Twitter.com can be a hard-to-use website.
Sometimes even the most experienced Twitter users can accidentally air dirty laundry publicly when they mean to send a private direct message.
Nevada head football coach Brian Polian became the latest in the college football realm Monday evening when he accidentally fired off a spicy shot across the bow evidently directed towards Arizona State University:
It's the Internet, Mr. Polian. Nothing is ever deleted. @MichaelLKatz pic.twitter.com/MYk4Uc7nUQ
— Chase Glorfield (@SirGingerBeard4) February 2, 2016
With National Signing Day less than two days away, Polian ostensibly meant to private message a recruit (which is allowed) who was considering the Wolfpack and the Sun Devils instead of, well, publicly criticizing the opposing institution.
Arizona State is tied for the 129th-ranked national university in the latest edition of the U.S. News & World Report National University rankings while Nevada-Reno checks in tied at No. 189.
Arizona State's official Twitter account didn't take the accident lying down:
ASU has the 16th-most Academic All-Americans in the nation and is ranked the No. 1 Most Innovative School in the nation. #SunDevilPride
— Sun Devil Athletics (@TheSunDevils) February 2, 2016
Sun Devils fans were predictably not thrilled at the slight either:
@BrianPolian looks like you'll be getting that "ed" on how to tweet properly! Sounds like you could use help from someone at ASU #Forksup
— Nitrowarrior (@cwarrior9) February 2, 2016
@BrianPolian Top 25 business and engineering program. Top college honors program in U.S. Yeah, I guess ASU offers mediocre education.
— JTEdwards (@James85285) February 2, 2016
College football -- particularly in the recruiting sphere -- is no stranger to direct messages accidentally being sent as tweets. UCLA's head football coach Jim L. Mora (or the staff behind his Twitter account) once unknowingly committed an extremely minor NCAA violation when he publicly named a recruit with an infographic he almost assuredly meant to direct message. Mora's account played the ever popular "I was hacked" card but probably still got the institution a finger wagging through the mail from college sports' governing body.
Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford on the other hand mistakenly shared a bizarre Bing search regarding a white supremacy group when he apparently meant to tweet out a cautionary tale about prospective student athletes.
Be careful out there, college football coaches of social media.