's] staff that talked to recruits and said, 'Don't go to Columbia because it's a bad school, because we got them beat.'"

He continued to say that Penn administrators "at halftime told our kids that they go to a JV school."

Later on, he criticized the officials ("it's hard to play, when you play 11 on 18"), The Columbia Daily Spectator (our players "work their butts off so you all can complain how bad they are"), the media in general ("if we handed you a pen, none of you could draw up a coverage or a front,"), Columbia officials ("there's some people, including people at the university where I work at, who are going to start respecting these young men") and even the Ivy League in general ("this league doesn't want a strong Columbia team").

He also threw out backhanded remarks about his quarterback and offensive coordinator to go along with his other comments.

After the press conferences were over, I asked Columbia's spokesperson if Wilson would be willing to clarify or substantiate some of the things he said. I was told that Wilson was unwilling and "it is what it is."

I understand some of where Wilson is coming from. Just about one year ago, I attended a symposium at Columbia about its athletic department's "culture of losing." The most interesting part of that was not that the athletic director, Dianne Murphy, and various coaches were committed to trying to win games, but that from their perspective, there is a negative bias against athletes and the athletic program at Columbia.

So I realize that it may be very difficult to try to resurrect a historically bad program like Columbia's football team and that Wilson was venting some understandable frustration on Saturday.

However, despite the entertainment value and breath of fresh air that his press conference gave us, most of the other things he said were out of place and inappropriate. And what he did on Saturday was make the game about himself, which I think and hope is the opposite of what he wants it to be and what it should have been about - his players and the football game.

If Penn is engaging in negative recruiting and administrators are taunting Columbia players, that is completely unacceptable and a serious charge. If Wilson had been willing to give more detailed examples or substantiate what he said, I would have had no problem with a coach complaining about things like that. But without details - and I am willing to give Wilson another call about them today - he is just like Jeff Van Gundy detailing a widespread NBA refereeing conspiracy.

Speaking of conspiracies, Columbia may be weak now and looked at as an easy win, but so is Dartmouth. And the Big Green has the most Ivy League football titles of any school. Every year there will be one or two bad teams in the league, and it's Wilson's job to change Columbia's place as one of them. The Ivy League and its teams couldn't care less what schools those are.

As for the officials on Saturday, I did think that there was one holding call missed on a Penn touchdown. However, Quakers' coach Al Bagnoli said he thought the officials missed a few calls the other way. Either way, as a whole the missed calls definitely did not change the outcome of the game.

I have saved Wilson's attack on the media for last. I looked back at some previous articles in the Spectator, and there are some negative articles even amid Columbia's 3-1 start. But a press conference is not the time to call these out; a private meeting is.

And I am absolutely sick of coaches, players and even commentators on our own Web site who denigrate writers for "not knowing anything about sports." Obviously, writers generally do not have the same perspectives as players. But our job is to write about what we see. If people don't like it, they should tell us in a way that would help us understand their perspectives better, not in a way that insults our intelligence.

Norries Wilson was obviously angry and frustrated on Saturday, but he picked the wrong time and place to air his disgust.

Josh Hirsch is a senior urban studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.

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