"Culture"

[ojaipony]

We hear so much about that. And it's SO true. Do you have a culture that expects to win or expects to lose? I saw a losing culture on those last 2 drives against Houston. We forced a throw in the first one (take your time, hit the flat) and the second throw was just desperation, losing poise. Now of course it's easy for me to sit here from a safe computer and criticize. But I'm just pointing out that when a game gets close, do you get tight and expect to probably lose or do you have an attitude of "it's winning time now"? That's the difference between a 4-5 win team and a 7-8 win team. It really is. It isn't necessarily just recruiting alone at that point. It really is a mindset by your key players. Is Lawler/Wyatt in the face of everyone on the defense challenging them to go get it done, go get a key stop/key turnover, it's winning time. Is Sutton/X Jones/West/Brown/Hicks in everyone's face on the offense to get it done, it's winning time. That's what it's all about. I saw a lot of defeatism on those last 2 drives. We moved the ball, that's great. But when it gets in the red zone, the attitude has to be like a shark circling a dying seal (bad analogy sorry), blood in the water, go get it!! Not a shred of hesitation/doubt whatsoever. That's mostly on the coaches and also recruiting the right mindset in players. HAVE to have that. The Houston game was winnable. Tulsa, Cincy, Tulane all winnable. Memphis, winnable. All comes down to your culture and how bad you want it in key moments. My opinion.

[BUS]

Make that Block, Make that Pass or Make that Tackle.
Period.

[Stallion]

when you expect your team to go 95 yards down more than a TD with 6 1/2 minutes left-then you probably shouldn't count on the post-game victory dance. I don't think it was poor culture-SMU had 150 yards Total Offense in 4th Q-fought to the end-they just got us in a desperation mode where we were forced to abandon our running game which puts more pressure on Hicks to throw into 8 man coverage. I think 4 of his 5 Interceptions this year have been into prevent defenses when we were down more than a TD. We need to keep the offense balanced