The Enemy Is Often Us
October 29, 2019 at 10:28 p.m.
The Enemy Is Often Us
By Roger Grossman-
I watched a lot of coaches make a lot of decisions every 30 seconds that impacted every play of every game and every team’s season. It’s a hard job, and those coaches (even the ones who aren’t very good at it) get paid a lot of money.
But I noticed something that I never really noticed before, and I want to share it with you.
I was watching Notre Dame’s already-dim hopes of making a national title run swirl away and drown in the waterlogged corners of Michigan Stadium in a 45-14 loss.
I watched Michigan fully understand the weather conditions and commit to doing what it could do under the circumstances—run the football.
And they ran it, and ran it, and ran it.
Then I watched their opponent act like they were playing in a climate controlled dome or on a clear, calm, autumn evening. Notre Dame tried to throw the ball in what looked like a snowy globe, and it was an epic failure. Their quarterback is already in a fragile state, and his coaches demanded that he go out and win a football game in a way that was counter-intuitive to expert and novice alike.
The coach, standing on the sideline with his hat pulled down to eye brow level, his arms folded in a constant state of disgust, wondered why things weren’t working the way he had planned.
I am not a coach, but I know when something is not working because of execution and when it is not working because the scheme is flawed from the start.
This was arrogance.
Sunday, the Bears can’t move the ball. They couldn’t find a first down with a compass and binoculars as they continued to throw the ball at an alarming rate.
Then, out of the blue, they go on a long drive that leads to a touchdown—almost entirely via running plays. In their next two drives: right back to pass-only plays that lead to incompletions and punts.
They also settled for field goals in the red zone when running plays could have at least set up passing opportunities.
After the game, the “I saw a lot to like” and “we just have to get better” mantra was bouncing off the walls of the Soldier Field press room.
In those two instances, these people are saying to us “I am a coach and you have no idea what you are talking about because you aren’t a coach.”
True, and I generally fall on the side of the coaches for that very reason. But in these two cases set in front of us here, the approach is “I am right and this is how we’re going to do it and we will not veer from it.”
They are like husbands who won’t stop and ask for directions, on people who have cell phones but won’t use GPS to realize the block they have been circling for the last half hour is 3 blocks over from the intended destination.
Do NOT misunderstand: I am talking about game planning here, not team culture. Demanding accountability and discipline from your underlings is the first and primary job of a leader. You can’t teach them anything else if they don’t respect you enough to want to hear what you are telling them.
I also am NOT referring to a coach like Bart Curtis. Yes, the Tigers run the ball as their primary method of operation. But within that concept of run-heavy play calling is an almost infinite array of options and possibilities. We have come to understand first-hand here in Warsaw that Bart Ball is exciting and effective when run correctly and with attention to detail.
That’s not arrogant, it’s knowing who you are and adjusting to what you can do.
Coaches who are unwilling to adjust, especially at the high school level where (unless you are a parochial school of course) you can’t pick and choose your players, fail too often because they are the round hole and their players are the square peg.
It’s not forward thinking, and it’s a flaw that must be corrected quickly or it becomes permanent.
I watched a lot of coaches make a lot of decisions every 30 seconds that impacted every play of every game and every team’s season. It’s a hard job, and those coaches (even the ones who aren’t very good at it) get paid a lot of money.
But I noticed something that I never really noticed before, and I want to share it with you.
I was watching Notre Dame’s already-dim hopes of making a national title run swirl away and drown in the waterlogged corners of Michigan Stadium in a 45-14 loss.
I watched Michigan fully understand the weather conditions and commit to doing what it could do under the circumstances—run the football.
And they ran it, and ran it, and ran it.
Then I watched their opponent act like they were playing in a climate controlled dome or on a clear, calm, autumn evening. Notre Dame tried to throw the ball in what looked like a snowy globe, and it was an epic failure. Their quarterback is already in a fragile state, and his coaches demanded that he go out and win a football game in a way that was counter-intuitive to expert and novice alike.
The coach, standing on the sideline with his hat pulled down to eye brow level, his arms folded in a constant state of disgust, wondered why things weren’t working the way he had planned.
I am not a coach, but I know when something is not working because of execution and when it is not working because the scheme is flawed from the start.
This was arrogance.
Sunday, the Bears can’t move the ball. They couldn’t find a first down with a compass and binoculars as they continued to throw the ball at an alarming rate.
Then, out of the blue, they go on a long drive that leads to a touchdown—almost entirely via running plays. In their next two drives: right back to pass-only plays that lead to incompletions and punts.
They also settled for field goals in the red zone when running plays could have at least set up passing opportunities.
After the game, the “I saw a lot to like” and “we just have to get better” mantra was bouncing off the walls of the Soldier Field press room.
In those two instances, these people are saying to us “I am a coach and you have no idea what you are talking about because you aren’t a coach.”
True, and I generally fall on the side of the coaches for that very reason. But in these two cases set in front of us here, the approach is “I am right and this is how we’re going to do it and we will not veer from it.”
They are like husbands who won’t stop and ask for directions, on people who have cell phones but won’t use GPS to realize the block they have been circling for the last half hour is 3 blocks over from the intended destination.
Do NOT misunderstand: I am talking about game planning here, not team culture. Demanding accountability and discipline from your underlings is the first and primary job of a leader. You can’t teach them anything else if they don’t respect you enough to want to hear what you are telling them.
I also am NOT referring to a coach like Bart Curtis. Yes, the Tigers run the ball as their primary method of operation. But within that concept of run-heavy play calling is an almost infinite array of options and possibilities. We have come to understand first-hand here in Warsaw that Bart Ball is exciting and effective when run correctly and with attention to detail.
That’s not arrogant, it’s knowing who you are and adjusting to what you can do.
Coaches who are unwilling to adjust, especially at the high school level where (unless you are a parochial school of course) you can’t pick and choose your players, fail too often because they are the round hole and their players are the square peg.
It’s not forward thinking, and it’s a flaw that must be corrected quickly or it becomes permanent.
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