From the Evansville Courier Press, December 5, 2010
The college football season has been in high gear, with each game turning into a potential playoff game.
What's unique about college football is that with the season so short and with each game being so significant, every game essentially turns into a playoff game.
Between teams fighting for a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) or conference championship berth, there are many lessons you can draw that apply to coaches and players in any sport.
I always preach to our players at the University of Evansville about how small is the margin between victory and defeat. You can't take for granted how hard you have to work to gain a victory. It takes 90 minutes to win a soccer game, and often seems to only take one instance to lose.
Saying that, it is very difficult for one player to win or lose by himself. There are series of events in a game where player(s) can put their team in the best possible position to succeed, and it is really hard to point at one action in a game for affecting the outcome.
Boise State's dream of a national football championship essentially ended with their 34-31 overtime loss to Nevada. Fans pointed at kicker Kyle Brotzman's missed field goal attempts at the end of regulation and in overtime as the reason for the loss, but I don't know how he single-handedly could have lost the game.
Brotzman is the leading scorer in Boise State history, and has contributed to multiple Broncos victories. He also didn't play a down for a defense that conceded a 17-point halftime lead and that gave up 528 total yards.
In the end of the day, there are certain roles on a team that are magnified because of their job description — a kicker on a football team is kind of like a goalkeeper in soccer: In most cases, you are either the hero or the goat. Players in those roles understand and accept that responsibility. It is important to keep perspective about who really wins and loses games — in team sports like football or soccer, it takes all 11 players on the field to win or lose.
It is also important to understand the significance in making adjustments, be it from players on the field improvising to the coaches off the field changing schemes.
Auburn was dead and buried last weekend against rival and defending national champion Alabama. The Tigers were down by 24 points at one time, and limped into the locker room with a 24-7 deficit. But coach Gene Chizik and defensive coordinator Ted Roof made the necessary adjustments. Their ability to improvise and adapt were nothing new for the unbeaten Tigers, who trailed in 8 of their 12 wins.
To come back for a 28-27 victory and a spot in the SEC championship game required execution on both sides of the ball — a defense getting stops and forcing Alabama turnovers; an offense to create scoring chances off those turnovers.
It also required a level of belief and commitment from the players and coaches — you can't erase a 24- point deficit on one play. You need players who can treat each play like it's for a championship — to understand that it will be a series of plays that will lead toward a scoring chance. It also takes a level of determination, knowing that a comeback is more of a marathon than a sprint.
"We didn't finish the game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said in his post-game news conference. "When you play good teams, you've got to play for 60 minutes. Those kind of teams don't go away. There's a lot of lessons to be learned out there about finishing games and doing things correctly."
The college football season has been in high gear, with each game turning into a potential playoff game.
What's unique about college football is that with the season so short and with each game being so significant, every game essentially turns into a playoff game.
Between teams fighting for a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) or conference championship berth, there are many lessons you can draw that apply to coaches and players in any sport.
I always preach to our players at the University of Evansville about how small is the margin between victory and defeat. You can't take for granted how hard you have to work to gain a victory. It takes 90 minutes to win a soccer game, and often seems to only take one instance to lose.
Saying that, it is very difficult for one player to win or lose by himself. There are series of events in a game where player(s) can put their team in the best possible position to succeed, and it is really hard to point at one action in a game for affecting the outcome.
Boise State's dream of a national football championship essentially ended with their 34-31 overtime loss to Nevada. Fans pointed at kicker Kyle Brotzman's missed field goal attempts at the end of regulation and in overtime as the reason for the loss, but I don't know how he single-handedly could have lost the game.
Brotzman is the leading scorer in Boise State history, and has contributed to multiple Broncos victories. He also didn't play a down for a defense that conceded a 17-point halftime lead and that gave up 528 total yards.
In the end of the day, there are certain roles on a team that are magnified because of their job description — a kicker on a football team is kind of like a goalkeeper in soccer: In most cases, you are either the hero or the goat. Players in those roles understand and accept that responsibility. It is important to keep perspective about who really wins and loses games — in team sports like football or soccer, it takes all 11 players on the field to win or lose.
It is also important to understand the significance in making adjustments, be it from players on the field improvising to the coaches off the field changing schemes.
Auburn was dead and buried last weekend against rival and defending national champion Alabama. The Tigers were down by 24 points at one time, and limped into the locker room with a 24-7 deficit. But coach Gene Chizik and defensive coordinator Ted Roof made the necessary adjustments. Their ability to improvise and adapt were nothing new for the unbeaten Tigers, who trailed in 8 of their 12 wins.
To come back for a 28-27 victory and a spot in the SEC championship game required execution on both sides of the ball — a defense getting stops and forcing Alabama turnovers; an offense to create scoring chances off those turnovers.
It also required a level of belief and commitment from the players and coaches — you can't erase a 24- point deficit on one play. You need players who can treat each play like it's for a championship — to understand that it will be a series of plays that will lead toward a scoring chance. It also takes a level of determination, knowing that a comeback is more of a marathon than a sprint.
"We didn't finish the game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said in his post-game news conference. "When you play good teams, you've got to play for 60 minutes. Those kind of teams don't go away. There's a lot of lessons to be learned out there about finishing games and doing things correctly."
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