I apologize if you received this message more than once. For some reason it was returned to me the first time I sent it with just a note and a link to the BS. I'm trying again without the link. --------------
Friday with Fran - Dealing with adversity 9/3/2004 As a coach, you learn early in your career how to deal with adversity, or else you wind up in another profession. You learn to respond, not react. You learn to keep the lows from getting too low and the highs from getting too high, because the time and distance between the two is often fleeting. Every coach wants to win every game, and nobody does. Every coach wants his team or his position group to play a perfect game, and nobody does. I guarantee you that today there's a coach or two in Utah that, while happy about winning, they're irked that they gave up 400-some yards and 21 points to us. There are always two viewpoints of any game. Utah sees a great defensive stand inside their 5-yard line. We look at video of the same sequence and we see three things that should have happened and we would have scored. They see a receiver beating our DB, we see our DB not covering a receiver. So when things don't go your way, the only productive thing you can do is study what took place and see what you can learn from it. You have to take from defeat any of the positives you can find and build on them, and then take all the negatives that happened and figure out how to work to eliminate them. We took away several positives from the Utah game. We showed marked improvement over last year in areas that we identified and worked extra on - like no turnovers, speed and athleticism, strength into the fourth quarter, to name some. Most of our mistakes were, as we tell the team, going 100 miles an hour. We know from experience that with time and continued commitment to work hard those mistakes will go away. * * * Another thing you learn early in coaching is about frontrunners. That can be players, it can be media, it can be fans. We tell our players all the time that it's easy to lead and feel good about yourself when you're winning. It's a game like this that tests your character and your will. We still have 10 games remaining, hopefully more, and we will not let the result of one eat into our resolve. It's also after games like Utah that our coaching staff receives a lot of volunteer help in coaching. We have to see the good in that, too. We want you to care as much as we do, and we know that you are frustrated. We understand that it is hard for an Aggie to accept that we were underdogs against Utah and that they won convincingly as a team that is currently regarded as one of the 20 best in the country. But that's the reality. As coaches we have to deal with the realities. An example: our squad of 78 that traveled to Utah had 34 players on it that had never played a down in a Division I football game. Now 20 of them have. It's not an excuse, because Thursday's game didn't boil down to one or two plays, but it's a reality that one of our first-time players got a key penalty for yelling at the punt returner, and that one of our first-time players got caught out of position and beaten on a touchdown pass, just to give two examples. In the video, which we grade hard and in many detailed areas such as assignment, alignment, blocking, running routes, tackling, etc., we could find something to give a minus for with every new player. That's how we identify what to work on and improve, day to day. Another of those areas we grade very harshly is called LOE -- lack of effort. One of the pleasing things about the game is that there were very few LOEs. You only need to look at our second half and especially our fourth quarter to know the effort was good right to the end. You may have noticed how long Utah kept their starters in. They knew our team never stopped fighting. When you lose and it's not close, that probably doesn't show, but believe me, you know it on the sideline. The bottom line is this -- all of us coaches knew when we came here that we had to have patience and work our process, and the only thing we can do is continue to work it. The opener at Utah was not a destination, it was part of the journey. The good thing we have learned that we can rely on is that the Aggie students and former students on the whole are loyal and faithful and stick together through thick or thin. For that we are very thankful. It will be rewarded, and the reward will be all the sweeter. * * * In another move to add to team unity we distributed maroon wristbands that say "Texas A&M" on them to the team and staff. The bands were provided to us by one of our great sponsoring partners of CoachFran.com and Coach Fran Charities, the folks at C.C. Creations in College Station. I told the team that nobody should accept one unless they operate as one heartbeat and play only for the name on the front of our jersey, Texas A&M. After the game I told them I wasn't taking mine off, and anybody who isn't looking for ways to help this team get better and become successful should take it off. * * * To sum up the coaching staff's evaluation of the opening game, on defense we gave up too many big plays, especially on third down, and didn't make enough big plays offensively, especially on third down. Our overall belief is that we shot ourselves in the foot more often than the opponent shot us, that we effectively beat ourselves too many ways. But I don't want to say that in a way that disrespects Utah, because they had a good plan and they executed it well. We felt we matched up well, but they had talented players who rose to the occasion. Our view of the outcome is reflected in our weekly awards, in that we had no DL or DB award. Geoff Hangartner, starting his first game at tackle, was offensive lineman of the game; Jason Carter earned the offensive back of the game; Ray Ray Jones was special teams player of the game. We also give an award each week to members of the scout teams who excel. O-lineman J Pond received it on offense, and linebacker Nathan Haile earned it on defense. * * * Some other topics of interest this week: Check out the web site of Gridiron Heroes and play the game they have going between me and Texas coach Mack Brown to raise funds for their mission of helping high school players who have spinal cord injuries....We really appreciate the large turnout of Aggies in the stands at Utah....The captain of our charter flight with ATA was an Aggie, Michael Marshall '88....A&M softball coach Jo Evans was a guest of the team on the trip. She grew up in Salt Lake City....There are a lot of exciting activities planned for our first home game next week, which I'll talk more about in detail next Friday, but make your plans to attend the Aggie Fan Zone that starts 3 1/2 hours before kickoff, and to line up for our first Spirit Walk from the buses to the dressing room about 3 hours before game time....Another highlight is the honoring of the Junction Boys on their 50th anniversary of that legend under Coach Bryant. They'll sign autographs before the game at the Fan Zone. Finally, our first radio show of the season takes place Thursday night at Wings 'N More in College Station. It's broadcast on the Aggie radio network. This year we'll operate a little different. We're going to take questions from the live audience at the restaurant instead of taking calls on the air. Tune in. Now it's time to do the only thing that makes sense - turn our minds and energy toward Wyoming, the next step in the journey. Hope you'll be with us at Kyle Field for the first Midnight Yell Practice and the next afternoon for kickoff. Gig 'em, Aggies! Coach Fran ______________________________________________________ RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics Discussion List Welcome to RollTideFan! Wear a cup! To join or leave the list or to make changes to your subscription visit http://listinfo.rolltidefan.net New AOL.com addresses are NOT allowed on this list. Get a real ISP.
