Interesting Bowden Quote Re: Flat Games

[Kurt Sexington]

I was just reading an article by Terry Bowden on Rivals and he cites an interesting conversation he had with his father several years ago about gameday preparation, which allegedly went like this:

"Remember this, Terry, no matter how hard you try, you are not going to be able to get your kids mentally ready to play every week," he said. "Football is a game that must be played with great emotion, and your boys can only get up for so many games a year.
"That's why you better always be fundamentally sound. You better take care of the little things and be able to block and tackle because some days they're just not going to be ready to play."

In the wake of the Ohio letdown for you guys and in the wake of the Stanford game for SC last year, this nugget of wisdom is worthy of consideration. There seems to be a feeling amongst the fans of elite teams that their teams' players should naturally be "up" for every game on the calendar and should be able to roll their weaker opponents no problem. But as Bowden points out, the team Tressel fielded against Ohio and Youngstown State just is not the same as the one he is going to field against USC for the simple reason that no matter how hard Tressel may have tried, there was just not way he could have ever fired up his boys for a game against Ohio or YState in the same way as a match up against SC.

I think Bowden's point is good and it certainly would have been a useful read for me over the past few years as SC struggled or lost against some truly bad teams in the Pac Ten. There's a tendency to think that CFB teams play in a vacuum--what they do one week will naturally transfer over to the next week and the week after that. But more than anything CFB is a game of emotion and no matter how hard you try you just can't get a team to carry over the same level of intensity from one game to the next, to the next.

This might not have warranted a new thread but I thought it was a really interesting insight on the psychology of sport and it also explains why I've been saying all week long that the Buckeyes will be ready for this game.

Here's the link to the article:Rivals.com College Football - Bowden: Ohio State will be ready ... and win

 

[brodybuck21]

I was just reading an article by Terry Bowden on Rivals and he cites an interesting conversation he had with his father several years ago about gameday preparation, which allegedly went like this:

"Remember this, Terry, no matter how hard you try, you are not going to be able to get your kids mentally ready to play every week," he said. "Football is a game that must be played with great emotion, and your boys can only get up for so many games a year.
"That's why you better always be fundamentally sound. You better take care of the little things and be able to block and tackle because some days they're just not going to be ready to play."

In the wake of the Ohio letdown for you guys and in the wake of the Stanford game for SC last year, this nugget of wisdom is worthy of consideration. There seems to be a feeling amongst the fans of elite teams that their teams' players should naturally be "up" for every game on the calendar and should be able to roll their weaker opponents no problem. But as Bowden points out, the team Tressel fielded against Ohio and Youngstown State just is not the same as the one he is going to field against USC for the simple reason that no matter how hard Tressel may have tried, there was just not way he could have ever fired up his boys for a game against Ohio or YState in the same way as a match up against SC.

I think Bowden's point is good and it certainly would have been a useful read for me over the past few years as SC struggled or lost against some truly bad teams in the Pac Ten. There's a tendency to think that CFB teams play in a vacuum--what they do one week will naturally transfer over to the next week and the week after that. But more than anything CFB is a game of emotion and no matter how hard you try you just can't get a team to carry over the same level of intensity from one game to the next, to the next.

This might not have warranted a new thread but I thought it was a really interesting insight on the psychology of sport and it also explains why I've been saying all week long that the Buckeyes will be ready for this game.

Here's the link to the article:Rivals.com College Football - Bowden: Ohio State will be ready ... and win

great read and thanx for posting.

 

[LitlBuck]

I can remember this being said a few years ago by one of the Ohio State coaches and I am not sure if they were quoting Woody or not but he basically said the same thing that the coaches can only get the players up for x amount of games during the season and it was up to the players to get themselves up for the other games. I would think that wouldn't be just true of football but in other sports as well and probably in life.

 

[RugbyBuck]

The flip side, as Spielman said on the sidelines, is that the OU kids were playing in their super bowl. From C'Bus or elsewhere in Ohio and playing in the 'Shoe. Hell yeah, they were going to be fired up.

We just needed to get through it without significant injuries and move on and that's what we did.

 

[Kurt Sexington]

I can remember this being said a few years ago by one of the Ohio State coaches and I am not sure if they were quoting Woody or not but he basically said the same thing that the coaches can only get the players up for x amount of games during the season and it was up to the players to get themselves up for the other games. I would think that wouldn't be just true of football but in other sports as well and probably in life.

I think another thing to point as is that as the elder Bowden pointed out, you need to be able to get your team prepared to win every game, not just the ones they are fired up about. That is why John Wooden was such a great coach because his teams would win the big games with fire and the run of the mill games with efficiency and technique.

 

[JBaney45]

I think its easy with the way that teams are broken down today by statistics to forget that football teams are ever changing entities.

We're not playing the same USC team that blew out Virginia just as they arent playing the same OSU team that struggled against OU

How you practice every week will determine how you will play in the game with the most recent efforts counting the most. If OSU went out there and practiced like they were preparing for the most important thing that ever happened in their life and USC went out and gave a mediocre effort we could win by 40 thats just the way football is.

The fact that we are generally able to put forth such a good effort and consistently beat our opponents is something that people should appreciate, we haven't suffered through a ton of upsets in the Tressel era

 

[Dryden]

Did Terry say whether or not Bobby bothered explaining this phenomenon to Tommy?

 

[Kurt Sexington]

I think its easy with the way that teams are broken down today by statistics to forget that football teams are ever changing entities.

Absolutely. One of the fascinating and exciting things about CFB is that a team can play flawlessly one week and awful the next. Part of this is due to the fact that CFB players are kids who are for the most part still inexperienced and prone to mistakes or emotional letdowns. I love this aspect fo the game because it means coaches have to go beyond the Xs and Os and find a way to keep their teams motivated throughout the year, week in, week out.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

I think another thing to point as is that as the elder Bowden pointed out, you need to be able to get your team prepared to win every game, not just the ones they are fired up about. That is why John Wooden was such a great coach because his teams would win the big games with fire and the run of the mill games with efficiency and technique.

john wooden never talked about winning, never. well not after his days at south bend high...

john wooden preached playing the game so you could hold your head up high after the game, not winning.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

I can remember this being said a few years ago by one of the Ohio State coaches and I am not sure if they were quoting Woody or not but he basically said the same thing that the coaches can only get the players up for x amount of games during the season and it was up to the players to get themselves up for the other games. I would think that wouldn't be just true of football but in other sports as well and probably in life.

woody would say 2 (or 3) depending on the schedule... ive always felt that way, you have 2-3 great games in you and likely 2-3 bad games in you...

 

[Kurt Sexington]

john wooden never talked about winning, never. well not after his days at south bend high...

john wooden preached playing the game so you could hold your head up high after the game, not winning.

Wooden was good at having his players take care of business in the regular season then turn it up a couple levels in the tournament. That is what made his teams special and allowed all those crazy win streaks to be established. That and the fact that he had Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich ect. playing for him to...

 

[jimotis4heisman]

Wooden was good at having his players take care of business in the regular season then turn it up a couple levels in the tournament. That is what made his teams special and allowed all those crazy win streaks to be established. That and the fact that he had Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich ect. playing for him to...

john wooden would disagree. he doesnt believe in super stars. he only had players on their team (i wont use his team since it was only referred to as "our" team, never my/i/etc) he benched many of his stars in the biggest games. (i actually read about 5 pages from some wooden book about every morning here at work...) he didnt talk about winning, he didnt talk about stars. he talks about playing to the best of your ability everyday, every game, every practice, he even mentions that their are many important things in a game, quickness, playing with personal pressure, causing stress, and he hints-but never truely could get the major key to the game out there-he just didnt have the genius to figure out what the major key to the game really was...

personally i think the fact that his teams played out of the west bracket always helped him also he had some awesome teams that i really think are great. im the biggest john wooden fan on this site. that i can say for sure.

 

[Steve19]

Did Terry say whether or not Bobby bothered explaining this phenomenon to Tommy?