ball915
All-American
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Messages
- 5,795
Learning how to win is an acquired skill. This is something we've struggled with for a very long time and while we saw some improvements with it (Clemson and UVA) it still haunted us too often. One thing that was evident on this topic is that there wasn't once the entire season where we questioned our effort or heart. Winning at BC after 3 consecutive losses was telling in the character of our team. You can't win if you don't put yourself in position to win and that starts with playing 4 quarters over 12 games. For context, our average margin of loss in 2022 was 21 points and in 2023 it was 8.2 points.
One of the biggest frustrations was us scoring a TD to only give up a TD right away usually on a long drive. We just could not find a way to create separation (we did at BC). We needed one yard at NCST and couldn't get it the same way we did at FSU and failed to convert. We found a way to "win" the game against GT that we've lost so often in the past by playing awful and coming out on top to only not take a knee and give up a TD. It's on the players and coaches to learn how to win. On paper Dawson does good but situationally he's dreadful and it's little things like that that add up making it so hard to overcome.
Learning how to win is a big part of the process and this year we put ourselves in a position to win all 12 games which could not be said in years past. The hope is being in so many close games this year translates over into more wins as we are getting to the point in Year 3 where expectations are real as they should be. For the "look at all these other schools turning it around in Year 1" crowd, how did TCU, USCw and LSU do this year?
One of the biggest frustrations was us scoring a TD to only give up a TD right away usually on a long drive. We just could not find a way to create separation (we did at BC). We needed one yard at NCST and couldn't get it the same way we did at FSU and failed to convert. We found a way to "win" the game against GT that we've lost so often in the past by playing awful and coming out on top to only not take a knee and give up a TD. It's on the players and coaches to learn how to win. On paper Dawson does good but situationally he's dreadful and it's little things like that that add up making it so hard to overcome.
Learning how to win is a big part of the process and this year we put ourselves in a position to win all 12 games which could not be said in years past. The hope is being in so many close games this year translates over into more wins as we are getting to the point in Year 3 where expectations are real as they should be. For the "look at all these other schools turning it around in Year 1" crowd, how did TCU, USCw and LSU do this year?