On quitting

T

techfowl

Jolly Good Fellow
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Aug 25, 2003
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I had a coach that would absolutely kill our team if we slacked in a game. Losses were not the same punishment as not giving 100%, but we even caught the wrath one time for a 21-14 WIN.

This guy coached my little league team undefeated for three straight years and then again in 8th and 9th grade (not undefeated, but close). We were scared to death of that man.

I learned more from that guy than my high school coaches.

His opinion was that, it would be easier for us to fight to the death for 60 minutes than to be run until we literally threw up for about three straight days following the game.

A hurl was not a sufficient excuse to miss your rep on the next gasser, by the way. Expel the goods and get back in line, and you better not take your helmet off. Gassers, six inches, push ups, up/downs - - it was great fun.

The path of least resistance was to give all we had for the game and you better believe you didn't want to be one of the guys that puts the team in that position.

We quit at Clemson (and of course UGA); I didn't see Vandy. I can deal with losing, but not giving all you have is a poor way to start a career after college.

These are my thoughts on how to to make a quitter quit quitting. Make quitting the worst possible option.
 
I didn't see Clemson so don't have an opinion either way. But just curious. I've played on teams that got killed in games, but we didn't quit. It may have looked like it from the stands but we never slacked off, we just weren't very good. So how do you tell the difference? And what leads you to think we quit vs Clemson?
 
In regards to the Vandy game and analogies of former coaches...

I remember my Freshman year of high school. I came out of no where to earn a varsity spot on our wrestling team. We were having a pretty good season. We had a match with a team out of Douglas County (can't remember who it actually was, maybe Alexander???). They were a new high school and not very good. For some reason, too many of the people on our team had trouble making weight that week. We had the match, and barely pulled out a victory.

After the match one of the parents brought a bunch of pizzas onto the team bus. We all went nuts as we were incredibly hungry and joyous for winning.

Next thing I remember is the coach climbing onto the bus and grabbing a box of pizza and throwing it off the bus. I don't remember exactly what he said next, but something to the affect of "since you have so much energy left over to be celebrating.. we will practice when we get back and burn that pizza off".

Sure enough, we got off the bus at school and proceeded to the practice room. He ran our ***es off for the next hour. There were a couple of people that wished they hadn't of scoffed down that pizza.

No one had trouble making weight the rest of the year, and I don't think we lost another match.
 
I was there.

Jonathan and Reggie fought to the end - and there were a few more.

It wasn't like UGA, which was a complete team meltdown.

For example, the last touchdown before the half. It looked like our D was waiting for the clock to run down, (less than a minute left, and we had just scored). Our D looked like they were waiting on CU to neal on the ball, or run to run out the clock. Tommy B saw what I saw, and called pass play and scored a dagger through the heart.

That wasn't the only play. And it wasn't like UGA. I'll say that again, but even when they came on the field, they had NO excitement - looked like no sense of ugency.

Maybe they were just spent. It happens. I just feel like that game could have been different if we had approached the game differently. Maybe it would have changed nothing.

I do realize what happened the two weeks before. I don't know if I would have tried to pep them up or wear them out. I wasn't at practice before and after.

My commenst were what I would do if I knew a team had slacked on me, and I am unsure of all the factors with the team last week, but it definitely looked like a team that had quit.

Emotion is everything in college football. Anger, Fear, Love, Laps - I don't care what it is, these kids need a shot in the arm.
 
That sound like that crazy coach from LaGrange (Knight, maybe?) It's been a while.

When/Where did you wrestle?

I wrestled for Coach Whiddon in Dublin. I've got a story eerily similar to that one.
 
techfowl, I agree 100%. I just wonder sometimes that we sit in the stands or watch on TV and decide that players quit. We don't really know. Maybe they just made a sorry read and were totally out of position. Or maybe they guy across the line of scrimmage just whipped them physically. I've seen teams that I thought quit. It just seems every time we lose somebody thinks they kids quit. I don't think that's true. This isn't directed at you, it's more a general comment.
 
NC...

That's reasonable.

We have already established that I can go off on a tangent every once in a while. (No sarcasm intended)
 
Originally posted by techfowl:
I had a coach that would absolutely kill our team if we slacked in a game.
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Same here as a senior in high school. Coach made the whole darn team wear high-top cleats (we looked like a bunch of hillbilly yahoos). Coach simply wouldn't take "CAN'T" or "NO" for an answer. We made it to the State Championships in 5A that year in Alabama. Boy did I get the luck of the draw... got to play head-to-head against Ozzie Newsome in the championship game. Ozzie went on to become an All-America at the University of Alabama and he became one of two first-round draft selections of the Cleveland Browns a year later. Later went on to be inducted into the Pro Hall of Fame.

Needless to say... we barely lost to that bunch of coal miners that year. Came in second in the state but we never quit. Word simply was not in our vocabulary. Coach made sure of that.

BuzzBomb

Focus =&gt; NC State
 
Tech did not quit against Clemson. The players were spent before the game started because they had laid it on the line the 2 previous weeks. Only a really good team can perform at a high level 3 weeks in a row. Coach Dodd used to try to never schedule 2 tough games back to back. Dodd was a master at scheduling. One year Tech had 8 home games! This year's schdule is a monstrosity, with 1 game for almost a month[Md.].
 
Absolutely,Ram, our gys had just played and extended themselves against a ridiculously stocked stable of jocks at FSU and came short despite a valiant effort. They ran out of steam during the second part of that game and it lasted into Clemson (lucky for them). I would in normal years love to schedule every team, the week after they played FSU.
You speak wisdom and truth......I wish we all could recognize the facts as you pointed them out and live with our plight (facing the facts). One day it may be different, but for now, let's all be knowwledgeable of college football as you are.
 
I can buy that.

Our record has been consistently poor following the FSU game every year.
 
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