Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman is being accused of code-switching after a segment on College Gameday revealed how he talks around his teammates. It is hard to ignore the variance in his elocution and cadence.
Why does the 21-year-old sound different when speaking to/around certain people?
For those who don’t know, code-switching is formally defined as “the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation.” In this specific instance, it would be the latter. This kind of code-switching might be better described as “the modifying of speech, appearance, or behavior to adapt to sociocultural norms.”
Weigman is from Cypress, Texas, a community just northwest of Houston with approximately 200,000 people. It boasts an average annual income of $138,000. His alma mater, Bridgeland High School, is a top 200 school in the state— which has more than 2,000 high schools in total.
As a former five-star prospect in the college football recruiting Class of 2022, Weigman committed to Texas A&M over 18 offers from Arkansas, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, SMU and Missouri, among others. He spent his freshman season as the third-string quarterback with the intention of redshirting. He went 3-1 in four starts as a sophomore last fall.
There was a lot of hype about Weigman’s third year with the Aggies. College Gameday was in College Station for Saturday’s season-opener against Notre Dame. It did a feature on Oz the Mentalist’s visit to the Texas A&M locker room.
Conner Weigman had his mind blown!
Oz never fails to do the unthinkable.
However, viewers at home were perhaps more intrigued with the manner in which Conner Weigman spoke to his teammates and to the Mentalist. They noticed that he didn’t sound the same as he does in other scenarios.
Take his interview from April for example:
Weigman’s conversation with Greg Powers in July 2021 provides an even greater contrast.
This ongoing dialogue about “code-switching” is entirely subjective and open to interpretation. With that being said, there is a clear discrepancy in his delivery. Conner Weigman speaks differently in different situations.