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Barking Carnival
Culture Change at Texas
By Scipio Tex on Jan 14 2014, 1:35p
This was all relayed to me 2nd and 3rd hand by good people.

Strong and his coaches met with the team and outlined their expectations. He followed that with individual meetings with key players and 2014 seniors. The meeting was "very intense", but there was no yelling or drill sergeant act. No theater. Just a detailing of how things are going to be from now on. No one was thanked for being there. No one was patted on the back for being at Texas.

Strong expectations:

Players will attend all of their classes and sit in the front two rows of all of their classes. GAs, academic folks, position coaches will be checking constantly now.
No headphones in class. No texting in class. Sit up and take notes.
If a player misses a class, he runs until it hurts. If he misses two classes, his entire position unit runs. If he misses three, the position coach runs. The position coaches don't want to run.
No earrings in the football building. No drugs. No stealing. No guns. Treat women with respect.
Players may not live off campus anymore, unless they're a senior who hits certain academic standards. The University will buy out the leases for every player currently living off campus and put them in the athletic dorm.
The team will all live together, eat together, suffer together, and hang out together. They will become a true team and learn to impose accountability on each other. The cliques are over.
There's no time for a rebuild. "I don't have time for that." The expectation is that Texas wins now.
Players will learn that they would rather practice than milk a minor injury.
The focus is on winning and graduating. Anything extraneous to that is a distraction and will be stamped out or removed.
Strong met individually with seniors and key leaders and re-emphasized that the plan is to win now. They can lead the new culture or be run over by it.
"I don't want to talk about things. I'd rather do things. We just talked. Now it's time to do."

http://www.barkingcarnival.com/2014/1/1 ... e-at-texas

Good way to get things in order from the beginning.

This is what June should be doing at SMU

Strong has always tried to do things the right way. But to say that Mack didn't run a tight ship isn't fair, I don't think. Besides, I don't think that there's anything there that isn't groundbreaking, or that any decent coach or leader wouldn't tell a kid.

Anybody write an article about Strong's replacement's conversation with his kids?

"Umm.....

stay away from motorcycles.

And blondes.

Yeah. Blondes with motorcycles.


And the Atlanta Falcons."

Very similar to Stallings...

While I do not like Texas and enjoy seeing their guys have run ins with the law (without anything every happening), I really respect Strong's approach. It appears to be more than lip service. We will see how long it lasts.

I wish UT-Austin nothing but the worst. If any school has earned the right to be disliked, despised, this one is it.

Mustangs_Maroons wrote:I wish UT-Austin nothing but the worst. If any school has earned the right to be disliked, despised, this one is it.

THIS

I don't think that it is fair to say that Mack Brown ran an undisciplined program.

Compared to other big programs:
1) I don't think Mack's players got in trouble more (or less) often;
2) I don't think grades were a significant issue for Mack's players; and
3) On the field, his players generally didn't do things (behavior wise) that indicated a lack of control.

I think the most interesting part of the story involves living arrangements. Given how many players today have children (with wives and/or GF's), I wonder if he can really force players to live in dorms. Furthermore, many people think athlete-only dorms leads to more (not less) "issues" for players.

"Brown's last years were focused on talking about things with no follow up. He was also absent from the team constantly and had little read on the mood or culture of the locker room."

This sounds great and all muey macho and all, but wait until Johnny stud RB decides to miss a few classes -

A great way to start the conversation, but anyone who thinks there wont be tons of exceptions along the way is not in reality.

Also relevant.

The Texas Longhorns need a culture change

Perhaps it's all of that money, but there is something about Texas Longhorns football that is simply too nice. Maybe it's Austin. Maybe the place is a giant country club. Maybe UT is the college equivalent of Valley Ranch.

If Texas wants to be as good as it believes it's their God-given right, something much greater has to change surrounding that football team. It is 2014, and nice guys don't win. It would be great if they did, but ...

The culture and attitude at UT must change. There is a sense of entitlement; if UT just spends all of its millions, national titles will come. Everyone is spending money. The ones who win national titles spend money, and get nasty.

There is a reason why NFL scouts and assistant coaches knock UT players as soft, or too nice. It's because many of them - not all - are just that. Never met a former UT player who was recruited and played for Mack Brown who was anything other than professional and polite.

Being polite, kind and decent are wonderful traits but good football teams usually require a sprinkling of jerk holes.

Mack Brown "stepping down" confirms what we all know - we don't care about good kids, graduation rates, or good guys when it conflicts with winning the game.

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/ma ... rylink=cpy
http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/ma ... hange.html

dcpony wrote:Also relevant.

The Texas Longhorns need a culture change

Perhaps it's all of that money, but there is something about Texas Longhorns football that is simply too nice. Maybe it's Austin. Maybe the place is a giant country club. Maybe UT is the college equivalent of Valley Ranch.

If Texas wants to be as good as it believes it's their God-given right, something much greater has to change surrounding that football team. It is 2014, and nice guys don't win. It would be great if they did, but ...

The culture and attitude at UT must change. There is a sense of entitlement; if UT just spends all of its millions, national titles will come. Everyone is spending money. The ones who win national titles spend money, and get nasty.

There is a reason why NFL scouts and assistant coaches knock UT players as soft, or too nice. It's because many of them - not all - are just that. Never met a former UT player who was recruited and played for Mack Brown who was anything other than professional and polite.

Being polite, kind and decent are wonderful traits but good football teams usually require a sprinkling of jerk holes.

Mack Brown "stepping down" confirms what we all know - we don't care about good kids, graduation rates, or good guys when it conflicts with winning the game.

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/ma ... rylink=cpy
http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/ma ... hange.html

BTW - when I was at UT for grad school, they still had some dorms that lacked A/C. If Strong really wants to toughen things up, move everyone into those dorms!!

June has three strikes and your out......if you are not one on the two deep and twelve strikes and we will talk about it if you are on the two deep. Until ALL are held accountable including coaches they will be average

Although he hasn't done anything in recent years, June did suspend Justin Willis and Emmanuel Sanders for Spring Ball his first year on the Hilltop.