Trendspotting: "At Least It Wasn't Appalachian State," Say Embattled Coaches

Trendspotting: are you the coach of a team that's just squeezed out an ugly victory over a I-AA team? Are you on the hotseat after years of middling to mediocre performances? Worried you might lose your job? Generally testy? Make sure you let 'em know things could be worse:

Offensive coordinator David Lee was just happy to get a victory.

"At least this one didn't turn out to be an Appalachian State deal, a loss," he said. "We weren't there. I had a bunch of things scripted as far as plays to start the game and after that first snap, we dumped it."

Lee is Arkansas' offensive coordinator; the quote came in the immediate aftermath of the Razorbacks' ugly, close-ish 34-15 victory over Tennessee-Chattanooga. Tommy Bowden made similarly themed comments after an ugly Clemson win earlier this year, though he later called Lloyd Carr an offered a clarification on the matter.*
SMQB has been on this from the moment it happened: one unfortunate side effect of the Appalachian State game other than the complete destruction of hope, innocence, and faith amongst Michigan alumni nationwide has been the quasi-legitimation the upset has brought these shameful cupcake walkovers. Yes, coaches coming off a narrow win against a I-AA opponent, once in the history of these matchups has an actually good (and by "good" I mean "not good, but probably bowl-eligible") BCS team lost. That does not make your escape nobler in any way.

*(Wonder how that went: "Hey, Lloyd, you know that thing where I brought up Appalachian State and implied that at least we weren't you guys? Yeah. Well, uh... thanks!")

(HT: The RazorBlogger Network.)