NOTE: below is NOT a commentary/opinion regarding the effort of the FU Football team last Sat. It is a general observation on whether or not effort can be Coached.
Interesting discussion.
Honestly, I would not have run through a cheerleading banner, much less a brick wall for any of the Coaches I played for @ FU; while I was playing. OK, maybe I would have for Coach Caldwell, but only because he would make me feel so bad FOR him, if I didn’t. On the other hand, as an adult, I now realize how great they were and would run thru that wall for any & all of them...or at least smash it down with my walker.
But...back to then...
1) I well knew that none of my Coaches would accept anything less than MAX effort on every play of every game. That’s it - bottom line - no exceptions. You loaf at all on Sat.; you will pay the price the following week with extra ‘opportunities’ to remember to give full effort every play AND you will find your ‘opportunities’ to loaf on ANY play on Sat. soon minimized or eliminated. No exceptions. Those Coaches would have rather lost with Players that gave MAX effort than win with Players who didn’t.
2) On the other hand, while I was playing, I would have run through that brick wall for almost all of my brothers on those Teams & I knew, without a doubt, that almost all of them would have for me. That’s called ‘culture.’ You can’t Coach it, but you can cultivate, by enforcing #1 and recruiting to #3.
3) In those days & as far as I can remember back, I would, I think, rather have died than lose at ANYTHING, especially Football. And, almost to a man, those brothers I mentioned in #2 were exactly the same way. I ‘saw’ (read, “occasionally participated”) FU Teammates fight each other over a whiffle ball game. I’ve seen a post-final roll backgammon board fly through a dorm window. Teammates fought each other over ‘shotgun’ to take a 5 minute ride to Len’s Liquor Mart. I know those Coaches occasionally came to blows during their lunch hoops games. We were VERY POOR losers. Fans didn’t really notice how poor we were at losing because, well, we didn’t lose often and we also were strictly forbidden from displaying anything less than ‘class’ on Saturdays. But, Coach Sheridan had a rule, in those few instances when we did lose...shake the opponents’ hands & then get your a$$ into the locker room IMMEDIATELY - no visiting with families, no pictures with your girlfriend. GET OFF THE FIELD. YOU LOST. TAKE OFF THAT UNIFORM YOU JUST EMBARRASSED & then you can come back out & hug your birth-family/girlfriend. If you could tolerate losing even just a little bit, the Furman Football Team from 1978 through at least 1985 was not the place for you.
Coach Hendrix was there. He knows what that looks like & how to recruit to it. I’m sure he & the staff are all over #1, but they need a few more years to identify & recruit more guys like those in #3. When the Paladins have a predominance of REALLY-REALLY-HATE-to-lose’ers on the roster & the effects of #1 are applied fully, without fail, and without exception, there will not be a tougher, more physical team in the SoCon, possibly not in FCS Football.
#BookIt
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother
Cmon. That was too easy 