Pronouns. smh It's not even clear, which side you're taking on this major controversy of what the lawyer said and intended. To what does your "it" refer?
According to the quote I posted from the article, It was the coach that brought up his own record. Buckeye96 unless running with additional information that it was the lawyer, seems to have that wrong.
Now we get into a subject and phrase issue as to whether the lawyer was refering to the W-L record or the subject of the previous phrase, the coach speaking about his own W-L record.
'Klucinec spoke in defense of his win-loss record, which Craven described as “dreadful.” ' the actual quote as opposed to
Klucinec spoke in defense of his win-loss record, which Craven had described as “dreadful.”
Previous to that statement, I see nowhere the writer references Craven having commented on the coach's W-L. The written statement is claiming the lawyer was calling "dreadful" the coach bringing up his W-L (probably because even a solid W-L would be no defense to the accusations), not the W-L record itself. Perhaps if it's that big a deal either way, the writer should add a clarification.