Blackshirts It's about respect - Where Are They Now: Michael Booker

[Mavric]

I agree that the young talent on this team seems very promising. It's the attitude that troubles me. How does a defense that fielded Suh, Hagg, Gomes, Amukamara, Dennard, Crick and the rest seemingly forget how to play badass defense? There's no fire, no passion. It's baffling to me that these guys played among giants yet (seem to) have no drive today.

My favorite movie Remember the Titans has one of my favorite quotes: "Attitude reflects Leadership" Guys, if there is no fire, no passion, no badass attitude - attitude reflects leadership. It begins and stops wt BO. Why do we come out flat or tight in big games? - can't blame it on the kids - this has happen with too many of Bo's teams across the years. If it was just one year,one D then it is the personality of that team - but this goes beyond the kids. If Bo can't get a group of kids to get excited about playing at Memorial Stadium in front of 90k+ people, then Bo is just x & Os and no motivation. The good teams, heck, the average teams are figuring out his Xs & Os. Maybe we thought Bo was all attitude - perhaps it was mostly anger. Anger doesn't motivate if it is vindictive (ie post OSU rant), or is directed unfairly at others (at TM @ A&M game) or is self justification. (most press conferences) One does not have to be an angry man to motivate a team to play with attitude.

21-3?

[NUinID]

I think it is really hard for a coach to motivate a team to play with attitude. The swagger, the knowing that you are better than someone else, is learned from the upper classman in a program and they learned when they were freshman and sophomores from the upper classman. At least that is the way I saw it at Nebraska in the latter part of TO tenure. I am not sure that TO was always the great motivator, but he did let that swagger foster itself, with the 1 vs. 1 scrimmages in the middle of the year. He let the fights develop at practice and pump up his team.

 

You also have to understand that by the time TO was 20 years into it his big motivator was that none of his players wanted to feel like they let him down.

 

Again I think the one the BP can do to help his players develop the attitude is to better set them up for success. I know he loves his scheme and he knows it will eventually work, but do the things now that the players can do really well and get some confidence going. Don't worry about being in the exact most perfect defense for the situation. Let them attack more and counter punch less.

 

Just my opinion.

[TAKODA]

Would you say "Respect" = "Being Confident", which = "Swagger", which comes from "Proven Ability", which is tied to "Talent, Knowledge and Athleticism"?

 

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So using what I stated above, what comes first? The chicken or the egg? If you were in charge (HC), what would your game plan be to correct the issues plaguing our team?

 

There's a lot of interplay there, but I don't personally draw the line from Respect to Talent, Knowledge and Athleticism. I would look at those attributes as a spider's web of interconnected things and not a line of progression starting with one and ending with another. If that's what you mean, then I can see that. I think everyone talking in this thread and reading along knows this is an oversimplification (mine and yours) but it's not outrageously so.

 

As for how to fix what ails this team, I'd absolutely make clear to these guys that they are not playing at a respectable level, that they do not have the right to demand respect for the product they're putting on the field, and I would harp on them about accountability and teamwork. I'd make it clear from Spring Ball through the summer into Fall camp that they haven't done anything yet, accomplished anything yet, that they're not special little snowflakes unique in the college football world, that nobody outside the walls of that stadium care one whit that they're "Nebraska," because if they came here expecting to wear that uniform and become magically bestowed with the cache of the best players and teams, they're sadly mistaken.

 

I would hold up teams like 2009 Iowa State, 2009 Ball State, 2013 Wyoming and 2010 South Dakota State as examples of the kind of four-quarter fight these guys have to give every single game.

 

I would do my best to drum out any kind of swagger -a word I particularly loathe- from these guys until they can consistently demonstrate that they have earned the right to boast. A particular cornerback who has failed spectacularly on several occasions this year, yet who demonstratively celebrates every little success he earns would be held up for example, and not in a good way.

 

But the bottom line is, nothing I would do as Head Coach could be effective if the players don't want to learn. That's Bo's conundrum - if he's saying all the right things, but the players cannot or will not listen, he's screwed.

 

Yes, that is the line of thinking I had there Knapp and to further your viewpoint, I am not sure that Bo can do this on his own and he just might have to decide between loyalty issues and his own professional coaching career!

 

I will revert to something I said a while back!

 

I am not ready to dismiss whether or not there is some entitlement issues behind some of the problems we are seeing and I am sure we have all seen someone who has those tendencies go into the poor me syndrome when things don’t go exactly as planned rather than fight for the cause!