The Effect of Head Coaches’ Post-Game Language on Subsequent Team Performance

How does a college football coach’s post-game press conference language impact the team’s subsequent performance in the next game? As an initial exploration of this question, we collected post-game press conference transcripts (https://www.asapsports.com/) for regular season games, head coaches only, for the years 2022 and 2023. We also collected data for the dependent variables from online databases, including an Excitement Index (https://collegefootballdata.com/exporter), and points scored and allowed, turnovers caused and allowed, and points against the spread (https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/). We utilized LIWC (https://www.liwc.app/) for textual analysis to provide scores for the independent variables of interest, including promotion and prevention focus, clout, analytic thinking, authenticity, emotional tone, and humor, among others. We analyzed the data with both binary logistic regressions and multiple linear regressions, and results indicate that prevention focus is consistently negatively associated with subsequent team performance, which is in line with empirical findings regarding Americans’ chronic regulatory foci. This study initiates the examination of the impact of coaches’ language, and we find evidence for the first time that a head coach’s language in a post-game press conference is associated with subsequent team performance. Future research may expand this empirical evidence to other sports, genders, and cultural contexts.