“I don’t feel like we’re on the upward swing yet. I don’t know yet if we’ve really hit rock bottom," Payne said. "I know that we’re low. But again, it’s hard to tell when you played, you just said it, five top-25 teams. I know that for the young men, how they digest this is vital.
“I’m constantly asking them and reading and looking at their body language about how are you digesting this? And sometimes not really listening to their words when you’re in a practice and you create adversity, it comes out,” Payne said. “I need it to come out. I need it to get all the way out because there’s only one way for this to get fixed for this season is to heal. Get all of it out, let’s find out who is who. Let’s find out who’s the fighters. Let’s find out who can focus, who can be disciplined, who can execute and who can be a great teammate and go from there.”
Payne did say he thought his team was getting better, and added he was attempting to build culture by testing players at practice and making it “so borderline unattainable to get through.” He said the next step was that the team needed to see some success to see some payoff from that hard work.
“I’m constantly asking them and reading and looking at their body language about how are you digesting this? And sometimes not really listening to their words when you’re in a practice and you create adversity, it comes out,” Payne said. “I need it to come out. I need it to get all the way out because there’s only one way for this to get fixed for this season is to heal. Get all of it out, let’s find out who is who. Let’s find out who’s the fighters. Let’s find out who can focus, who can be disciplined, who can execute and who can be a great teammate and go from there.”
Payne did say he thought his team was getting better, and added he was attempting to build culture by testing players at practice and making it “so borderline unattainable to get through.” He said the next step was that the team needed to see some success to see some payoff from that hard work.
