After an Arizona State practice, head coach Herm Edwards referred to dropping underperforming players from his roster:

That set off the internet’s React To Herm Edwards’ Statements By Pretending He’s Never Heard Of Any College Football Rules Whatsoever machine. “How dare a coach take away players’ scholarships! This ain’t the NFL!”

(Previous example: that time he said some actually pretty normal stuff about how recruiting works and had the internet rolling on the floor giggling.)

Edwards was an unconventional hire by Arizona State, to say the least, considering his extreme lack of college coaching experience. This website has joked about and struggled to understand the hire just like almost everyone else.

But come on. Listen to what he actually said about scholarships.

“They’re not gonna lose their scholarships. We’re not taking scholarships. Their scholarships are good. They might not participate as an athlete; they might just be students.”

A non-secret, for anyone just now joining us: every college football team does this, and so do plenty of teams in other sports. Booting players from the locker room, but leaving them on scholarship, is not something Edwards came up with on his own.

We can disagree with coaches like Edwards on whether it’s right and fair, of course. His comment about injured players magically feeling better when told they’re hard to evaluate is another contentious coaching sentiment that Edwards didn’t invent.

Edwards has said some really out there stuff since he took over at ASU. This is a deeply bizarre hire, and no one knows how it’s gonna work out. We don’t have to act like everything he says is made up on the spot, though.