Any thoughts on the Mullen: pressure on players is overwhelming...
- Thread starter DAWG61
- Start date
With all of the instant media, its a completely different world than when even Norwood was here. I was a complete idiot when I was 18-22.......hell, I'm an idiot now at 38. Can you imagine having your every move scrutinized by 180 media fat asses? Or having the pressure to carry a SEC team these days? Do you know how much money is involved in even po' ole Sippi State? I could barely make it to class at that age. And spare me the "blesss those boys, they be tryin hard" ********. I hate those people more than anyone. I'm just saying most of us could never handle the **** Relf is going through right now. Or Russell for that matter. The game is just different now. Which is even more reason for Mullen & co to start playing the other game.
Polk said his players played like **** because they couldn't take the pressure of playing in front of a big crowd where as Mullen is pretty much talking about how hard it is to be a college athlete and college coach. Where you got that Mullen is saying our players play like **** because they can't handle playing in big crowds is beyond me considering every football game is a big crowd unless you play at Ole Miss....
At least these 18-22 year old children don't have to worry about whether their edumucation is paid for or not. They don't have to pay off 5 and 6-figure student loans 15-20 years after they graduate. They have pressure to win, but they're also treated like gods while on campus....they have invites to parties, women throwing themselves at them, $100 handshakes, access to wealthy and powerful boosters who can connect them with jobs after they leave school, and the love of 55,000 fans on Saturdays in the fall.<div>
</div><div>You want pressure, try some guy with a 6-figure mortgage, who's job may be downsized, and has kids who've discovered partying.</div>
</div><div>You want pressure, try some guy with a 6-figure mortgage, who's job may be downsized, and has kids who've discovered partying.</div>
What is it about that you can`t understand ? I also find it ironic that both coaches did this when the majority of criticism of their programs was being aimed at the coaches themselves and not the players. And one more thing.If either coach had recruited the caliber of player he needed to compete at the level he was being wellpaid to coach at he wouldn`t have needed the whinning session in the first place.
I graduated high school in May of 96' (around the 30th), got married on June 8th (yes I know I probably should've waited & no she wasn't pregnant) and before fireworks were popping in July I was @ a training facility preparing for my military career. It was the toughest year of my life, period. But those were responsibilties that I accepted and invited on myself. I didn't HAVE to get married or join the military. But even after that, there wasn't people on message boards telling others for my folks to read about how great or terrible of a soldier I was. How many targets I missed or how many fallen members of my company I helped off a war raged battlefield. It's gotta be tough to walk into trig class and have people you call your friends tell you what's being said about you on twitter or sixpack. Don't tell me about freedom of speech, I'm part of the reason you people HAVE these freedoms anyway. I served 8 years in the military, I had some of the best & worst times of my life in those 8 years. But it's gotta be EXTREMELY tough with twitter, FB and boards on these kids. I'm pretty close to one of the star players on this years team. He has shown me some of the tweets he's gotten from people who on thier bios are "state" fans. Hateful, racist, sickening and terrible stuff. All the positive pressure like girls, atta boy's, smiles, handshakes and stuff that's only HALF of what they deal with. I've also seen FB private messages sent to this same guy. Man let me tell you, these are Div 1 football players. Do you know how hard it is for a 300lb DT to get a hateful, racist PM from a 160lbs kid. and not retaliate? These kids are NOT pro's! I'm 6'4 280lbs and I am 34 years old, a father and a husband, a volunteer high school football coach and a MMA fighter. Do you know how hard it would be for me to log in on my FB to talk to my mom and dad who I'm away from and see this punk call me the "n" word, and a slew of curse words and not send this kid a PM back that is threatening in nature? And then in the back of my head know if I do I could be kicked off the team, possibly lose my scholly? Come on guys, talking on here is one thing but to send players who aren't even gonna be pros stuff like that is terrible. Football is as a combative sport as MMA, these guys and myself are ambassadors of violence in a controlled enviroment. It's gotta be tough to see stuff like that on YOUR twitter & FB pages and then NOT do anything week in and week out in a 3-3 season. I can honestly say as a man, I probably couldn't do it. Being honest. But that's probably why I'm no a Div 1 athelete either. I'd probably do something like Sidney did last year. But I know for a fact that most of these kids playing today feel worse than you do after they lose.
The question had nothing to do with criticism towards his coaching. He's telling you that players that use to be star players come to college and aren't star players anymore and how much pressure they get from family and friends on why they aren't star players and the coaches have to battle that to keep players focus and to have good attitudes. He also goes into detail at how much pressure 19 year old athletes have on them because of the media and fans and how easy it is for them to get down on themselves if they make a mistake because the media and fans. And Mullen is in year 3 and you won't see the caliber of player he has recruited until next year so why don't you wait till next year to start throwing stones.
