goldy21
Well-Known Member
I had one huge fear about this team. I wanted to bring it up weeks ago but everyone was gulping down the Kool-aid in such quantities that I didn't want to be a buzzkill. But after last night it's so apparent that we have a huge problem that simply won't be corrected over the course of the season. It's built into the DNA of this team and I'm positive that there's no cure for it.
We are SOFT. We have NO EDGE whatsoever and it starts with the man in charge. Mr. Happy Go Lucky Mike Mac does not know how to build a team of hard-nosed bad-a**es, which is the ONLY way to claw back to respectability.
To give an extreme comparison, as an undergrad I worked for the UF athletic department and spent time with the football program under Urban Meyer. I was in several meetings with him and was around the program enough to get a feel for what a truly elite program feels like. Now I'll be the first one to admit that CU is not getting the same caliber of athlete that UF does and I'm not trying to make an apples to apples comparison, but there are fundamental building blocks that a team needs and that guy is a master of forming that foundation. From the moment he walks into a room you can see he just exudes intensity and focus. Urban was wildly successful at Bowling Green even though he kicked almost 1/3 of the squad off the team. He went undefeated at Utah with mediocre athletes. You know why? Because he expects nothing less than absolute relentless effort and passion from everyone from the janitors to the training staff to the starting QB. If you show even an ounce of hesitation or weakness, he will expose, challenge and exploit that weakness until you get it fixed. And if you don't get it fixed? You're done. You're buried. And in some cases, you're kicked out of the organization. You are a pariah--a barnacle on his speedboat and he will do anything he can to shake you.
The first offseason Urban was at UF he organized "mat drills", which were basically no-holds barred wrestling matches between players in the same general weight class. But you know what? Sometimes a 230 lb had to fight a 315 lb o-lineman because...hey...that's what happens on the field. (Tebow kicked the crap out of guys and actually had to be banned from mat drills, which is a point I'll touch on below). There's another drill he does where guys fight over a tire. It's just pure, unbridled, unrestrained aggression. Winners in these and other competitions are made to feel like kings. Losers eat hot dogs and get shoved to the side. He cuts straight to the core of the human soul and psyche and instills toughness and competitiveness in every player.
We have a soft team. We've got a bunch of nice guys. Nice, gentle people don't win football games. No one is nicer and gentler than our starting QB. Not once did I see him last night and notice any fire or any intensity, either on the field or on the sidelines. I was absolutely dying to see him level a Hawaii DB in the open field to fire the team up. He doesn't have to be a screaming lunatic, but show me something! Spruce is a nice guy. Adkins is a nice guy. Nembot is nice. But we can't have nice in between the lines. Who do we have on that side of the ball who shows any nastiness? Who looks in his teammates' eyes and says, "put the team on my shoulders"? I just don't see anyone with that innate trait and the coaches have failed miserably to recruit and cultivate it.
We are SOFT. We have NO EDGE whatsoever and it starts with the man in charge. Mr. Happy Go Lucky Mike Mac does not know how to build a team of hard-nosed bad-a**es, which is the ONLY way to claw back to respectability.
To give an extreme comparison, as an undergrad I worked for the UF athletic department and spent time with the football program under Urban Meyer. I was in several meetings with him and was around the program enough to get a feel for what a truly elite program feels like. Now I'll be the first one to admit that CU is not getting the same caliber of athlete that UF does and I'm not trying to make an apples to apples comparison, but there are fundamental building blocks that a team needs and that guy is a master of forming that foundation. From the moment he walks into a room you can see he just exudes intensity and focus. Urban was wildly successful at Bowling Green even though he kicked almost 1/3 of the squad off the team. He went undefeated at Utah with mediocre athletes. You know why? Because he expects nothing less than absolute relentless effort and passion from everyone from the janitors to the training staff to the starting QB. If you show even an ounce of hesitation or weakness, he will expose, challenge and exploit that weakness until you get it fixed. And if you don't get it fixed? You're done. You're buried. And in some cases, you're kicked out of the organization. You are a pariah--a barnacle on his speedboat and he will do anything he can to shake you.
The first offseason Urban was at UF he organized "mat drills", which were basically no-holds barred wrestling matches between players in the same general weight class. But you know what? Sometimes a 230 lb had to fight a 315 lb o-lineman because...hey...that's what happens on the field. (Tebow kicked the crap out of guys and actually had to be banned from mat drills, which is a point I'll touch on below). There's another drill he does where guys fight over a tire. It's just pure, unbridled, unrestrained aggression. Winners in these and other competitions are made to feel like kings. Losers eat hot dogs and get shoved to the side. He cuts straight to the core of the human soul and psyche and instills toughness and competitiveness in every player.
We have a soft team. We've got a bunch of nice guys. Nice, gentle people don't win football games. No one is nicer and gentler than our starting QB. Not once did I see him last night and notice any fire or any intensity, either on the field or on the sidelines. I was absolutely dying to see him level a Hawaii DB in the open field to fire the team up. He doesn't have to be a screaming lunatic, but show me something! Spruce is a nice guy. Adkins is a nice guy. Nembot is nice. But we can't have nice in between the lines. Who do we have on that side of the ball who shows any nastiness? Who looks in his teammates' eyes and says, "put the team on my shoulders"? I just don't see anyone with that innate trait and the coaches have failed miserably to recruit and cultivate it.
opcorn:
