Brady Hoke calls headsets "overrated"

Just off the top of my head – and if you remember others, please leave them below – I can think of three recent college football head coaches who do or did not wear a headset on the sidelines.

One is Joe Paterno, who would only occasionally throw on a headset to communicate with his assistant coaches upstairs. More often than not, Paterno was headset-free.

Likewise with Bobby Bowden, though that was a later development during Bowden's long and distinguished career.

The third is Brady Hoke, the only active FBS head coach to not wear a headset on fall Saturdays.

Hoke's rationale is simple: headsets are "overrated."

Hoke gave the following opinion on wearing a headset during his weekly radio segment on WXYT-FM (Detroit):

"You ever watch guys on headsets? They don't say a word. This gives me an opportunity to coach kids during the course of a game. The game is a mental game. It's a game of emotion and enthusiasm, a game of teaching. No. 1, not wearing a headset, I get to teach on the sideline, and I get to be a real part of it. The other thing is, I do know what the calls are, because there's a guy standing right behind me who tells me every call that's going in."

Does Hoke make a solid case for going headset-less? He makes one very good point: Hoke's statement that coaches are less likely to interact with players when on a headset is entirely correct.

And there's really no reason for a head coach not directly involved with any offensive or defensive play-calling to wear a headset, right? Hoke delegates responsibility to his staff. Why does he need a headset, anyway?