"Whatever you can dream or do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
-- Goethe
It is so easy to say, and so difficult to do. How do good coaches train and focus teenaged males for an entire football season? Is it possible to keep them in the present moment most of the time? If so, how best to do it?
Anyone who goes outside their house on a regular basis understands the distractions today's kids face: How should I dress? Pants up or down? Torso exhibition or covered navel? Tattoos or punctured whatevers ... or both? Hair spikes or disheveled mess, and what color? Green, blue, or both? Am I safe at school with the metal detectors?
My generation never had to address any of those issues. Our parents had already provided answers, and if we chose to disobey we knew there were consequences for the choices we made.
For college football players there is all that and more:
When do I get to rest? How long does the season last? Why all the extra tutoring? Is it really necessary to lift weights during the season? Am I injured so badly I shouldn't play? Is the trainer leveling with me? How can I get to all the extra tape study my NFL heroes do? What makes the coaches think we can do all this work and still win on Saturday? Why does the press report every mistake we make and so little of the good things we do? What about all these agents hanging around?
If African-Americans make up the majority of the players on the field, why do we have almost no head coaches or athletic directors who are African-American? If I am African-American am I selling out to participate in a sport that discriminates when it comes to positions of authority? If I decide to coach will I get a fair shot?
Why don't we get paid? If our coach makes over a $1 million dollars a year why shouldn't we get $100 a month? If the athletic department spends $100 million on our stadium why can't we afford a convenient athletic dorm like athletes used to enjoy?
The season gets longer and longer as games are added and playoff talk dominates, but if we have a playoff system that calls for several more games during December and January is there anything in it for us?
What if our coach is fired? Will the new staff appreciate my ability or tell me I am no longer needed?
If all this seems overwhelming, let me assure you it is. Which brings us back to the original question: How do some coaches consistently follow the rules, graduate their players, and turn out successful teams which are capable of staying in the present moment despite all the distractions?
The three contenders for this year's top spot in the final BCS rankings are USC, Auburn, and Oklahoma. Each is made up of great athletes, but so are several other teams who are on the outside looking in.
In each case the coaches have been successful at holding the attention of their men, not only during the season, but in the all-important preparation days of the offseason. Here are some of the tools the coaches used to drown out the cultural static.
Bold strokes
"Only us (sic) as coaches and players know how hard it is to do what we've done so far. To finish it off is one of the hardest things in sports. You get no leeway for being close. You have to go do it."
Those are the words of Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who a year ago was inches from the unemployment line but today is the most powerful man in the state of Alabama and will remain so as long as his team continues to play inspired football.
What Tuberville is doing with the statement above is uniting his troops, again, for what seems like the 100th time this year. He began his motivational technique with a calculated risk exactly one year ago when he boldly proclaimed that his team would win the national championship in 2004. People thought he was foolish or worse, and laughed at a guy who appeared to be a lame duck. No one is laughing now, and whether or not his team pulls it off, people are likely to listen to him from now on.
When Tuberville made his prediction he was talking to his players in no uncertain terms. He was saying, "I believe in you ... they cannot run me off ... I will stay and lead you out of this mess. We will win it all!"
What he did not say was, "Gee, I'm sorry. Please let me stay. I'll try to do better."
That is leadership in bold strokes.
Pete Carroll of Southern California has a team meeting each winter during which he shows his team tapes of incoming recruits. He then reminds the men that playing time will be allocated based on performance, and that there are no entitlements for upperclassmen. He keeps the attention of his team year-round. They are desperate to play and they have no illusions about the ability of the competition on their own team.
He does not say, "Wow, you guys are great. Everyone will keep his position and we will continue to do well."
Leadership in bold strokes.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was quoted last year in a surprising statement about a Division I-A playoff. To paraphrase: "I have always been a playoff guy, but when I look at my players this time of year I do not see how we can do it. They are so tired and so beat up, I think it would be asking too much of them. We probably have about as good a system as is practical right now."
The message to his team was that the coach understood the pressure, the injuries, and that he empathized with them in their poor finish to the 2003 season.
He did not say, "Aw, these players did not understand the opportunity we had. They are not very tough, and lack leadership."
Again, bold strokes.
Tuberville, Carroll, and Stoops used the hands they were dealt, the bad with the good, to forge the greatest motivation in all of team endeavor-relationship. These guys' teams play with passion because they do not want to let each other down. They made a commitment to the coaches and each other, then took ownership of their teams. They responded to the boldness of their leaders, and all of them will be hard to beat coming down the stretch.
Which, of course, is wonderful for us since it will give us 12 more months of BCS arguments!
ESPN college football analyst Bill Curry was an NFL center for 10 seasons and coached for 17 years on the college stage. His Center Stage examinations appear each week during the college football season.