Aug. 16, 2002

Other diary entries

One of the senior leaders on the team, Rod Stephen, made a good speech to the team today after dinner. He talked about a few things that he thought the team could improve upon. One thing that stood out to me was when he talked about the urgency of winning. Those weren't his exact words, but I think that's what he meant. Some of the players on our team need to step it up. This includes performance on the field as well as not being so soft when they have a little band aid injury. His point was that there is no time to wait and that we need to be on top of our game now so we can have a great season.

I think some players on the team have to watch out that they don't fall into the trap of summer camp. Summer camp can seem like it will go on forever. When you have three workouts a day sometimes players can lose focus on what they are practicing so much for and concentrating more on just getting done. Having this mentality is obviously bad because, sure camp seems like it will last forever, but when it is over the first game follows shortly after. If you don't have the right mentality during camp then you won't have the right mentality for the game. This is very important especially since football is a game of inches. One inch too high on a drive block and you get beat, one step too slow or fast on a timing pattern and the pass falls incomplete, or one step too late on a stunt on defense and you don't quite get to the quarterback. This is not true of most sports and it makes football seem very hard. But the hardness is what makes football great. If it wasn't hard then any regular college student could play football. I think the secret is getting yourself past how hard football is, how much pain you are in, or how monotonous practice can become and realize you put up with all that stuff because you want to be a winner, you want to be different then everyone else. After this afternoon's practice and tonight I think guys on the team are starting to understand that. We have a scrimmage tomorrow and I think this will show up on the field, where it counts.