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https://d2h6a3ly6ooodw.cloudfront.net/reasontv_audio_8299722.mp3 1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x :15 :15 Download Amanda Knox: ‘I Have Felt Utterly Exploited’ by True Crime

Amanda Knox’s story is one of the most infamous and controversial criminal cases in recent memory. In 2007, while studying abroad in Italy, she was accused of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in what the lead prosecutor claimed was a bizarre sex game gone wrong. Despite mishandled DNA, a coerced confession, and a lack of credible evidence, Knox was convicted and spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before being exonerated in 2015. Her wrongful conviction was a media spectacle that sensationalized every aspect of her life.

In March 2024, Huluannouncedan eight-episode limited series about Knox’s story, with Knox joining Monica Lewinsky as an executive producer. Notably, this is one of the rare times Knox has been offered a say in the way her story is told by others.

In October, Knox spoke withReason’s Billy Binion about her role in one of the first modern true crime stories, the psychological impact of being imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit, and what she calls “the single victim fallacy.” She hosts a podcast calledLabyrinthswith her partner, Christopher Robinson. Her bookFreeis set to be released in March 2025.

Reason: You were arrested and imprisoned in November 2007. Two years later, you were found guilty of a murder that you would ultimately be exonerated for. We know wrongful convictions happen across the world. There is someone, somewhere, right now in a similar situation. What would you say to that person if they were sitting in front of you?

Knox: I never want people to think that you can rely on the truth ultimately coming out. That is not something that we can count on necessarily. I can’t promise that justice will ultimately result in any of these cases.

There’s no telling how it’s going to work out. There’s a lot of factors that go into that. There’s luck. There’s the right people showing up at the right time. There’s the evidence coming through. There’s technology that becomes available. All of that plays into whether or not an innocent person is going to get out of prison and then successfully reintegrate into society. The thing that they always need to know, though, is it is entirely up to them to figure out how to be their best selves in these circumstances. That is their power, and no one can take that away from them.

But prison is pretty horrible, is it not?

It’s 100 percent a horrible place. When I was in that space, I woke up sad, I spent the whole day sad, and I went to bed sad. That was just my emotional default setting, which was very new to me. I was a very happy person up until this circumstance happened. That didn’t change the fact, though, that there was always something that I could do in any given day that would make it worth living. And it might be something really simple like writing a letter to my mom. It might be reading a book and educating myself. It might be doing as many sit-ups as I possibly could. There were always things that I could find that were meaningful to me, even in their humble ways that made at least life in that moment worth living.

Do you find that that’s transferable to people experiencing tragedies that have nothing to do with wrongful convictions?

Yes, I think it’s applicable to anyone going through a horrendous circumstance. I really thought that this experience I was going through was very unique and it made me feel very ostracized from the rest of humanity. That was part of the sadnessfeeling like I didn’t belong to the rest of humanity anymore. I slowly, over the course of years, have realized that we are all carrying our own private tragedies and we all can feel like we don’t have agency. And my message to people is, regardless of where you are and where you belong, there is something that you can do that matters to you. Find that and do it.

You’ve written about some of the more dramatic indignities that you experiencedconstantly being solicited for sex and harassed by people in positions of authority, a cellmate attacking you and not being able to defend yourself because it would’ve hurt your chances in court. Because you were ultimately exonerated, many people would be horrified on your behalf. But they should be horrified even if someone is guilty, right?

Absolutely. The indignities that so many people face in prisonguilty or innocent alikeare not doing any of us any good. A lot of the people that I met in prison were sitting there feeling victimized and feeling like they could not wait to get back out and make the same mistakes over and over again. It’s a little bit “fuck off.” There was this feeling of “I’m not sitting here becoming a better person. I’m sitting here being victimized all over again.”

So many of the women that I was imprisoned with had been victims of crime long before they had ever committed crimes themselves. They were swimming in a world where crime was a part of the rhythm of life and so was prison. Their sense of who they were and how they belonged to the rest of humanity was corrupted by a sense of victimization.

I think that some people might argue that vengeance is the point. It’s just the point of justice to make people suffer who made other people suffer. That’s the goal. And if that’s the goal, if that’s what you really think our society needs, then sure, we’re doing it right. But if what you want is a society that is safer, that is attempting to address the causes of crime in the first place and is attempting to mitigate circumstances that might lead to crimes, then you have to take a step back from that righteous indignation you feel toward a person who committed a crime and instead say, “What is it that works?” And what we’re doing right now is not working.

The “evidence” in your case was extremely spuriousmishandled DNA evidence, law enforcement lying under oath, and most importantly, a coerced confession where you implicated your boss at the time, Patrick Lumumba, after several days when you were screamed at for hours in a language you did not speak fluently. You were slapped several times. You got your period during the interrogation and weren’t allowed to use the restroom. What do people not understand about what effect that has on the mind?

It’s the biggest obstacle I feel to justice in so many of these wrongful convictions cases. Coercive interrogations and what happens behind closed doors with authority figures who are hell-bent on getting what they want out of witnesses or suspects: That side of the criminal justice system is very dark and very scary. A lot of people like to think that, if they were in my shoes, nothing short of being beaten with a rubber hose or dangled out a window would get them to implicate themselves or others in a crime that they knew they were innocent of. Obviously, the research speaks otherwise. But speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that I have never been put in a position of doubting my own sanity like I was in the hands of those police officers.

I was made to believe that I had repressed all memories of having witnessed a traumatic event but that now I was being forced to unearth repressed memories or else I would never see my family again. I was put in an impossible position where they reshaped my understanding of reality through lies and manipulation so that I felt like there was no possible answer besides the one that they eventually coerced me into signing ontowhich was that I had witnessed my boss commit a horrific crime and I was so traumatized by it that I could not even remember it. That was the story that they wanted me to tell. And once they had it, they latched onto it.

I think they were under a lot of pressure to come up with answers. Because there is this resistance to appreciating psychological coercion and torture, there was a resistance once the evidence was at hand. Thy saw, “Oh, this guy [named Rudy Guede] who has a long history of breaking and entering, his DNA is all over the crime scene. Maybe that’s the guy who did it.” They held onto, “Well, Amanda confessed, so she must have witnessed something. Maybe she got them confused, or maybe she’s a mastermind and she’s cunningly subbing in one person for another.” There was complete resistance to the idea that they had just gaslit a 20-year-old into not even knowing what was the truth or not anymore.

I still remain wrongly convicted of a lesser charge, which is slander. After I signed those statements, and it turned out that my boss obviously was completely innocent and had nothing to do with this crime, even after I retracted those statements, I was accused of having maliciously and intentionally slandered him in order to divert the course of justice. I was found guilty of that crime, and I was sentenced to three years in prison for that crime. And technically, in Italy, they say that I served rightfully three years in prison for the outcome of that interrogation. I’m still fighting that to this day.

The press uncritically recycled information that the police and prosecutors would feed them. What do you make of that when the job of the press is supposedly to hold the government to account? Do you still think that’s a problem today?

Yes. I think that’s actually the thing that the Netflix documentary filmmakers were really good at pinpointing. I was shocked until I realized that the people who are writing those headlines and publishing those headlines are being rewarded for that behavior. They are being paid by us when we click on those headlines. And they are giving us exactly what we seem to want, which is not well-researched, thoughtful, balanced, something that takes time and consideration and expertise. It’s being first. It’s being loudest. And it is tapping into that deep part of ourselves that loves schadenfreude and that enjoys the sort of lewdness and shamefulness of other people’s stories and gets gratification out of that.

How has that affected your media consumption and how you see the world?

I am very skeptical when I see even things that are not just obviously scandalous headlines, but just little two-second blips of “This person said this.” And I’m like, “Hmm, that context is probably being stripped away for that sound bite.”

That said, I do think there is a certain amount of media literacy entering into the broader public because we all are now content creators. In a weird way, now that we’ve seen a little bit how the sausage gets made, we’re more aware of how the bigger sausages get made. I think that’s a really interesting turn. It’s not that we demand higher standardswe demand higher transparency. You came to this crazy outlandish conclusion, well, fine, but tell me how you got there. I’m here for the ride. Just show your work.

I read something inThe New York Timeswritten after your memoir was released. The article concluded like this: “The injustice very likely done to [Amanda Knox] pales beside the brutal truth of Kercher’s death, and no plea for sympathy will ever bridge the difference.” What do you make of that?

It is a common response, and it’s so common that I actually came up with a term for it: the single victim fallacy. This idea that in any given morality narrative, there’s only room for one victim. So either you care about Meredith’s tragedy or you care about my tragedy; you’re incapable of caring about both. And this is a logical fallacy. You absolutely can care about the fact that young women get murdered when they are in their own homes studying abroad. The real tragedy of what happened to Meredith is that this was a common thing that happens to women all over the world. We are targeted and brutalized by men, treated as objects, and then thrown away. And that is a horrific reality that I almost faced, and that a person that I lived with experienced.
(Photo: Amanda Knox speaks during a press conference in March 2015; Stephen Brashear/Getty)

In learning about your case, I came to the conclusion that Italy’s criminal justice system is a hot mess. You weren’t read your rights during your interrogation. You were denied a lawyer despite asking for one. You were held without charge. The prosecution withheld a lot of evidence from the defense. And your jurors weren’t screened for bias. What perspective did that give you on the U.S. criminal justice system?

Well, I didn’t really know anything about criminal justice systems when I left for Italy. And so when I came home to the U.S., I didn’t really have much insight into how similar or different it was to what I had experienced in Italy. It was only when I met other wrongly convicted people who had spent time in prison here in the U.S. that I got an education about what problems we have. And in some ways, it made me appreciative of certain things that they did in Italy.

For instance, appeals are guaranteed in Italy in ways that they are not really guaranteed here in the U.S. And it was shocking to me that the average number of years that a wrongfully convicted person here in the U.S. spends in prison is like 14and I spent four in Italy.

I think a lot of people find themselves in situations where they don’t even know what their rights are, and they don’t know that they should have legal counsel there to educate them about their rights. And that’s how a lot of people end up getting into trouble, because our criminal justice system partly relies upon our own ignorance and the fact that we don’t know what our rights are.

What do you think the criminal justice reform movement in the U.S. is doing well? And what do you think it’s doing not so well?

I think something that it is doing well is also the thing that it’s not doing well, depending on what criminal justice person you’re talking to. I do not think that it helps to make more enemies than you already have. The things that I have seen that have worked the best, that have really benefited the most people, have been when criminal justice advocates and defense attorneys have found some kind of common ground and common purpose with the law enforcement community and the prosecutors. Trying to find the places where we agree is actually a really important fundamental step.

I’m a practical person. I want to have an effective impact on the world that’s actually going to accomplish my goals to live in a world where we can trust each other and feel safer and be able to trust our authority figures. I feel like there are lots of different ways to approach this. One thing that I really care about, that I advocate for, is banning police use [of] deception when they are interacting with witnesses or suspects.

Right now, police can just lie to you. They can lie to you, and there’s no consequences. And I think that is incredibly damaging to their relationship with the rest of us. I also think it leads the police officers to have false self-confidence in what is true or not. They have this false sense of being able to tell if someone’s lying or not lying because they have been trained to lie. The research shows that they don’t, and that’s dangerous.

I think if we work together, we can help more people faster. And so when I see criminal justice advocates quietly or loudly attempting to find common ground with “the enemy,” that makes me feel really reassured.

True crime has had a place for centuries, but with the perfect storm of new social media, extremely salacious allegations, and all these things that were tailor-made to grab people’s eyes, Amanda Knox essentially kicked off the true crime craze of the modern era. What are your thoughts on the popularity of the genre, and is there a way to tell those stories in a respectful and decent way?

I get into a lot of that on a miniseries that I did for [my podcast]Labyrinths, called “Blood Money.” I was curious about the history of it. I was not a true crime person before I became the subject of a true crime phenomenon. So a part of me didn’t quite get it. The more I looked at the history, the further I saw it go back. True crime has been of imense interest as far back as even before the printing press. People were writing about crimes, about salacious crimes. Crimes that were abnormal, that rose above just the tragedy. And this endless fascination with justice. What does justice look like? Does it look like a person burning at the stake? Does it look like the victims finally getting to have a say in the courtroom? What is justice?

What troubles me is that the worst experiences of people’s lives are not talked about for the sake of journalistic integrity. It’s infotainment. And so often, the people who have the most at stake in whether and how those stories are told have absolutely no say about it. And there’s no qualms about it even by content creators.

I have rebelled against this idea that someone like me has nothing valuable to say or to offer when it comes to how my own story is told. A lot of people come to me and want me to help them tell their story, and that comes with an incredible amount of psychological weight for me because I’ve had my story told by other people over and over and over again, and I have felt utterly exploited in so many different ways.

A 2021 movie calledStillwaterwas inspired by your story. Did they consult you at all?

No, I found out about it the exact same time that everybody else found out about it. They started having headlines like “movie inspired by Amanda Knox’s life.”

You’re like, “Oh, OK, I guess, once again, the worst experience of my life is being used by others for their own profit making.” And it’s not that I begrudge them that impulse because we all are inspired by real life, what came before us, and what is within our eyeline. And unfortunately, my story made headlines around the world for a very long time, so people were aware of it, and they knew that they could sell it because it had sold a million fricking newspapers already.

What made me sad aboutStillwaterwas they said that they had done their due diligence and gone out of their way to speak to the people in rural Vermontor wherever it was that they were saying Matt Damon was fromso that he could really get into the character. But they were advertising the movie based on me, and no one had ever bothered to reach out to me to ask me about my experience.

One reason why I actually agreed to do the [2016] Netflix documentary was because the filmmakers said, “Hey, we’re not going to do this documentary without you.” I said, “OK, well, I don’t want to do it.” And they said, “OK, we’re not going to do it.” I was like, “Wow, you are the one and only filmmakers I have ever heard who walked away from all this footage and all this vision because they were like, it’s not right to do the story without you.”

Are you involved in the Hulu series coming up?

I am. The one time that Hollywood actually invited someone like me to be an [executive producer]. It’s a really cool flipping of the script, and I think I have to thank Monica Lewinsky in a huge way for that. As someone who has had her worst experiences out there and exploited, she wanted to uplift people who are in my position to actually have a say in telling their own stories. And so I am finding myself in the extremely privileged and rare position of being a subject who has a say. I am taking that very, very seriously. I am really proud of the work we’re doing.

There are still people out there, after all of these years, after all of the evidence being aired, despite all of it, who still think you’re lying. What do you say to them?

I don’t. If somebody thinks I’m lying, I’ve learned that it has very little to do with me and a lot to do with whatever is going on with them, which I don’t have control over. So I don’t really worry about that unless it’s in a courtroomand then I’m fighting it.

I have given myself the grace to not feel the burden of having to explain myself to every single person out there. That’s in large part due to having met other wrongly convicted people. Before I did, I felt this horrendous obstacle of, “If I’m going to belong to humanity again, I have to explain myself to every single person,” and I have given up on that horrific, impossible task. I do not feel compelled to do that.

This interview has been condensed and edited for style and clarity.

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To call plays or not to call plays … that’s the question for many top head coaches

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September 5, 2025

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To call plays or not to call plays ... that's the question for many top head coaches

  • Adam RittenbergSep 5, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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      College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

AS A YOUNG head coach with a background in offensive playcalling, Arizona State‘s Kenny Dillingham likes to watch what those like him do on game days.

Last season, he closely tracked Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who has toggled between calling plays and relinquishing those duties, as he did in 2024 when veteran strategist Chip Kelly directed the Buckeyes’ offense. Dillingham had watched Day handle both head coach and offensive playcaller responsibilities earlier in his Ohio State tenure. Last year, he observed a different version of Day.

“I saw such a peace in Coach Day on game day, just from a fan watching games, how calm he was … how excited he would get for touchdowns and all of that when he didn’t call it,” Dillingham told ESPN. “I’m like, ‘I think he figured it out.’ He can be involved, have a say, but he’s over here talking to defense and offense. I’m like, ‘I love that.'”

Dillingham, 35, decided to take a similar approach at Arizona State.

He isn’t alone. Many coaches weigh the same playcalling decision, especially early in their careers. A majority of first-time FBS coaches enter those jobs after being primary playcallers as coordinators. For many, their playcalling prowess is the main reason they were selected to lead programs.

But the head coach job description is growing longer by the year, so they face a quandary: Call their own plays or give it up?

“When you’re calling a play, you think they’re all going to work,” Dillingham said. “When you don’t call them, you’re constantly judging.”

Some head coaches clutch their call sheets tight — refusing to let go, regardless of their other duties. Others willingly delegate, recognizing that their time is better spent overseeing all elements of their programs, but make the bigger-picture decisions within games, such as timeout usage or whether to attempt fourth-down conversions.

Week 1 of the 2025 season placed a spotlight on how head coaches handle playcalling. Steve Sarkisian, whose playcalling brilliance gave him a second chance as a head coach, pulled the strings for No. 1 Texas in Saturday’s 14-7 loss at No. 2 Ohio State, for which offensive coordinator Brian Hartline took on playcalling for the first time under Day. Sarkisian’s playcalls in Ohio State territory drew some criticism, as Texas twice stalled inside the Buckeyes’ 10-yard line and didn’t score until 3:28 remained. Hartline generally took a conservative approach with quarterback Julian Sayin, a first-time starter, but didn’t put the offense in dangerous spots with Ohio State’s defense playing so well.

After the game, Day praised Hartline for an “unselfish” approach, especially since the Buckeyes often had poor field position with a young quarterback.

“Moving forward, yeah, we know we have to be more explosive,” Day said Tuesday. “… We need to get the ball in space and do those types of things. But that’s all part of the journey with this group. The first goal was just win the game.”

Alabama‘s Kalen DeBoer and Florida State‘s Mike Norvell spent Saturday afternoon across from each other in Tallahassee, Florida, with each passing off playcalling to familiar names. After a year in the NFL, Ryan Grubb returned to DeBoer’s side, hoping to rekindle the magic that propelled Washington to the national title game in 2023. Norvell, climbing out of a 2-10 crater last season, hired Gus Malzahn, a longtime mentor and occasional Alabama tormentor, to call plays for the Seminoles’ offense, which looked dramatically different, rushing for 230 yards in a 31-17 upset of the Tide.

Teams change every year, and coaches must consider a set of factors — quarterback’s age and skill, offensive coordinator’s track record, other playcalling options on the staff, how the roster is constructed — and ultimately decide how involved they will be.

But this much is clear: They must make the right call with playcalling.

THE PLAYCALLING DECISION often comes down to trust: Does a head coach trust an assistant enough — and ultimately more than himself — to handle the responsibility? DeBoer doesn’t question his faith in Grubb, even after a tough game like Saturday’s opener, when the Tide mustered only 10 points and 266 yards after the opening scoring drive.

Grubb was DeBoer’s offensive coordinator at both Washington and Fresno State, and the two go all the way back to the University of Sioux Falls, the NAIA program where DeBoer played and later coached. Grubb joined DeBoer’s staff there to work with the offensive line in 2007.

Nick Sheridan, who served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator during DeBoer’s first season last fall, had been with DeBoer at both Washington and Indiana when DeBoer served as offensive coordinator. Sheridan is now Alabama’s co-offensive coordinator and coaches the quarterbacks, but Grubb calls plays.

“We’ve had so many conversations, you get into those moments like red zone or, are we playing for four downs? We can be on the same page,” DeBoer told ESPN. “They can set it up to where it’s like, ‘Man, this is where Kalen usually goes for it.’ And they know the times to be aggressive where there is not going to be a fourth down, going for it.”

DeBoer called offensive plays in every game he coached from 2000 — his first year as coordinator at Sioux Falls — until 2020, his debut as Fresno State’s coach. Now, he picks his spots when to give input — between offensive series, during a media timeout — but also understands that his advice must be on point, because he can influence his coordinator’s mindset.

“There’s more than one really good playcall, almost all the time,” DeBoer said. “It’s more about making sure that you stay out of the bad playcalls. What’s your system of making sure that you can check out of this? The key is: How do you stay on the field?”

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm came up in a family of accomplished quarterbacks, including his younger brother, Brian, who, like Jeff, starred at quarterback for the Cardinals. Jeff has had Brian as an offensive coordinator at all three of his head coaching stops: Western Kentucky, Purdue and Louisville, their alma mater.

“There’s nobody I would trust more than I trust him,” Jeff Brohm said.

But for now, big brother Brohm will continue to call the offensive plays.

“I would be cheating my team if I didn’t use what I thought I was pretty good at to help us win,” Jeff Brohm said. “It’s not like my brother couldn’t do it. … But I feel like it’s my responsibility to continue to do that. I still put that on my shoulders.”

During Dillingham’s first season as a head coach in 2023 and for part of last fall, he was more active in the playcalling process. Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo handled the calls, but there were a few instances, especially early last fall, where the head coach couldn’t resist.

Against Texas Tech, Dillingham had the offense check into duo, a gap scheme run, but a linebacker shot through and dropped the ball carrier for a loss. Against Cincinnati, Dillingham called for an up-tempo play. It resulted in another tackle for loss.

“I was actually s—ty, so I stopped doing it as the year progressed,” he said.

Dillingham realized that the plays he selected in those moments weren’t necessarily misplaced. They fit the game situations. But he hadn’t spent the week crafting the plan, emphasizing a set of plays in practice, or spending every moment he could with quarterback Sam Leavitt and the offense. That’s Arroyo’s job.

“My best play, in my mind, is not the best play for the football team, because of how [Arroyo] prepared them,” Dillingham concluded. “That was what I learned [in 2023], through the first half of [2024]: Give advice but don’t give plays.”

Dillingham’s contributions became more generalized.

“Give it to Scat, throw it to JT,” he said, referring to All-American running back Cam Skattebo and star wide receiver Jordyn Tyson. “I want to blitz. I don’t want to play coverage anymore. It’s a more generalized philosophy of how I want our football team to play.”

Even then, Dillingham has to catch himself in critical moments, such as in the first quarter of the 2024 Big 12 championship game against Iowa State, when Arroyo called a play-action deep pass on fourth-and-1 from the ASU 34-yard line. Leavitt found Melquan Stovall for a 63-yard gain.

“I was nervous as s—,” Dillingham said. “I literally get on the headset when he called that and I’m like, ‘Y’all think we just hand it to Scat here? What do y’all think?’ Dead silence. Not one other coach. Everybody stayed quiet, everybody. I’m like, ‘All right, looks like we’re rolling with it.’ And huge play. … You’ve got to trust your people.”

WHEN JEFF LEBBY got his big break to lead Mississippi State — following offensive coordinator stints at Oklahoma, Ole Miss and UCF — he spent no time dithering about who would call plays for the Bulldogs.

“From a game-day standpoint, it’s how I can help us affect the game,” he told ESPN. “It was the reason I got the job. I don’t ever see the value outweighing the effect of being able to call plays. I feel strongly about that.”

A 2-10 debut season without a single SEC win hasn’t shifted Lebby’s position. During the offseason, he empowered offensive assistants Anthony Tucker and Jon Cooper, who have added the pass game coordinator and run game coordinator titles, respectively. Both worked with Lebby at other schools, and Tucker has been a coordinator.

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No. 3 Ohio State defeats No. 1 Texas 14-7 in season opener

No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the No. 1 Texas Longhorns 14-7 in their season opener.

They both aid in organizational elements of the pass and run games, but although Lebby has spent time working on his time management, the playcalling is still his baby.

“My biggest thing is the football, the offensive part, the scheme, the scripting, the organization, that’s not going to take a back seat to anything,” Lebby said.

Playcalling fueled Lincoln Riley’s historic rise up the coaching ranks. He wouldn’t have become Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator at 31, or been named the successor to Hall of Fame Sooners coach Bob Stoops at 33, without being exceptional at crafting game plans and pulling the right strings.

The approach yielded historic results, as Oklahoma had the nation’s top offense in most major categories during Riley’s head coaching tenure from 2017 to 2021, which produced two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and a runner-up. When Riley went to USC, he oversaw a top-three offense in his first season and mentored another Heisman winner in QB Caleb Williams. USC’s results the past two seasons haven’t been as strong, though, and part of Riley’s offseason program evaluation included playcalling.

“I’ve had some moments where I’ve thought about it, not during the [season], but in between,” he told ESPN. “I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten close to giving it up, but I’ve had that kind of inner discussion and discussion with some of my confidants about: Would that be the right thing to do?”

Riley concluded that the more important change would be to enhance USC’s personnel department with the hiring of new general manager Chad Bowden and others, and take more off his plate.

“Not that it’s been perfect, but the offensive track record that I’ve had a chance to be a part of is pretty solid, and I’ve just always felt like that’s an advantage that I can bring to our program,” Riley said. “I probably feel better about doing it right now than I have in the last couple of years. Obviously, I kept doing it, but I feel it’s much more manageable right now.”

Other coaches are at the other end of the spectrum. Luke Fickell held a variety of roles as an Ohio State assistant from 2002 to 2016, which included being defensive playcaller beginning in 2012 when Urban Meyer arrived as head coach.

But when Fickell got the chance to lead his own program, first at Cincinnati and now Wisconsin, he had no aspirations of calling plays.

“It can be arrogant to think that you have to be the guy to call it, whether it’s offensively or defensively,” Fickell said. “If you watch that much more and you prepare, then God bless you, but for me, it hasn’t been that way. There was a year, as we made some changes, if it didn’t work out, that I felt like, ‘OK, maybe I’ll be the guy to call it.’ But in my mind, in my heart, I’m thinking, ‘That’s arrogant to think you can do that and not suffer.'”

WHEN HE WAS an offensive coordinator at Auburn, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee saw how Malzahn, the team’s head coach and one of Lashlee’s mentors, wrestled with the playcalling decision. After a slow start to the 2016 season, Malzahn gave up playcalling to Lashlee, and then assigned it to OC Chip Lindsey in 2017. Malzahn then took back playcalling duties for 2018.

Lashlee joined Miami as offensive coordinator and observed how Manny Diaz, a first-time head coach, reassumed defensive playcalling duties in 2021 after giving them to coordinator Blake Baker. Lashlee decided that when he became a head coach, which he did at SMU following the 2021 season, he would start out calling offensive plays.

“I decided to because one, you got hired for a reason, and two, it’s better to come in as the head coach and take that responsibility and then maybe one day give it up, versus give it up early, and if it doesn’t go well, try to take it back,” Lashlee told ESPN.

Lashlee still evaluates the playcalling role after each season and doesn’t call plays during spring practice, delegating to coordinator Casey Woods and the offensive staff. If SMU would benefit from a different voice, Lashlee would be comfortable stepping aside, but the team has 23 wins and a College Football Playoff appearance in the past two years.

Double duty creates challenges, but it also increases efficiency.

“I don’t have to be like, ‘Hey, do you want to go for it, Coach?'” Lashlee said. “I’m the one deciding if we’re going for it and calling the play.”

Clark Lea gave up defensive playcalling duties when he became Vanderbilt‘s coach, but after the defense slipped in 2023 — to 126th in points allowed and 128th in yards allowed — Lea took them back. He was best equipped to reset the system.

As the 2024 season progressed and Vanderbilt stabilized, Lea didn’t feel the time he could devote to playcalling was sufficient, especially compared with the hours he had logged as a defensive coordinator. He shared his concerns with Steve Gregory, the team’s secondary coach and associate DC, at the walk-through before an Oct. 26 game against Texas. In March, Lea promoted Gregory to defensive coordinator.

“That’s how we spent the last four games of the season, and that’s where we came out in January,” Lea said. “I’m with those guys every day, like every night in fall camp, I’m in front of the defense, and I’m presenting or teaching something. But the actual calling of the play will be Steve’s responsibility, and up until the point that the words come out of his mouth, I’ll have a chance to have an impact on it.”

Norvell has done it both ways, handling playcalls early in his tenures at both Memphis and Florida State. He handed off calls to Dillingham in 2021, then made the calls himself from 2022 to 2024.

A 2-10 season last fall triggered many changes around the program, including the decision to bring in Malzahn from UCF, who worked with Norvell at Tulsa under coach Todd Graham.

“I feel like I got one of the best playcallers in the country, obviously somebody we’re very comfortable with,” Norvell told ESPN. “We always stayed in touch over the years, and it was something that I was aware of throughout the time, whenever he did and decided to not call plays. I know he’s excited to have the opportunity to really just be able to focus on the offensive side of the ball, and to be able to do what I know he loves.”

Empowered by Norvell, Malzahn was in top form against Alabama. Florida State led by seven early in the fourth quarter and faced fourth-and-1 from its own 34-yard line. The Seminoles went for it, converted on a Roydell Williams run and went downfield to score a put-away touchdown.

“You obviously always talk through any of those situations that are up — that and the fourth down at the end as well,” Norvell said. “It’s just like, ‘Let’s go put our stamp on it.'”

The degree of difficulty makes playcalling assignments among the more important decisions head coaches make. When they work, like they did last week at Florida State, the impact can be seismic.

“I’m not the OC; I’m the head coach,” Lashlee said. “So every year, I ask myself: Do I think me calling plays gives us the best chance to win?’ If I do, I’m going to do it, and if I don’t, then that’s when I’ll give it up.”

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Jackery HomePower 3000 + bundle at new lows from $1,499, Heybike Horizon full suspension folding e-bike $1,399, EcoFlow, more

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31 mins ago

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September 5, 2025

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Jackery HomePower 3000 + bundle at new lows from ,499, Heybike Horizon full suspension folding e-bike ,399, EcoFlow, more

Closing out this week’s Green Deals is Jackery’s weekend flash sale on its latest HomePower 3000 Portable Power Station alongside a 400W solar bundle that are hitting new low prices starting from $1,499. Right behind it is a spotlight on the $600 discount hitting Heybike’s Horizon Full Suspension Folding e-bike bundle at $1,399, as well as EcoFlow’s current member-only deals on four bundle offers, lead by the DELTA 2 Max 440W solar bundle with a protective bag at a new $1,282 low. We also have new low pricing on Schumacher’s hardwired EV charging station, a Greenworks 15-inch trimmer bundle, and more waiting for you below. Plus, there are all the hangover deals collected at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s collection of Rad Power extra battery e-bike bundles from its latest sale, the first-ever discount on ALLPOWERS’ new SOLAX P100 mini power station, and more – and that’s on top of the ongoing Labor Day deals still available in our curated holiday Green Deals hub here.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Jackery weekend flash sale offers up to $1,200 savings on HomePower 3000 station and bundle at new lows starting from $1,499

Jackery’s Disaster Preparedness Sale running through September 16 is seeing up to 50% discounts across its power station lineup, complete with automatic 5% and 7% extra savings on orders over $1,300, as well as some free gifts accompanying the largest Explorer 5000 Plus series units. A standout, though, is the flash offer lasting only through the weekend on Jackery’s latest HomePower 3000 Portable Power Station at $1,499 shipped, which comes in a little under Amazon by $4. Since its release back in May, we’ve seen it brought down from its full $2,499 price tag to land between $1,899 and $1,699 during sales, with Amazon seeing it drop to $1,599 for the first time today (while the on-page coupon there takes things lower) and the brand’s direct site taking things under $1,500 for the first time while these flash savings last, giving you $1,000 in savings at the best new price we have tracked. The bundle on Jackery’s HomePower 3000 station and two 200W solar panels is also at a new low of $1,799 shipped, landing $100 under the previous low and $5 under Amazon’s current pricing.

For those who may not be aware, the Jackery HomePower 3000 station is the next generation of the brand’s popular Explorer 3000, with the immediate upgrade here being the switch to LiFePO4 batteries – in this case a 3,072Wh capacity worth – which also comes with a battery management system and protected by ChargeShield 2.0 tech. It provides 12 output ports (including a TT-30R port for your RV living) to connect to devices and appliances, supplying them with a steady stream of up to 3,600W and surging up to 7,200W when needed.

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Jackery’s HomePower 3000 station boasts five primary means to get its battery recharged, like a standard AC outlet that can have it back to full in around 2.2 hours, alongside the 1,000W max solar input (which you can start working towards with the 400W solar bundle) that will take up to 11 hours, depending on weather conditions. There’s also the options to connect a gas generator, plug it into your car’s auxiliary port, or take advantage of its dual AC/DC charging for a 1.7-hour timeframe.

You can browse the entirety of Jackery’s September Disaster Preparedness Sale on the landing page here, including the HomePower 3000 station flash offers.

man riding Heybike Horizon Full Suspension folding e-bike down coastal street

Enjoy smooth commutes and space-saving functionality on Heybike’s Horizon full suspension folding e-bike at $1,399

As part of Heybike’s ongoing End of Summer Sale, which is offering up to $649 savings on its e-bike lineup alongside the usual free gear bundles, we wanted to shine a spotlight on the brand’s Horizon Full Suspension Folding e-bike that is down at $1,399 shipped while the event lasts and comes with a free front and rear cargo basket bundle. This model usually fetches $1,999 outside of sales, which we’ve mostly seen brought down to $1,499 over 2025, with more recent drops to $1,399 and a one-time fall further to the $1,299 low that appeared during the brand’s anniversary sale back at the end of May. Aside from that one-time low, you’re otherwise looking at the best price we have tracked, which saves you $600 on one of the brand’s more premium space-saving commuting solutions.

If you want to learn more about this particular e-bike, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here, with Heybike’s full End of Summer Sale lineup available to browse here.

EcoFlow's DELTA 2 Max power station in front of solar panels in yard while man mows nearby
Photo: BLUETTI

EcoFlow’s short-term member-only deals drop DELTA 2 Max 440W solar bundle with free bag to new $1,282 low, more

Running parallel to its extended Labor Day Sale, EcoFlow is also having a Home Backup Sale through September 14 with up to 62% discounts, 5% and 7% bonus savings, and more. Among the lineup, we’re seeing shorter-term member-only pricing on four units lasting through September 7, with a standout being EcoFlow’s DELTA 2 Max Portable Power Station coming with two 220W solar panels and a waterproof protective bag for $1,281.55 shipped, after using the code 25EFDCAFF at checkout for an additional 5% off your order. This particular bundle would cost you $3,276 were it at full price, with the bag missing from this bundle at Amazon, where it’s currently priced for $1,299, and has only gone as low as $1,234 in the past. Considering the bag costs $79, this combined 61% markdown for the next few days not only saves you a total $1,994, but gives you the best new price we have tracked. Head below for more on this and the other short-term member-only deals.

If you want to learn more about this power station bundle, or check out the other three offers seeing up to $2,419 in savings, be sure to check out our original coverage of these deals here.

app-based controls next to Schumacher's 50A EV charging station

Hardwire Schumacher’s 50A Level 2 EV wall charger indoors or outdoors while at a new $350 low

Amazon is offering the Schumacher 50A Hardwired Level 2 EV Wall Charger at $349.99 shipped. Since July we’ve seen it keeping at $450 at full price, which is also when we last saw a discount, with Prime Day having taken the cost down to $399, and was only ever beaten out by a $390 rate from October 2024 Prime Day. The deal we’re seeing here takes things lower than ever as the 22% markdown is cutting $100 off the going rate and landing it at a new all-time low price. Keep in mind that this is a hardwired station, with the more flexible variant also currently seeing a discount to $414 right now, down from $500.

If you want to learn more about this particular EV charging station, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

greenworks string trimmer cutting through weeds along property line

Clear up to 1.5 miles of weeds with this Greenworks 48V (2x24V) 15-inch string trimmer and two batteries at a new $91 low

Amazon is offering the Greenworks 48V (2 x 24V) 15-inch Cordless String Trimmer with two 2.0Ah batteries and dual-port charger for $91.19 shipped, which matches the pricing directly from the brand’s website. While it carries a $160 MSRP, we more often see it priced around $120 at Amazon, with discounts over the years having only gone as low as $96, which we last saw for an extended period in April through May. Today’s deal beats out all that have come before, though, with the 43% markdown here cutting $69 off the MSRP tag for a new all-time low.

If you want to learn more about this tool’s capabilities, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

NexLawn's Master X Series Concept robot lawn mower with arm holding ball in grass field
man approaching Lectric ONE e-bike on pavement
two men riding Lectric's XP4 e-bikes

Best Summer EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.


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Check out the new Mercedes-Benz GLC EV interior and its giant 39″ infotainment screen

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44 mins ago

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September 5, 2025

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Check out the new Mercedes-Benz GLC EV interior and its giant 39

Mercedes-Benz-GLC-EV-interior

The top-selling Mercedes model is going electric. With just two days until its official debut, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a first look at the interior of the new GLC. With a massive 39″ touchscreen, the brand’s largest to date, Mercedes promises the new GLC will take luxury driving to a new level.

Mercedes-Benz unveils the interior of the new GLC EV

“We’re not just introducing a new model – we’re electrifying our top seller,” Mercedes-Benz Group CEO, Ola Källenius, said after offering an exclusive look at the new electric GLC in July.

Mercedes promises the new model “sets new standards” as its first vehicle to showcase the luxury brand’s updated design and advanced new tech.

Ahead of its debut on September 7, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the interior of the new electric GLC for the first time.

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At the center is the new MBUX HYPERSCREEN. The 39.1″ floating touchscreen spans the entire dashboard. With over 1,000 LEDs and matrix backlight technology, Mercedes said the touchscreen boasts “exceptional clarity and vivid color.”

It also features intelligent zone dimming, which enables you to set two different brightness levels for separate displays. Mercedes said it has already filed a patent for the “groundbreaking” new feature. The only issue is that it won’t come standard.

Mercedes-Benz-GLC-EV-interior
The interior of the new Mercedes-Benz GLC EV (Source: Mercedes-Benz)

Mercedes said the MBUX HYPERSCREEN will be optionally available. Lower-priced trim options are expected to receive a smaller screen.

Thanks to an extended wheelbase, the new GLC EV offers more interior space than the current model. With all the seats folded, the electric SUV offers 61.4 cubic feet of space, compared to the gas-powered model, which features up to 56.3 cubic feet of cargo space.

Mercedes-Benz-GLC-EV-interior
Mercedes-Benz-GLC-EV-interior

Like the interior, the exterior of the GLC EV will showcase the new Mercedes-Benz design. Källenius said the new model will debut with “a new face of the brand as the first in a family of upcoming vehicles,” which will include a revamped grille.

The new Mercedes-Benz GLC will be based on an 800V architecture, offering charging speeds of up to 320 kW. According to Källenius, the electric SUV can regain around 260 km (161 miles) in about 10 minutes.

Mercedes-GLC-EV-face
The new Mercedes GLC EV will showcase a new face (Source: Mercedes-Benz)

We will learn more info on September 7, when the new GLC makes its official debut. However, according to Car and Driver, which tested a prototype model, the new GLC is expected to provide a WLTP range of just over 400 miles from a 94.5 kWh battery. On the EPA scale, it will likely be closer to slightly over 300 miles of range.

Given that the current GLC 350e 4MATIC PHEV starts at $59,900 in the US, you can expect the all-electric version to be priced slightly higher at around $65,000.


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