THREE WEEKS UNTIL WE EARN THE RIGHT TO GO 1-0
First and foremost, we’ve got three weeks to get ready to go 1-0, and that’s where all of our focus has to be. Anything outside of that is just noise, and some of it can become rat poison if you let it. As it relates to this football team, we’ve got to continue stacking good days, stacking quality reps and attacking the process the right way. It starts up front, it starts at the line of scrimmage, it starts with physicality, strain, pad level, hand placement, eyes and feet, alignment, assignment and technique. As it relates to our preparation, we’ve got to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds, continue developing quality depth, create competition at every position and make sure our good-on-good work is as demanding and as highly contested as it needs to be. There are no shortcuts, there’s no magic pill, and you don’t get to skip steps. You’ve got to earn the right to go 1-0 every time, and you earn that right by the way you prepare, the way you practice and the way you attack every single rep leading up to game day. So right now, we’re not worried about rankings, we’re not worried about November, and we’re not worried about what anybody thinks this team can or can’t be. We’re worried about today, and tomorrow we’ll worry about tomorrow. We’ve got to go back to the tape, get to the truth, correct what needs to be corrected, coach it better, practice with urgency, practice with intent, keep the main thing the main thing and continue finding another level because we’re nowhere near where we need to be. Then three weeks from now, when that ball gets kicked off, it’s about cafecito, playing fast, playing physical, playing violent, playing connected football for sixty minutes in all three phases and doing everything necessary to go 1-0.