As the Debbie Yow/Gary Williams feud rolls on, it's time to address one of the more comical things said in all of this. To review: Yow claimed Williams "sabotaged" her coaching search at N.C. State, suggesting this in new coach Mark Gottfried's introductory press conference. Williams denied the claim, of course, and Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports rushed to Yow's defense by calling Williams a "spineless little fraction of a man" for not returning his call.
The most amusing thing in all of this, though, is that Doyel said on the radio Tuesday that Yow doesn't have a big ego. John Feinstein, who knows the Yow/Williams relationship better than almost anyone, went on "The Sports Junkies" on 106.7 The Fan Wednesday morning to cry foul on that claim.
"Debbie Yow's ego wouldn't fit inside the Comcast Center," Feinstein said. "Gregg obviously doesn't know Debbie Yow very well or spent much quality time with her."
That was just one shot Feinstein took at Yow during his appearance. Another one came when he recounted a story about how he used to work with Yow and Maryland on planning the BB&T Classic.
"Gary would have to come in and save the day because Debbie always wanted double the money," Feinstein said. "It got to the point where in one meeting, I finally turned to her and said 'Debbie, this isn't the University of Maryland charity classic. It's the children's charity classic. We don't want Maryland to get hurt, but we're not staging this event to get some extra money into your athletic department's budget.' She either didn't get it or didn't want to get it."
Feinstein's theory is that Yow lashed out because she was embarrassed by the way the N.C. State coaching search went, with Shaka Smart and several others turning the position down. He said Yow is under a lot of pressure, and it got to her.
"I think she's been publicly embarrased, and she's not used to that. When Shaka Smart says, 'I would rather work at VCU for a million dollars less than come and work for you, which is what he basically said two days ago, that's embarrassing if you're an athletic director still trying to prove yourself to your new constituency down at NC State which had a lot of doubts when she was hired," he said.
"When she was hired, a lot of people were saying, 'By the way, are you aware that this is different person than [former AD] Kay Yow that you hired?' This is the first important thing you've done on the job, and you produced Mark Gottfried? It's sort of the equivalent of Kevin Anderson pulling Randy Edsall out of the hat."