[Rally]

The young men who are on this team possess high character and competitive fire.  This loss has to be embarrassing for them.  I'm sure they are disappointed, but I doubt that their resolve has been affected.  This is really a coaching moment of the highest order. 

Shaw has said repeatedly that leadership has to come from the players themselves and I buy that.  However, not all people have leadership capability and perhaps this team does not possess the natural leaders that past teams have had.  They need some guidance about where to go from here.  And that needs to be guidance incremental to the normal process of reviewing game film, adjusting the game plan, etc.  Inspiration is needed to help the players see the path to a successful season and to believe that a successful season is still attainable.  I believe it is.  These are, by any measure, highly talented players.  They need a path through this disappointment and into a warrior mindset.

Yep.  It doesn't take a "natural leader," whatever the hell that is.  It just takes a guy who has worked like hell, bled and suffered during an entire off season or two to get bigger, stronger, faster, better.  Who feels sick in the pit of his stomach over this.  Who looks at the team and wonders why.  Someone who wants it badly.  Who decides he's not going to take it anymore.  And loses it in the locker room.  Or at practice.  Or in the middle of a game.  Who says follow me or not, I don't give a shit.  I'm going up the mountain.  Come along if you've got the guts.  The only meaningful definition of a leader is one who others follow.  In a brutal game it calls for the type of leader who knows that winning a war isn't about giving your life for your country; it's about forcing some other dumb f*cker give up his.

[Rally]

The young men who are on this team possess high character and competitive fire.  This loss has to be embarrassing for them.  I'm sure they are disappointed, but I doubt that their resolve has been affected.  This is really a coaching moment of the highest order. 

Shaw has said repeatedly that leadership has to come from the players themselves and I buy that.  However, not all people have leadership capability and perhaps this team does not possess the natural leaders that past teams have had.  They need some guidance about where to go from here.  And that needs to be guidance incremental to the normal process of reviewing game film, adjusting the game plan, etc.  Inspiration is needed to help the players see the path to a successful season and to believe that a successful season is still attainable.  I believe it is.  These are, by any measure, highly talented players.  They need a path through this disappointment and into a warrior mindset.

Yep.  It doesn't take a "natural leader," whatever the hell that is.  It just takes a guy who has worked like hell, bled and suffered during an entire off season or two to get bigger, stronger, faster, better.  Who feels sick in the pit of his stomach over this.  Who looks at the team and wonders why.  Someone who wants it badly.  Who decides he's not going to take it anymore.  And loses it in the locker room.  Or at practice.  Or in the middle of a game.  Who says follow me or not, I don't give a shit.  I'm going up the mountain.  Come along if you've got the guts.  The only meaningful definition of a leader is one who others follow.  In a brutal game it calls for the type of leader who knows that winning a war isn't about giving your life for your country; it's about forcing some other dumb f*cker give up his.