The Ring Is The Thing

You know you want it.

It's a new season.  That's no cliche.  The playoffs are different in every way from the regular season.  I've been through this five game grind and, as you can see above, I know what it takes to succeed in it.  You have to dig down deep and find the best of you.  You have to ask yourself, each day, what you're willing to sacrifice in order to play in Camp Randall.  It's not going to be easy, but it'll be a hell of a ride.

Rather than try and break down the playoff bracket or offer advice to defeat a team I've never seen play, I'm just going to offer some wisdom gained from my own experience trying to win a state championship:



Study.  Study.  Study.  You are going to be playing teams that don't know anything about you.  Their coaches will watch every snap of every game you played during the season.  Their coaches will know your strengths and your weaknesses and they will do their very best to convey that to their players.  You can gain an ENORMOUS advantage if you study their films like your coaches.  If you learn why that DT is playing 3-technique on 3rd and 6 or more, it will help you understand your role.  This will take time, and it will take effort.  I gave up video games during our run.  I watched more film during those 4 weeks than I had all season.  The result?  A Mr. Vance-like 5 interceptions in 5 playoff games, including the game-winner in the Championship as time expired.

Dress appropriately.  I already mentioned this but it's worth repeating: it is going to be very, very cold during these games.  If you aren't dressed for the weather, you are going to play like crap.  Case-in-point: our defensive line coach was very good at what he did, but he told his group that "mental toughness" could beat the cold and that they were pussies if they wore thermals under their uniforms.  So, we get to Level 4 and we're playing at Baraboo against Sun Prairie.  And it's a full-fledged snowstorm.  Sun Prairie came out and not a single member of that team was sleeveless.  Our D-Line?  All bare arms.  Idiots.  So what happens?  Our 1st team all-state defensive end, who heretofore kicked EVERYONE'S ass, got destroyed by a tackle who barely outweighed him.  We had a couple of defensive and special teams touchdowns that saved our butts, otherwise I wouldn't have that ring.  For the Championship game, we all wore sleeves, and that defensive end tore up Oak Creek's tackle all game long.  I only mention that because the tackle was Jake Sprague, who was the Wisconsin Player of the Year and went on to play football for the Badgers.

Don't lose your head.  You are going to get behind in some games or suffer a bad turnover.  It's football.  It happens.  And the team you're playing is probably going to be pretty good.  Don't turn on each other.  If Big Cat fumbles, if Pistol drops a pass, if the Hammer misses a tackle, build your teammates up rather than tearing them down.  You all remember Homecoming and how that ended?  During my run back in 1997, we won two games (Level 2, Level 3) on last second touchdown receptions.  And, yes, we ran the same play each time and each time our star WR made impossible catches to win the game.  But my point is: anything can happen and a positive attitude will serve your team much better than a negative one.

Enjoy yourselves.   When I played, very few homes had the internet.  We had no idea how other teams were doing, how they succeeded, or what they were "ranked."  All we knew was what we saw on film.  No one on our team would have guessed we were contenders for the title (we ended the regular season ranked 8th, though we didn't know it at the time).  We went out and had fun.  The only time we got tight and felt the pressure of expectations was the night before the Championship game.  Otherwise, we just worked as hard as we could playing a game that we loved. 

If changes are made for the playoffs, accept them.  We didn't have any sophomores on our team during the regular season.  For the playoffs, the coaches decided to dress about 10 of them.  Two of them immediately cracked our starting lineup (a guard and a center) while one became the backup tailback.  There were some seniors who were pissed off.  But I can tell you, we wouldn't have won state without them.  If the coaches decide to make a change, bench someone, bring someone up, trust them.  If you were a starter and now you're just playing special teams, relax, your coaches know what they're doing.  Become the best special teams player there ever was.  Every play counts.  Please understand that I have no inside info or have any reason to suspect any changes will be made, I just want to prepare you if it happens.

Practice hard.  The weather, the length of the season, homework, and your short attention spans will make it more difficult to practice than it has ever been.  Don't give in - stay strong and finish each drill like it was your last, because it absolutely could be.  Follow this advice and you may soon be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel: