I read so many comments on here that seem very focused on how Scott made the point we need to get better; talent, strength, culture, it all had to improve, and it was somehow cruel, harsh or counterproductive. He pointed our teams being physically pushed around, and said that had to stop. Oddly, that’s EXACTLY what nearly all we fans and the media have said numerous times over the last 20 years. We’ve even heard people use the dreaded word, talent, in describing our getting rolled by certain schools, and how we lacked it. Why was all of that normal, but a new coach walking in and assessing the obvious, can’t say it?
3 times in my life I’ve been a part of coaching changes, twice in basketball, once in football. What did all 3 times have in common? We were bringing in someone who was perceived to be aggressive and an upgrade. They said things like: we’re going to get stronger (suggesting we weren’t strong), we would be the best conditioned team every game (suggesting we hadn’t been), we were going to be aggressive (suggesting weren’t), we wanted opponent’s to know us as a tough team (meaning we weren’t), and we were adding players to make us better (meaning we weren’t good enough). Oh, and culture, that was also a topic, and a huge focus on playing and thinking as a unit. Sounds familiar?
All 3 situations brought about similar results, both in how the teams transitioned, and in improved performance. All 3 teams improved, so, much of what they said was true, but it came with some pain. Guys at the top, the upperclassmen and starters felt they’d earned their stripes and weren’t big on the idea of doing it all again, not to mention learn skills or techniques they felt they were already good enough with. Some guys had accepted their place as a non factor, and were fine just cruising being a part of the program, but now they were going to be pushed much harder, and they weren’t big on that either. There were those who left immediately or quit early. Some hung on for a year, but never were comfortable with the change. Many who stayed thrived, and they did primarily because they got through the mental hurdles. Not all did as quickly, but you could tell when they’d stopped resisting, and started really making the transition, the ‘buy in’ if you will. The last point is of all the teams, the one that took the longest to truly transition, was the team that felt they weren’t really that bad. Two we knew we were likely getting curb stomped in all but a few games, but the other, well, we were bad, but we'd still win a few and pulled off an occasional upset, so we weren’t really THAT bad...at least in our minds. Delusional.
My gut tells me that’s part of the problem we see now, I don’t think our team thought they were that bad. I know many feel otherwise, but I think Scott told them the truth; they are that bad. But if you listen, he didn’t say they would always be that way, he said we need to get better everyday. To do that, players need to work, coaches need to recruit and the results come together to create something better every year. If athletes don’t understand that, then that should be lesson #1 on day 1 in winter conditioning. There are plenty of great ways to improve and motivate a team, but avoiding the truth shouldn’t be one.
