Oh man. I got to ask it, so I did. Six mins, 50 seconds later and 1,068 words later, here's your answer.
Brent, you mentioned Saturday that maybe the team feels tired. Do you mean physically, mentally from the toll of the last 10 months? Is this something that you're still learning about as a first-time head coach?
"The last 10 months? Being tired? I don’t know. But maybe the season. The season is always challenging mentally and physically, whether you’re winning a whole bunch of games. As the season goes on, the air gets thinner. It gets harder, not easier. No matter whether you’re being successful or you’re not being successful. It gets harder.
"You know why it gets harder? I’m asking. Do you know why it gets harder?
(Przybylo: Day-to-day grind).
"Yeah, the day-to-day grind. It’s hard to show up every day and do the mundane. Doing it every single day over and over and over and over, and you do it to a point where you can’t get it wrong. That’s a very hard place to get to, and you would do that, you would have that same purpose and that same intent whether you’re undefeated or again, you’re not having the success that you want. That’s the formula that it takes. It’s as simple as hard work, commitment, consistency, handling the success, handling the failure, putting the work in every single day. One day at a time so you’re always in the right.
"We’re getting ready to have a bye week after this week. Why do you have bye weeks? Used to have two bye weeks built in. Why did we do that for so many years, forever? Because it’s good on the body. It’s good. I challenge the guys to renew their mind and body and spirit every single week. Start over. It’s the season of atonement. This week right here is an opportunity to be the week, a great opportunity for us, first to have the kind of finish that we want. Just got to take that. From a leadership standpoint, that’s part of my job is to understand the pulse of the team and to try to help. It’s sometimes as simple as this time of the year, you start slowly cutting down on minutes per period, cut down a couple of periods. There’s a lot of things to change up inherently, whether or not they’re quote unquote tired. This is that time of year anyway, so sometimes it’s the smallest things that can be a shot in the arm, keep guys excited and engaged and fully committed to finish strong. You see it all the time, whatever the top 20 teams, we were one of them preseason, there’s very few still in the top 20 I would guess. You know how many it is? I bet its, I don’t know, I bet it’s close to half are no longer in the top 20. So what happens? A lot of things happen. There’s a lot of factors that go into that. But as the season goes on here, we’re halfway through it, guys, teams, units, coaches, everybody can lose their way. Has that happened to us? I don’t know. I know we’re not playing fundamentally sound. We’re not tackling well. I always look back to the defense, but two games ago, we go 10 straight series in the first half and we get 17 points and we don’t have a drive in the first half that’s close to two minutes long. That takes a toll, too. We discussed that in the preseason, and that’s a very real thing, and so just being efficient, staying on the field.
"Last week, I thought in the first half, we did although we weren’t scoring points. You get an opportunity to get a plus side of the field, you’ve got to store. But we were possessing the football and moving the football, so changing field position. So that’s a momentum thing. Both sides can complement one another, getting off the field, doing well in the kicking game and then moving the ball and getting first downs, chewing up clock and putting yourself in position to score.
"All those things can take a toll. Are we tired? My thing is this is the time of year where you need that bye week. How can we help our guys moving forward? Get our guys to continue to buy into the recovery resources that we have.
"Sleep is incredibly important. We’ve played four games at 11 a.m.? Those 11 a.m. games. You’re looking at everything. What do most college students try to do, right? They try to stay up all night, right? I’m not saying our guys are. I don’t know. We’re always encouraging them to get rest, get in a routine. You optimally want to get eight hours a night. I’m good with six. Five-and-a-half, I’m not good. Six – I’m good, 6:30, I’m excellent. Seven? I’m feeling a little tired, too much sleep. Everybody is different.
"Young people are burning it at both ends, and it matters when you’re a high-performing athlete. Everything matters. From recovery to sleeping to hydration to nutrition. There’s a mental side, a spiritual side that’s important that you’re staying fresh. We try to do a good job of keeping things fresh and keeping our guys engaged. Continue to develop leadership. You have an opportunity. The greatest comment of coaching is the development of people. We’ve had a chance to do that through our leadership council. We’re never trying to check a box. We’re trying to reach the heart and souls of these guys and making sure they understand there are a lot of people paying attention to all of us now and how we’re going to respond moving forward.
"There are many people – and justifiably so, are throwing in the towel. That’s fine. That’s part of it. We have a responsibility in that. If we don’t like what they’re writing, let our play be our voice. The criticism that has taken place is well-deserved. That’s how I look at it. Doesn’t mean our guys aren’t working and putting great effort into trying to be successful. I know I see that every day.
"This is that week where we start to tweak our schedule. Maybe it’s a week or so too late, I don’t know. I wouldn’t use that as an excuse. We’ve gotten destroyed two straight weeks. We’re missing wide open guys. Not tackling people, things of that nature. I put that more on us as coaches and fundamentally trying to help them better. I’m the one that brought it up, I know. I do think we have to try to help our guys stay fresh."
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