SOMETIMES YOU NEED HARD

Some great thoughts from Coach Nick Saban when asked after Alabama's hard fought 31-24 victory on the road at Mississippi State about the game being harder than he wanted it to be:

"Sometimes you need hard.  If we're going to beat really good teams, if we're going to be able to compete, we've got to learn how to compete in close games.  Where every player counts...where you've got to play every play for 60 minutes in the game...every third down is important.  There's lots of opportunities in critical situations in the game for players to make plays.  And we don't always have that when we win 49-0."

LESSONS LEARNED FROM LOSING AND WINNING

"I've never bought the idea that you learned much from losing.  In my experience, you learn far more from winning, which also makes your players more receptive to criticism.  All losing does is reinforce the things that cause you to lose, and I already know what they are.  When you're out-prepared, out-coached, out-motivated, out-conditioned, outsmarted -- can you tell me something positive you can get out of that?"

From "Finding A Way To Win" by Bill Parcells

SABAN ON COMPLACENCY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION

The following were a few takeaways from an article written for USAToday by George Schroeder on Alabama's Nick Saban and his annual battle with complacency:

“People think success is a continuum. Success is momentary. And to be really successful you have to have consistency in performance, so you have to do it over the long term.”

“The challenge is always when you have success, people tend to forget what made them successful, And complacency creates a blatant disregard for doing the right things or continuing to do the things that you’ve always done to help you be successful. So consequently you’re not at the top of your game when that happens.”

“The human condition is to survive. It’s not to win the championship. It’s not to be the best you can be. It’s to survive. … So when you tell me I’ve got to sell this many cars this month and that’s my quota — well, when I sell that many cars I’m ready for a couple of days off and go sit in my chair and, you know, eat Tostitos and cheese. I’m not trying to set the world record.

“That’s the human condition. So it’s actually special to be the other way, to be somebody that wants to win a championship, to be somebody that wants to be the best they can be.”

LON KRUGER: PROCESS AND COMPETING

Those loyal followers of our blog know of your strong belief in Process Over Results.  This weekend I've been rereading "The Xs &Os of Success" by Coach Lon Kruger and loved this passage.

During practice drills, the desired outcome has nothing to do with a scoreboard, thus the score annot be used as a metric.  We want our players to embrace this and focus on more identifiable and more immediate results.

Compete for the strong block out.  Compete to set the proper screen.  Compete to finish the shot.  Players have control over these outcomes by they compete for the desired results.

We want our players to play every possession like it's the last possession of the game and will determine the result.  We want this to become a habit.

Competing to win each possession means we must always focus on the details.  We never talk about simply winning with our team.  We do talk about doing all of the little things well and that will give us the best chance to win, regardless of the score.

Once your team begins competing based upon the score, you will find slippage within the details and the fundamentals.