Complacency, you used that word there, and you're like, you're the best I've ever seen at stomping that out. What's the key to that? Like, let us inside, because you have your team ready to play, and it can be easy to fall into that trap, right? You just won a big game, everybody, like the caller said, is telling you how great you are now, already put you in the SEC championship game, and you've done this for decades.
What's the key to that? For people that don't know, how do you stomp that out and keep your team focused? on the task at hand, the next opponent?
Well, because success can be an enemy to us all. Because when you're successful, it's human nature to think I should be rewarded. I deserve an opportunity to get a day off. I should get a trip to the Bahamas because I sold this many cars.
I mean, that's human nature. I did well, so what do I get for it? All right, well, you did well.
You won one game. All right, so I text A&M, and now you've got another challenge. So you can't allow this.
lack of energy to persist because you're complacent and you're not paying attention to detail, you're not preparing correctly. You know, these things that I talked about in the beginning, which was, you know, having poise confidence, and execution. Where do those things come from? Those things come from having great preparation, which means you have good energy throughout the course of the week in terms of how you're preparing because you're going to get reps on plays, but we can't rep every play against every call that we have. You know, you have to be able to be adaptable when the game comes to be able to make these things work against something that we didn't see before or we didn't practice against that, but you can do it on principle because you're well prepared, you're confident, and you're...
And because of that, you can adapt to it. And I think that players have to understand that. But, hey, we won 19 games in a row here twice.
Twice. And we lost a game on the 20th game that probably we shouldn't have lost. And it was because of that.
And it doesn't get you until it gets you, is what I always tell players. You know, it may take three or four weeks to really get you. Because you're not practicing the way you're supposed to. You're not preparing the way you're supposed to. So instead of creating good habits.
You're creating bad habits and eventually those bad habits show up on the field and that's when it gets you. All right. So and you know, it's not look, it's not easy for players. I mean, we've had tough six weeks and, you know, our players work hard and it's psychologically difficult to raise your energy level and be ready to play and be. your best performer every time you go out there and play.
That's the challenge. That's what we're trying to get everybody to do. But that's not easy to do. And it's not really even human nature to for everybody to think I'm going to go be my best every opportunity. that I get.
And I think that the big thing we fight is what these guys hear externally and how they are affected externally. You know, what people say. I mean, even, you know, the guy telling me today, you know, we're 20 point favorites. I don't think we're two point favorites. I just think about what we have to do to win.
What do we have to do to beat the other team? team at play in and play out. So we have a chance to get the outcome that we want. But that's what people hear. And that affects them psychologically in terms of, oh, well, we don't have to worry about this.
We just show up and the other team's not going to, you know, you all heard my speech about nothing. Yes. Excellent. I mean, you heard that.
All right. So we're not entitled to nothing. Uh, the other team's going to give you nothing. Uh, and really the only thing that matters is that you do the best you can do because nothing else matters.
That's what you need to do. And, um, that's what you can control. Uh, but man, I'm telling you these phones, social media, I mean, and, and people in this day and age, in this generation, they get a lot of positive self-gratification from what other people think. So you want people to be motivated internally in terms of what they want to accomplish, what they want to do, how much value they want.
want to create for themselves by controlling the things they can control and doing it well. But yet all these things out here are affecting how they do what they do. You know, everybody, you know, I used to say, don't look at the scoreboard.
And everybody's like, this guy's nuts. Why would you play different if you're ahead by 14 points or if you're behind by 14 points? Why?
If you want to be the best player you could be, why would that matter? Why would that matter? And I think that's the thing that's really tough to get everybody to understand.
But it goes right back to that thing I said before. You're auditioning all the time. So people are looking at you and making opinions about you.
And if you don't play well, that's the last thing in their mind. And that's what they think. And they're actually looking.
You played in the NFL. They're looking for what? They were looking for reasons not to pick you. All these kids think, oh, I can catch eight passes. is in the game and I'm in, like Flynn.
No, no. We had a CIA agent that did background checks on every guy when I was at the Miami Dolphins to find out. We knew if guys were a sophomore in high school if they got in a fight in a bar.
We knew everything about them. And made decisions based on their character because of some of those things as much as what they did on the field. So don't give anybody a reason not to pick you. But be the best you can be all the time as a person, as a student, as a player, and everything that you do. That's what we preach.
That's what we try to do. That's how we try to keep them from getting complacent. But I'm telling you, we've been complacent before.
And success can be a real enemy if you're allowed to be.