Bouncing Back

Friday's practice was the first dog day, sort-of-ugly, call-Mom kind of day Rutgers has had this camp. There was 15 minutes of gassers, another 15 of up-downs and a whole bunch of Greg Schiano sounding, um, displeased. I don't want to say Greg was repentant when he came to talk to us after all that, but he did make a point of saying he doesn't want his players all somber-faced and that he'd be telling them at their meeting later that night that, "We have to enjoy each other too."

So today, after the second of two practices, we asked if the talk worked. He shrugged, essentially saying the message got across partially. "We do some things to lighten the mood," he said. "Hey, I don't want it to be a mope session. We weren't great, we paid the consequence, we move on. Just like we do when we lose a game. You live in the past, you lose twice."

I'd think the older players may be able to put something like yesterday in the past a lot easier than the newbies. I mean, when we were talking about the importance of facing down adversity and I said to Greg that he'd created some adversity yesterday, he said it didn't count because it was "artificial adversity," and then I said "But do the freshmen get its artificial adversity?" and he said, "I don't think freshmen get much. I think they're trying to survive." So obviously a set of punishing post-practice drills and a furious coach has to be much more traumatic for a freshman, right?

"Wait just a minute," Jabu Lovelace said. "Whenever it happens, it's like the first time. You still feel like you're about to die."

Then Anthony Davis, who's now in his second camp, nodded his assent and Courtney Greene, who's been here four years, said exactly the same: even a day later, yesterday's session doesn't seem any softer. But Courtney said that's a good thing. "I think it really shows everyone how much this matters to people," he said. "It shows the younger guys the sense of urgency they have to have, and it reminds everyone else it's not about yourself anymore."

Okay, so the message works. And as for any hard feelings for Greg, well, three Academy buses were waiting for the players after practice. There's an outing tonight and an off-day tomorrow. Sounds like the perfect way to perk up.

Comments

[RU86]

Thanks for keeping us updated on the weekends. This blog is great.