Fingers Without a Thumb
If you are a fan of the Fighting Irish, I know you are frustrated about the current state of Notre Dame football. This school has too much tradition and talent to be in the predicament they are in.
How can this team have 23 sacks when we have a head coach who is regarded as one of the best offensive minds in all of football? How can Notre Dame, statistically be 119 out of 119 teams in rushing offense, total offense and scoring offense when Charlie Weis is running the show? How can a team look so inept after three games?
Common football wisdom says you make your greatest improvement between game one and two, but this team has gotten worse!
Armando Allen You may feel bad, especially considering the numbers mentioned, but trust me, the players feel ten times worse. Back in 1984, I was on a team that lost three games in a row at home to the likes of Miami, Air Force and South Carolina. We also lost our opening game to Purdue. The only team I hate losing to more is USC.
I was embarrassed, frustrated and steaming mad. It seemed like the fans had become the enemy. Everyone was calling for Coach Faust’s job. Things were so bad that if you wanted to impress a girl, you damn sure didn’t tell her you played for the football team. How did we overcome this?
Sometimes the football gods don’t give it to you. No matter how hard you work, or how well you scheme, the plays blow up. How else would a 5th year senior snap the ball five yards over Armando Allen’s head? Sometimes it’s execution, and sometimes it’s play-calling, but no matter what you do, it’s a Murphy’s Law scenario. It is at this point that you go back to the basics.
Sound familiar?
Individually, you have to check yourself. Are you doing everything in your power to help the team win? If not, you have to remember your fundamentals. Your practice becomes more of an emphasis on the fundamentals…hell, you try to master them! If all eleven guys do this, you get a little bit closer to being a team.
Next, you work toward small successes. There are certain things you can measure like successive first downs, or a certain number of plays without a penalty, or giving the quarterback an extra second to throw. When you have success with these, all of a sudden your confidence starts to come back. When you are confident, you execute with more authority. When I look at the 1988 National Championship team, it wasn’t a matter of the plays they called or how they schemed, they just knew they were the baddest SOB’s on the planet and they played with supreme confidence.
I see similarities in this year’s group to my 1984 team. There are definitely problems with their execution, their athleticism looks poor, and there is very little emotion. The good news is that all these issues can be corrected. Charlie’s call to go back to the basics was an opportunity for everyone (coaches, players, even the waterboys) to take an introspective look at themselves and make the commitment to get better. Everyone needs to take this step, otherwise it’s like having four fingers without a thumb. Also, it’s a chance for the team to focus on what the team does, not the opponent. The thought here is, if we take care of us and do what we do best, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is.
By the way, ever wonder what happened to that 1984 team I was on that lost three games in a row at home? The following week we traveled to Baton Rouge and beat the 6th ranked, undefeated LSU Tigers 30-22. I had about 160 yards. We went on to win all our remaining games before losing our bowl game to SMU in Hawaii.
It ended up being a successful season because after losing three in a row, we didn’t throw in the towel. We went back to the basics and discovered that we were a better team when decided to be fundamentally sound and execute with confidence. Let’s hope history repeats itself.
[More at www.blueandgold.com]
