Off-Topic » s, which were hoping to change soon. But what it means

This story appears in ESPN The Magazines College Football Preview issue. Subscribe today!?Out there?...? snip?...?Jim is a really big deal?...?snip snipIn here, in this chair, hes still a big deal?...?snip snip snip?...?we just dont treat him like one ... we treat him like Jim.snipBill Stolberg is talking, snipping, smiling, just as he has for the past four decades, holding court in the flatiron-shaped building at the crossroads of the University of Michigan campus. Hes talking about Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh, whose haircut is crafted within this very Barbicide-anointed shrine, the State Street Barber Shop.He just comes in and sits right there, says Stolberg, pointing to the window seat. I dont know when hes coming. I dont make a big deal out of it when he does. He reads the newspaper, and we talk about anything but football?...?unless, of course, he wants to talk football. But I dont think thats why he comes here. He comes here to just feel like a regular guy for a few minutes. There arent many places in this town where he can do that.There arent many places in any college town where a headliner football coach can do that. Players come and go. The coach is the biggest star, and everywhere he goes, hes on the job. Every grocery run includes free recruiting tips from dads picking up milk. The oil-change tech has suggestions on how to defend the spread. Every sandwich comes with a side of Coach, can we take a selfie? And so it is that big-time coaches face the eternal search for an oasis, be it on a lake, in a corner booth, under a car, anyplace theyll be mostly left alone -- even if said refuge is covered in hair clippings. Heres your exclusive tour of the nations coaching hideouts.Can you hear him now? No? Good. North Carolina coach Larry Fedora finds a cloak of invisibility beneath his beloved 64 Corvette. Its a funny thing. When Im working on my Vette, my cellphone doesnt seem to work all that great, he says.Walking in a briar patchWhen he arrived at Washington State in 2011, Mike Leach took up walking to and from the office, usually even in winter. The trek takes him 40-55 minutes, including a 10-15 minute hike through a field of garbanzo beans that leaves his socks covered in burrs. Its also good exercise, Leach once noted: Two birds, one stone.Dead turkeys dont offer game plansFlorida States Jimbo Fisher wanders into the woods of southern Georgia to hunt turkeys. Says Fisher: I have yet to have a turkey tell me what I should do to stop Deshaun Watson.A 3-iron and a bucket of ballsFor Bob Stoops, entering his 18th season at Oklahoma, sanctuary is the far end of the university golf course driving range. In the offseason, he might sneak in nine holes before anyone notices the most famous Sooner is going for the green in two. You have to go somewhere other than the film room, and you have to go somewhere where there basically isnt a football to be found.No one got between the Bear and his ham steakAt the Waysider in Tuscaloosa, Alabamas Paul Bear Bryant ate the same breakfast-ham steak and eggs-at the same table nearly every weekday morning. Back then, people wouldnt bother him. Today, 33 years after his death, people still sit in that two-seat corner table topped by the coachs bust.Take a seat at the Table of Truth Another OU legend, Barry Switzer, found peace at the Table of Truth at Othellos Italian restaurant in Norman. The eaterys owner is said to have established the table that, legend has it, will shake if you tell a lie while sitting there.The purifying waters of Lake BurtonAlabamas Nick Saban hides at Lake Burton in the northeast corner of Georgia, tooling around on his pontoon boat with wife Terry. Hugh Freeze of Ole Miss, who also has a place there, says Saban just shows up at my place on his Jet Ski. The six-time national champion explains: I have two normals. I have football normal, and I have lake normal.Overtime on relaxingFrank Beamer, just retired from Virginia Tech, says he could never relax when he was coaching so hes working overtime on relaxing now. He was reacting to a recently tweeted photo of himself, from a parody account, being pampered in a salon with the caption: [That feeling when] you give the exact same press conference for 28 years and then go get a pedicure and milkshake.Losing himself in books Now-retired legend Steve Spurrier, widely known as the most competitive coach-golfer, is also a ravenous reader who kept a huge library at home and the office, half football, half non-football.Mack Brown: the Jason Bourne of dining ESPN analyst Mack Brown found himself under constant attention during his 16 years at Texas. Eating out? Impossible. There were places in Austin that would take care of us and get us a back room, but by halfway through the meal word was out and people were lining up to ask for photos once we were done. When dinners became largely take-home, arriving at home usually meant a fan or two waiting in the driveway.Hiding in plain sightSeattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he had no such problems while leading USC from 2001 to 09. I have no idea how those guys in the South do it, Carroll says. When I was in LA, we could lose a game and I could go to dinner that night and no one would say a word. They were looking for George Clooney or someone from Friends. In Tuscaloosa or Austin, youre George Clooney or the guy from Friends.Or ... just blending inFirst-year Miami coach Mark Richt, who just spent 15 seasons burning like an ant under the magnifying glass of Athens, Georgia, says he has long found solace by retreating into normal life. Richt confesses: Theres a lot of comfort in having other parents just treat you like another dad at the ballfield.A-OK with just a VCR Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, a hard-core NASCAR fan, still has a VHS tape library of races he recorded in the 1990s. When he wants to relax, he pops in a tape from a favorite race-especially those won by Jeff Gordon.Remember me?Lake Burton, Sabans refuge, also was a hangout for longtime Georgia coach Vince Dooley. He still goes today, at age 83, but no longer has to hide. You know, a funny thing happens when you havent been coaching for a while, he says. All those places you used to go and it felt like such a hassle when everyone would bother you ... now you catch yourself going to those places and looking around, wondering, Hey, does anybody in here realize who I am?And therein lies the secret about the coaching spotlight they so?long to escape. Deep down, they dig it. Kyrie Irving Shoes Deals . Nigeria beat surprise package Ethiopia 2-0 in the second leg of their playoff for a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory. Victor Moses converted a 20th-minute penalty after an Ethiopian handball, and Victor Obinna made certain of Nigerias place in Brazil with his powerful free kick in the 82nd at UJ Esuene Stadium. Wholesale Kyrie Irving Shoes . -- On the field, it was business as usual for Jameis Winston and No. https://www.cheapshoeskyrieirving.com/ . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. Cheap Kyrie Irving Shoes .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Clearance Kyrie Irving Shoes . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. RIO DE JANEIRO -- You know a sporting event starts pretty late when Cinderella is unable to attend because her chariot has already turned into a pumpkin in the parking lot.The first beach volleyball match of these Olympics for Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross was scheduled to start Saturday night at midnight local time. Yes, a midnight start! Which meant it technically was not a Saturday night match but a Sunday morning match. Not only that, but the match that was played ahead of them went longer than expected, so the first serve was pushed back to 12:34 a.m.Walsh Jennings says it was the latest match she has ever played, which is saying something considering she turns 38 next week and these are her fourth Olympics. She says her previous latest start was probably 11 p.m. in London at the 2012 Olympics. Still, she said that she loved the start time early Sunday morning.It is a party atmosphere, she said after beating Australias Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Nikki Laird 21-14, 21-13 in a little over 30 minutes. Especially under the lights at night. The Brazilians get louder at night, and our fans were amazing tonight.Plus, Ross said, Were night owls.Thats good, because the pair has at least one other midnight match on the schedule, and could have a third as well because the gold medal match is set for a midnight start, too.Walsh Jennings is certainly a prime candidate to play in that championship match -- she and former partner Misty May Treanor won gold at Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. And she apparently is quite comfortable with playing even later than The Late Late Show host James Cordens carpool karaoke segments are televised. It felt magical out there, she said.Well, why wouldnt it seem magical considering where beach volleyball is being played at these Olympics?Unlike other Olympic sites such as Atlanta, Beijing or London, beach volleyball here is being played on an actual beach. While the beach volleyball venue in London was played on trucked-in sand at the Horse Guards Parade grounds just outside the prime ministers residence at No. 10 Downing Street, the Rio stadium is located smack dab on Copacabana beach. Sitting up high in the stands, you not only see the players battling away on the white sands, you can see the white crests of waves crashing onto the sand just behind the stadium. And during the day, you can also see people walking and jogging on the beach, sunbathing on the sand or kite surfing.Trust mme, its a whole lot more spectacular than watching matches on imported sand amid the Beijing smog.ddddddddddddThe sounds are as invigorating as the setting. As always at beach volleyball, infectious music plays constantly over the loudspeakers. Dont Stop Believing. Uptown Funk. Cant Hold Us. Down Under. Get Happy. Beat It. La Bomba. Shut Up and Dance. Even the Darth Vader theme song played. The fans bounced and danced and swayed and waved their national flags and had the time of their lives.Parties go on late here in Rio, and were OK with that, said EJ Bituin, a fan from Chicago. As long as the beer is flowing.The venue also boasts a huge seating capacity of 12,000, with row after row rising so steeply and so high that you almost expect to see the Christ the Redeemer statue leading the fans in a samba.Its amazing. Its the best venue that weve ever seen as beach volleyballers, Laird said. And I say that as a 23-year-old, but its the same thing Ive heard from Kerri Walsh, and shes played in four Olympics now. Its a really cool venue.Brazilians are a lot more passionate about beach volleyball than Australians, which were hoping to change soon. But what it means is you can fill up a stadium with 12,000 fans here.Unfortunately, the stadium was only about half-full for the late matches, though that is probably not because of the start times as much as the high ticket prices in this financially strapped country that otherwise adores beach volleyball.Swiss player Isabelle Forrer said the stadiums steepness increased the volume of the fan noise and brought even more energy down to the players -- which they kind of needed given that they were playing so late.Its a flexible sport, Forrer said about the wide range of start times. We have seen a lot already [in our careers]. We have played late games, we have played really early games. We just try to manage our rhythm before the games and see how we manage for the next one we play at 10 a.m. Its something we cant change so we dont discuss it.Of course, with the vibrant atmosphere of the venue, the late start time wasnt an issue. They might actually be good, since the hot afternoon sun isnt baking down on the players or the fans.It didnt really feel like midnight out there, Artacho del Solar said after the match. Then she paused and added at shortly after 1:30 a.m.: But now it does. ' ' '