Oregon State Coach Apologizes For Using Lewd Gesture To Instruct Players To Milk The Clock

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Most college football teams have a wide variety of signals and gestures they rely on to communicate play calls and other strategic decisions during a game, and Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith opted to issue an apology for the one he deployed toward the end of his team’s upset over Utah.

Utah headed into that contest ranked at No. 10, and while the Beavers were sitting at No. 19, they were still favored to win by around four points before the two squads that are technically still part of the Pac-12 faced off at Reser Stadium on Friday night.

Oregon State opened up the scoring with a touchdown on its first drive in the first quarter and never really looked back, as the team scored 21 unanswered points before the Utes were able to get on the board with their only TD of the game with around five minutes remaining in a contest where the Beavers walked away with the 21-7 victory.

Smith’s squad ended up with possession of the ball in the closing minutes, and while Oregon State was never really in danger of blowing the lead, their head coach made sure his players knew their top priority was milking the clock—a message he delivered by grabbing both of his nipples and giving them a light squeeze.

It was a pretty inoffensive gesture but one that understandably attracted a fair amount of attention thanks to its fairly unconventional nature.

On Monday, Smith recapped the contest during a press conference where he went out of his way to apologize while stating “I won’t be using that signal again” after stressing the importance of reviewing game tape to evaluate the decisions made by his players as well as himself.

I don’t think there was anyone who was really up in arms about the signal, but I guess it never hurts to err on the side of caution.