Coach's Corner: Introduction to SUAG

I guess since this is the first time you all are hearing from me it only makes sense to explain why it's happening.  I hold the firm belief that hearing someone speak - whether in a public forum or even one on one with your closest friend - can tend to feel like wasted time unless you can relate to that person.  If you don't really know about what the speaker has gone or is going through you tend to dismiss whatever they say as too vague or even misguided.  So my hope with the Coach's Corner is to give you all an opportunity to know who I am because that might encourage you to trust my judgement when I do something that seems questionable as a coach.  

That does not mean that I think I am always going to do the right thing.  In fact, I know I have and will continue to make mistakes.  Football is a game of calculated risk - very high risk - and so will result in quite a lot of difficult decisions that don't pan out.  My hope is that as you grow to know me and hear my struggles and successes we could find ourselves in a community of support amidst trials as opposed to condemnation and hyper-criticism.  I would love to hear from you and hope that this blog will give me the opportunity to answer some of the questions you might have as the season goes on.

Each week my hope is to share with you a thought I have had leading up to the game.  Since our first game is not until the 30th I will be back again in a week to talk about my thoughts going into the Appalachian State game, but I feel like this week's post might be a place where I share with you our over-arching vision for the season.

I have searched long and hard for a message that I feel like could carry us from start to finish of what will be a taxing campaign.  A couple of weeks ago as I was driving home from watching some video of last season I heard a song come on the radio that immediately grabbed my attention.  It was a song by a rapper out of New Orleans named Dee-1, and while at first it was the lyrics that grabbed me I think it was the heart behind his words that kept my attention.  He believed what he was saying.

Shut up and grind.  Over and over in the chorus that was all I heard - and as I drove I thought to myself what a great message for me to hear in my own life.  If you ask my wife she will tell you that more times than not I go overboard with the venting after work or even the venting while I am at work.  Coaching is a hard job - because I am in the business of people.  The business of convincing people to be all they can be knowing full well that they might decide not to do that - and I can't stop them.  I need to shut up and grind - trusting that if I do that, the outcomes will take care of themselves.

I also thought it was a great message for a generation full of chronic complainers.  Don't tell me why you can't do it or what is stopping you - shut up and grind.  This university and we as coaches know that you have the ability so get out on the field and show us the truth.  Anything else rolling around in your head is a lie.

So my hope going into and through this season is that regardless of outcome these boys understand that our focus is on our work - one play at a time, one game at a time.  

In Texas I struggled with players who would look at me and say, "I can't do it."  My response was simple:  You can, you just haven't yet.  Get back on the line and try again.  The same will be true here.  Don't give me lip.  Words only have meaning when actions and evidence support them.  Don't let your actions (or inaction) make the LIE that you can't do your job a relative truth.

Shut up and grind.

-- Coach Freeman