Motivational Tactics
via David Hale
In theory, bulletin boards in locker rooms should not be necessary. Football is a game of passion, and so players should play with it at all times. For some guys, football is the raison d'être for them being in college at all. It's what pays for their scholarships and potentially earns them big money on the next level.
And yet, as we all know from seeing our teams come out flat and lose a game they shouldn't, all of that is not enough. Players still need external motivation. They still need to get yelled at or get a kick to the seat of their pants to play up to their highest level consistently. Dramatic locker room speeches are as big a part of football lore as are Hail Marys and last second field goals.
As coverage of college football has increased over the last several years, it seems like more and more we learn about the motivational tactics that coaches use to fire up players. The concept of "bulletin board material" is nearly as old as the single wing, and that's a road well traveled. Now, as you can see with the picture at the top of this post, coaches are creating their own based on past events to try to focus players.
The first thing of this kind I can remember hearing of was that, after losing to Florida in the national title game, Ohio State changed the four digit security code of its athletics complex to 4114 to reflect the final score of the game. I'm sure things like this have existed for longer, but that's the first I can remember. Georgia now has signs about 49-10 all over its football complex, as well as some about its loss to Georgia Tech.
The national champion Gators? Yup, they have permanent space reserved for the biggest games of each year:
There's plenty more where that came from too. You're right in assuming the things under Tennessee include a Lane Kiffin quote, though the second one curiously is about 11 players leaving the program (huh?). I can't tell what's under Georgia, but I'd imagine its something about Mark Richt's comments regarding potentially moving the site of the UF-UGA game out of Jacksonville. If you're not familiar, or couldn't tell, "Team Out West" (sometimes, "School Out West") is what Urban Meyer says instead of "Florida State," which he tries to use as sparingly as possible. Dan Mullen continues that kind of tactic at Mississippi State by calling Ole Miss the "School up North."
As everything in college football gets bigger every year, so too have the motivational tactics. Do you have any favorites? My personal favorite is when opposing players call out Tim Tebow by name, because Florida is undefeated when that's happened. Anybody else got one they particularly like?
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That's the carpetbagger in him talking
Deep down, Urban Meyer is a Big Ten guy. That’s his background, and it’s no accident that the exceptions to the buyout clause in his contract with Utah were for Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. I’m not saying Coach Meyer would leave Gainesville for Ann Arbor, Columbus, or South Bend at this point—-I’m quite confident he wouldn’t, in fact—-but, at heart, he’s one of them and he talks like one of them.
When Coach Meyer refers to Florida State as “the school out west,” he’s channeling pure unfiltered Woody Hayes. Coach Hayes always called Michigan “that school up north.” I guess Coach Meyer had to go west to pin that label on Tallahassee, since, from the Gators’ perspective, all their conference rivals are “that school up north.”
Dan Mullen is making a mistake by talking like a Midwesterner at one remove. If he was true to his (new) school, he’d pay appropriate homage to Jackie Sherrill by referring to Ole Miss as “Mississippi,” the way Coach Sherrill did. There’s no traction to be gained down South by sounding like Woody Hayes; to most of us, Coach Hayes is just that guy who punched the Clemson player in Danny Ford’s first bowl game.
Go 'Dawgs!
Well Mullen is from New Hampshire and did all of his pre-Utah coaching in the northeast and midwest, so I don’t think he’s got much South in him. And Meyer does have a picture of ol’ Woody in his rec room.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
I'm not saying it isn't understandable
I’m just saying what Lewis Grizzard said still applies.
We’ll let ‘em move down here, work among us, and marry our women, but we don’t want to hear how they did it back in Cleveland.
Personally, I think any father who has a picture of Woody Hayes in his rec room ought to be investigated by D.F.A.C.S., but that may just be me.
Go 'Dawgs!
Well,
Florida isn’t really much of a capital-S Southern school anymore, so I don’t think many much mind. Mullen at Mississippi State on the other hand…
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
I’m certainly not representative of SEC fans, but – speaking solely for myself – if our coach wins titles, I don’t care if he’s a “little furry creature from Alpha Centauri” with a penchant for quoting dreadful Vogon poetry on the sideline. Woody Hayes ain’t got nothin’ on Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, playa.

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