Sunday night’s "SportsCenter" conversation between Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi provided the "most provocative moment of the college football week," according to John Walters of THE ATHLETIC. Rinaldi was "outstanding," as his questions were "direct and incisive without ever being melodramatic." Rinaldi "listened to Meyer’s replies like an astute prosecutor and then used those answers to hoist Meyer with his own petard" (THEATHLETIC.com, 9/17). Former ESPN reporter Ed Werder tweeted, "Rinaldi with a interviewing clinic on subtly demanding Urban Meyer more fully answer his question by gently pressuring for more and using awkward silence to advantage." ESPN's Mike Greenberg: "Rinaldi has been at the top of our profession for a long time. But he’s never done a better job than he did with that interview." The Athletic's Stewart Mandel: "Rinaldi asks a lot of tough questions here. Much respect for how he conducted this." ESPN's Steffi Sorensen: "How to properly conduct an interview: Tom Rinaldi." Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson: "Rinaldi is superb at his (many) job(s)." NFL reporter Paul Kuharsky: "Rinaldi interview of Meyer was pitch perfect. And if Urban thinks that helped him with anyone who didn’t already have blind faith in him, well he couldn’t be more wrong." Michigan radio personality Jack Ebling: "In thousands of interviews over 40 years of writing and broadcasting, I just wish I’d done as good a job as Tom Rinaldi did with Urban Meyer."
