Our Team's Mental Acuity and Resilience: Perhaps Look at improving the Sports Psychology staff?

BigRedBuster said:
But...isn't this thread based off of the "melt down" in the second half of the CU game?

I still fail to see what you're talking about with the above bolded even taking the CU game out of the conversation.
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No, it's a cumulative effect since the early 00s (for those of us that can remember that far back). That's why posters like @JJ Husker failed miserably at reading comprehension and unfortunately blasted this out to everyone. 

Plus we have the same Sports Psychology staff that we had during Riley's tenure (and the last few months of Pelini's, to be fair). And how many times since the early 00s have we seen problems with mental acuity, focus, and the inability to control emotions on the field? Answer--a metric s*** ton. And Sports Psychology is a tool that helps develop and facilitate this focus and control. 

What I'm saying is this is an unsung advantage we had during the 90s, along with our S&C program, that helped put us over the top. We don't seem to have that advantage any longer, and I haven't seen much evidence of their effectiveness for quite some time now, Pelini's tenure included. 

Is it a magic bullet? No, and I never said as such. But it's something that's not really been updated, and the article linked discussed how Jack Stark would be willing to come back and assist the program (he's in Omaha with Creighton right now IIRC). 

Every little bit helps, and if this is something we can upgrade to help the kids playing, we should look at it. 

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I looked at the title, and I guess I can see why someone like JJ would be confused without reading everything else. I'll update accordingly. 

 
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VectorVictor said:
No, it's a cumulative effect since the early 00s (for those of us that can remember that far back). That's why posters like @JJ Husker failed miserably at reading comprehension and unfortunately blasted this out to everyone. 

Plus we have the same Sports Psychology staff that we had during Riley's tenure (and the last few months of Pelini's, to be fair). And how many times since the early 00s have we seen problems with mental acuity, focus, and the inability to control emotions on the field? Answer--a metric s*** ton. And Sports Psychology is a tool that helps develop and facilitate this focus and control. 

What I'm saying is this is an unsung advantage we had during the 90s, along with our S&C program, that helped put us over the top. We don't seem to have that advantage any longer, and I haven't seen much evidence of their effectiveness for quite some time now, Pelini's tenure included. 

Is it a magic bullet? No, and I never said as such. But it's something that's not really been updated, and the article linked discussed how Jack Stark would be willing to come back and assist the program (he's in Omaha with Creighton right now IIRC). 

Every little bit helps, and if this is something we can upgrade to help the kids playing, we should look at it. 

---

I looked at the title, and I guess I can see why someone like JJ would be confused without reading everything else. I'll update accordingly. 
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I personally have not seen evidence of that this year.

I saw a team that didn't play perfect in the first game, but was strong enough to persevere and win.

I saw a team that played one really good half of football, allowed the team back in the game in the third and then was mentally tough enough to not fold and took the game to overtime.

 
BigRedBuster said:
I personally have not seen evidence of that this year.

I saw a team that didn't play perfect in the first game, but was strong enough to persevere and win.

I saw a team that played one really good half of football, allowed the team back in the game in the third and then was mentally tough enough to not fold and took the game to overtime.
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I would submit the possibility of that first quarter personal foul by the defense, though I also think it may be because they player couldn't hear the (feeble) whistle on the field. 

Maybe I'm just young (and old) enough to remember all of the praise sung about our Sports Psychology department in the 90s and how it helped players focus through exhaustion, control emotions, and ultimately be more disciplined in their play. 
 

 
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VectorVictor said:
I would submit the possibility of that first quarter personal foul by the defense, though I also think it may be because they player couldn't hear the (feeble) whistle on the field. 

 
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No, that player in particular has exhibited being a hell of a lot tougher both physically and mentally this year than his entire career.

 
“... feel we've seen a distinct degradation in mental preparedness by this team that continues to this day--lack of focus (resulting in bad broken plays or penalties), stupid penalties due to getting worked up/not controlling themselves, letting down during plays/series--all things that point to the mental aspect of this team not being where it could or should be... how mentally soft this team has become...”

Solid winning teams never have a problem with melting down or being a bit soft mentally. They are good, but more importantly, they KNOW they are good.

Why do some teams often blow leads at end of games and others routinely pull out games as wins at the end? See above.

The current Huskers haven’t proved to THEMSELVES that they are good. And they don’t show any evidence that they feel or know that they are “good”.

The head coach sets the overall tone for the program. But he is not always a great conveyor of tending to the mindset of his players. Someone else needs to be in charge of that.

And just because you may have been a good-to-great player yourself, that often does not translate into being a good leader of men. Arguably, the greatest hockey player of all time is Wayne Gretzky. But as a head coach, he was awful. Each sport has more than one example of this. Often, the very best head coaches were role-or-marginal as active players.

It’s already clear that something is missing from the current Husker regime. It’s been a smallish but enough of sample size. Something is lacking.

The Huskers were/are famous for The Weight Room. It is time to put the same heavy emphasis on the mental and belief system aspect of the game and players. Let the high dollar guys figure out what that should be. They’ve got The Weights and the X-and-O guys already. Time for some Spiritual Healing.
 

 
BigRedBuster said:
I personally have not seen evidence of that this year.

I saw a team that didn't play perfect in the first game, but was strong enough to persevere and win.

I saw a team that played one really good half of football, allowed the team back in the game in the third and then was mentally tough enough to not fold and took the game to overtime.
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I think the Defense definitely demonstrated the toughness you mention vs CU. Even though they had been gashed for some big plays, they stiffened in OT and forced a field goal, which is putting the Offense in a pretty good position to win the game. Also, in regulation, the ST forced and recovered a fumble, giving the ball right back to the Offense. You can't do much above and beyond those two plays to help the effort.....

 
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Jarhead In Red said:
I think the Defense definitely demonstrated the toughness you mention vs CU. Even though they had been gashed for some big plays, they stiffened in OT and forced a field goal, which is putting the Offense in a pretty good position to win the game. Also, in regulation, the ST forced and recovered a fumble, giving the ball right back to Offense. You can't do much above and beyond those two plays to help the effort.....
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Agree.

 
VectorVictor said:
No, it's a cumulative effect since the early 00s (for those of us that can remember that far back). That's why posters like @JJ Husker failed miserably at reading comprehension and unfortunately blasted this out to everyone. 

Plus we have the same Sports Psychology staff that we had during Riley's tenure (and the last few months of Pelini's, to be fair). And how many times since the early 00s have we seen problems with mental acuity, focus, and the inability to control emotions on the field? Answer--a metric s*** ton. And Sports Psychology is a tool that helps develop and facilitate this focus and control. 

What I'm saying is this is an unsung advantage we had during the 90s, along with our S&C program, that helped put us over the top. We don't seem to have that advantage any longer, and I haven't seen much evidence of their effectiveness for quite some time now, Pelini's tenure included. 

Is it a magic bullet? No, and I never said as such. But it's something that's not really been updated, and the article linked discussed how Jack Stark would be willing to come back and assist the program (he's in Omaha with Creighton right now IIRC). 

Every little bit helps, and if this is something we can upgrade to help the kids playing, we should look at it. 

---

I looked at the title, and I guess I can see why someone like JJ would be confused without reading everything else. I'll update accordingly. 
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Sorry, my initial first paragraph response was solely based on the original thread title. Then I read what you actually posted and added the 2nd paragraph. Forgive me if I'm a little touchy but I've seen a whole buttload of overreaction to numerous things on the board since Saturday.

 
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JJ Husker said:
Sorry, my initial first paragraph response was solely based on the original thread title. Then I read what you actually posted and added the 2nd paragraph. Forgive me if I'm a little touchy but I've seen a whole buttload of overreaction to numerous things on the board since Saturday.
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@JJ Husker

It’s all good. I apologize for getting a little defensive and being somewhat of a d!(k in my reply. I hope the changes title and scope makes more sense. 

Also, I figured this would be a good topic for discussion because it’s something even Sipple and Jake delved into briefly during the (long) off-season as a possible area of improvement for our program. They saw a need last year and in previous years that wasn’t being met, and it was something we had on lockdown until, say, ‘02. So it’s not just something I whipped up—it was something that I heard over the summer that stayed with me and felt appropriate to bring up. 

 
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VectorVictor said:
@JJ Husker

It’s all good. I apologize for getting a little defensive and being somewhat of a d!(k in my reply. I hope the changes title and scope makes more sense. 

Also, I figured this would be a good topic for discussion because it’s something even Sipple and Jake delved into briefly during the (long) off-season as a possible area of improvement for our program. They saw a need last year and in previous years that wasn’t being met, and it was something we had on lockdown until, say, ‘02. So it’s not just something I whipped up—it was something that I heard over the summer that stayed with me and felt appropriate to bring up. 
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It is appropriate and worthy of discussion. I just sort of prematurely snapped when I came across yet another topic indicating wholesale changes were needed in the program (seemingly based on only 2 games this season, of my own concocting). I think Frost will get most of these things under control but adjustments in the sports psychology department may be needed as well considering what has transpired since Stark left.

 
El Straino said:
Cotton? Or a certain prehistoric purple dinosaur with a creepy disposition towards young children?
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220px-Rockiesdinger.JPG


 
Apples to oranges comparison here as I didnt think a Natty coming into this year...but i hold onto the fact that OSU lost to VTech at home in their natty year and they "found themselves" after that. Hoping we have a similar step to a 9-3 season

 
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