hiveredtech
Dodd-Like
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2002
- Messages
- 5,889
Guys
I have been thinking a lot about our roller coaster ride this year. I think it is safe to say when you looked down our schedule before the season and picked W's and L's....it has not turned out even close to what you thought. Some good...some bad. However, we are not alone in this category. Just ask Wisconsin, Miami, Maryland, Marshall, Washington State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, etc. etc.
As I look back at our second rise for the past 15 years, in the late 90's, we won all of the games that we were supposed to. This is probably because of consistency in coaching and consistency in bringing in the kids that fit the conditions at the time...as well as a built-in confidence and pride within our team. However, a common complaint was that we were not able to win the games against the big teams. Highly ranked teams like FSU and others gave us a lot of trouble...even blowing us out. We rarely won games we were not favored in. One could even argue we lost games we should have won in 2001 when we were 7-5 reg. season.
My opinion is that it is harder to get your team to believe it can win the big games than it is to develop the maturity in your team to win the games it should win. That would come with consistency in coaching, practice, schemes, player development, game preparation, etc.
To sum it up, I would rather be able to win the big games we should not win...than to win the games we should at this point...simply because I believe the latter should be easier to improve on. Time will tell.
I have been thinking a lot about our roller coaster ride this year. I think it is safe to say when you looked down our schedule before the season and picked W's and L's....it has not turned out even close to what you thought. Some good...some bad. However, we are not alone in this category. Just ask Wisconsin, Miami, Maryland, Marshall, Washington State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, etc. etc.
As I look back at our second rise for the past 15 years, in the late 90's, we won all of the games that we were supposed to. This is probably because of consistency in coaching and consistency in bringing in the kids that fit the conditions at the time...as well as a built-in confidence and pride within our team. However, a common complaint was that we were not able to win the games against the big teams. Highly ranked teams like FSU and others gave us a lot of trouble...even blowing us out. We rarely won games we were not favored in. One could even argue we lost games we should have won in 2001 when we were 7-5 reg. season.
My opinion is that it is harder to get your team to believe it can win the big games than it is to develop the maturity in your team to win the games it should win. That would come with consistency in coaching, practice, schemes, player development, game preparation, etc.
To sum it up, I would rather be able to win the big games we should not win...than to win the games we should at this point...simply because I believe the latter should be easier to improve on. Time will tell.