The Sunshine Pumping Josh Heupel Positives Thread

Sounds like there are gains to be made just by having players and coaches that like each other.

AP on the pod today "Chemistry between the players last year was shit. Chemistry between the coaches was double that."

 

Good article in Athletic today as Ubben spoke with a few former UCF players. JH asks them for input often and supposedly doesn't yell, cuss at or embarrass players. Should be a more fun experience. As others have noted, UT players haven't looked like they were having fun for many years as it was "all business". Imo, that led to such robotic play and players not playing freely. JH wants them to have fun, as they should, and I believe we will see players playing loosely and performing better.

 

“Shit, he let our nuts hang, man, he let us be us.”
Rashard Causey

 

"Let Their Nuts Hang"

Print the t shirts, profit.

 

Fixed

 

Based on my experience as a coach, riding players' asses all the time simply leads to burnout, indifference and them tuning you out. I never did it, but I saw it. Being a [penis] all the time is stupid movie stuff, nostalgia bullshit from the 50s or whatever. I remember Bob Knight's teams in the 90s having a high crash rate late in the season, mostly because the players were tired of his berating and they couldn't care less anymore, wanting the season over. I also have, on a number of occasions, seen in post-game interviews a team which came back in the second half after a poor first half. They interview a player, asking them if the coach got after them at halftime. Almost always, the player says "No, we just went over adjustments" and that's about it. Of course, sometimes an ass chewing is warranted, but they are done for effect and not a matter of policy. You keep people on edge and they'll eventually say [uck fay] it.

Long story short, if this is the change between the two coaches, then it's a very good one. Rule by fear is less productive than rule by consensus.

 

You gotta know which ones can take a horse cussing and which ones can't

 

Great story about that....

I was extremely close to my college coach. He knew I wanted to get into coaching, and kinda took me under his wing. He gave me a fair amount of ass chewings, but he also knew I could take it. Every morning, we would have coffee in his office at 6:00 Every. Single. Morning.

One evening I got into a substantial bar fight, and pretty much got the best of an ole boy that if it happened today, I'm splattered all over the news. Luckily, the officer who answered the call was a good friend of our coach. Coach comes and gets me from said bar around 3:00 am. He didn't speak a word to me on that ride back to my apartment.

The next morning, his office was locked. The next morning, locked. The rest of the week, locked. He was in there... but door was shut and locked. Finally after a week of this being ignored, I corner him before workouts and said... "run my ass or whatever, my God."

He brings me in his office and tells me if I ever do something that stupid again, "your ass will have a Greyhound ticket in your locker."

I learned a valuable lesson that day. He knew me. Knew what made me tick. He rips me and runs me, the next weekend I'm at same bar doing something similar. I didn't touch a drink for 2 weeks after that, and never got that bad again in my life.

Coaches are amateur psychologists. One size fits all hammers don't work. Have your standards, yes. But you have to know your guys.

 

I like hearing all this, and I hope this time it works out, but Pruitt was said to be a player's coach as well. Maybe that changed when he wasn't getting results, I don't know.

 

Pruitt only liked certain guys. And from all accounts, he didn't like or trust any of his assistants.

 

Pruitt was more of a players coach in the fact that he had their back on and off the field. He was not a player friendly coach as in he would cuss out anyone including the water boy. Some people that just does not work on.

 

It’s crazy just how much comes out AFTER somebody is gone... we all knew DDIAPOS was a penis, but the full extent (no pun intended...) of his penisness didn’t really get out until he was out of Knoxville. I guess it’s the same with Pruitt.

 

I suppose part of it is that the wheels come off before the end, not at the beginning.

 

The best coach in the history of my high school and probably at the two closest high schools to mine used foul language twice (both involving refs) while I was in earshot in the three years I played for him. He took a hadn't won anything of note and little at all for decades, po-dunk school from maybe 6-7 wins in the previous 5 years to an undefeated season in his third year. I'm not saying it was easy. He was a hard ass, but he he treated us with respect.

I'm not trying to prop up Heupel that much by sharing this. I mean it's two situations that are worlds apart, but some will say an approach that doesn't include a dog cussing a day is a sign of weakness and poor coaching. It isn't necessarily. There's no one path to great leadership, and time will tell if Heupel has found or finds one.

 

If Heupel’s approach results in wins on the field, everything will be ok but if it doesn’t...

We’ll be right here to point to his “softness” as the main reason we still suck.

 

Well that's not a recipe for success. I didn't find any of that advice in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

 

To your point, Saban seems to absolutely chew ass. But also does seem to respect his players and staff, in his own way but in a way that is clear between him and them.

 

It's too bad that he didn't like them enough to do what was necessary for them to be successful in the field here.

 

Maybe not his players, but he's got into it with several of his assistants. Heupel's success isn't going to be based off of his approach towards players and staff, that's a minor part of it. Get the right players and coaches in and success will come.

 

He was always a little paranoid