Udynasty
Redshirt Freshman
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2012
- Messages
- 4,651
This week, we start playing in the conference, for the ACC title. Things are moving differently and it’s a lot more focused, requires a lot more focus than a normal game. From Saturday, it's 100 times more focus.
There isn’t any more time for us to be playing around. We have to come out here and be the team we know we are, the team that can possibly play with anybody. We have to just come out and do what we have to do.
Virginia, they do a bunch of shifts, a bunch of motions. We have already been big on that, all the details, making sure everyone understands all the details. As far as their offense goes - they do a lot of things with eye candy, are a real trick team. They’ll put out a bunch of double passes or throw backs and things like that. We have to prepare for that coming into this game. We have to be real disciplined with our eyes, leverage and technique.
It’s a short week. We just played this game Saturday, but most of the veterans didn’t play very much. It was mostly the young guys, so we’re not as banged up as usual. It's just a quick turnaround. We have to keep chopping wood.
Physically we are fine. As far as mentally preparing. we as players take it on ourselves, have more meetings, make sure we understand stuff the coaches don’t have time to go over because they can’t go over everything in a short week.
THE MENTALITY PRIOR TO THIS PAST SATURDAY’S GAME
Coming into the Central Connecticut State game, we knew it could be a trap game. With a lesser opponent, you just can never be lackadaisical.
This game for us was a little more about building our confidence. We have confidence, we know we can be a great team. We just know we’re missing a few key factors we need to get together. A game like this provides confidence for everybody in the room as far as veterans and younger players. Everyone got a chance to show what they can do.
With that comes more confidence from the coaches, that we have younger guys that can go in and contribute. Even if they may not contribute as much as a veteran, theystill have gotten the views, the reassurance that they came here to play also.
Being a veteran, you know how things go, how things move. And you’re pretty much..... I don’t want to say you know the games like the back of your hand, but you know all the little things that go with this game. As a freshman the only thing on your mind is playing and you don’t take everything as serious as a veteran. So that’s probably the difference, the maturity level and understanding things.
I remember when I was a freshman at Georgia. I came in thinking that I’m probably the best player here just coming from being the best player at my high school in South Florida. That ego got me messed up, believing that. Because when you get to college, there are other good people out there.
I had no clue when I was a freshman. I was arrogant, was big-headed. I’m happy it happened the way it did back then because it taught me a lot. The biggest thing I took from it was patience. I had to learn patience all over again.
I could say it hurts your confidence as a younger player coming in because you might feel you’re better than an older guy, you may be a little bit quicker and faster than him and you don’t get your chance to get on the field and you start portraying all these negative thoughts and things like that. That’s never good, but you have to learn patience. It’s way more than going out there and running plays.
Really this game is a game of inches, too. So you might be at the wrong spot at the wrong time and give up a play, let a big play happen. That’s really what it is. From freshman year to now, I’ve been paying more attention to the details, making sure every little thing is right instead of looking at the big picture.
The game Saturday helped the young players build their confidence up, that they can play with anybody, and they can. It makes them feel like they are part of the team again, making them feel they have a shot at playing on future Saturday’s. It was just overall happiness for them going out and playing in front of their family.
And now the coaches know how the young guys react in the game. Because you can practice all week, do it right all week, but in the game when you start feeling nervous in your stomach you might start to do things differently.
Even a game like this, it’s still a football game. With the freshmen going in and doing everything they have to, doing it the right way. it gives coaches confidence to them in a game like this on Thursday or maybe in a future game.
THE PREPARATION FOR THE CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE GAME
There wasn’t a difference in our preparation for Saturday's game other than from the veteran guys. We were warning the freshmen to make sure they know the plays, do everything right, that when they get in not to panic, just play their game, know you’ve done this before, they’ve done it all through practice.
The game might speed up a little bit because other people might be running fast, but pretty much everything you see we’ve gone over in practice.
Every week we’re making sure they understand what’s going on, because you never know what’s going to happen with this sport and we want to make sure once they are in the game that they’re on top of everything.
When the young guys got in, I was excited for them. In a tight game, tight schedule and the way our season is going they might not get that opportunity many more times because we dug ourselves a hole and we’re digging ourselves out.
So there might not be the right time for them in most weeks to get their opportunity. So Saturday was amazing for them to go out and build their confidence up and be able to let them show the world what they can do.
You know, after the last loss I feel the mood of the team changed because we realize we have a lot ahead of us.
And if we don’t pick it up now, we’re going to have the same result. So the mood changed after that game.
But with the freshmen going out to play, it was exciting. Now it’s a happy locker room and we’re still preaching to stay focused, move on to the next game. Kudos to the young guys for doing what they have to do, but now it’s on to the next.
AFTER PRACTICE I MAKE SURE I KEEP MY BODY RIGHT
One of uncles, Uncle Randy, has been one of my mentors in my life. He preached to me since 10th grade just take care of my body.
I often go in the weight room after practice - just to make sure my body is in top shape, This is what I do and my body is all I’ve got. I have to make sure I take care of it
I go in, get extra stretching, roll out. Just get stretched out, stuff to make sure my body, hamstrings are loose. I do that every week.
We have team lifts after practice, sometimes I go on my own, go in the training room, hot tub, trainers work on me if anything is nagging.
From this year to last year, the way I take care of my body, I feel more fluid, feel comfortable and just feel a lot faster than I played last year.
You prepare yourself by doing all the little things you’re supposed to do, and Saturday is when things are supposed to come easy. For me it’s more of a mental thing - my legs from stretching don’t get as heavy, and I’m not as short of breath as I was early in my career because I put in extra work now
When I started college I didn’t understand the importance of it, not at all. But now I know my body is my temple, and the more I take care of it, the less likely I am to be in the injury tent.
LOOKING AHEAD
Everything is still in our grasp, we just have to go out and grab it. Nothing is going to be handed to us and nothing is going to be easy starting with Virginia on Thursday night.
The ACC, from watching the games, you realize every team is coming in to play this year. It isn’t one team that’s on top. The Clemson loss to NC State, I watched that game. It’s just a fact a lot of teams aren’t frightened anymore of Clemson.
Watching highlights, many ACC teams have gotten better. You can tell by just some of the leaders coming back and being the key factor that the team needed.
Everybody is improving in the conference. And we are improving day by day too.
We’re just working - it comes down to doing the little things right. We are working on fundamentals and then everything else will fall into place.
I’m ready for the start of the conference schedule. It’s really time to buckle down, time to come out and just be dominant, more dominant than we have been and make sure we’re on top of everything beginning with this Virginia game.
link:
miami.rivals.com
There isn’t any more time for us to be playing around. We have to come out here and be the team we know we are, the team that can possibly play with anybody. We have to just come out and do what we have to do.
Virginia, they do a bunch of shifts, a bunch of motions. We have already been big on that, all the details, making sure everyone understands all the details. As far as their offense goes - they do a lot of things with eye candy, are a real trick team. They’ll put out a bunch of double passes or throw backs and things like that. We have to prepare for that coming into this game. We have to be real disciplined with our eyes, leverage and technique.
It’s a short week. We just played this game Saturday, but most of the veterans didn’t play very much. It was mostly the young guys, so we’re not as banged up as usual. It's just a quick turnaround. We have to keep chopping wood.
Physically we are fine. As far as mentally preparing. we as players take it on ourselves, have more meetings, make sure we understand stuff the coaches don’t have time to go over because they can’t go over everything in a short week.
THE MENTALITY PRIOR TO THIS PAST SATURDAY’S GAME
Coming into the Central Connecticut State game, we knew it could be a trap game. With a lesser opponent, you just can never be lackadaisical.
This game for us was a little more about building our confidence. We have confidence, we know we can be a great team. We just know we’re missing a few key factors we need to get together. A game like this provides confidence for everybody in the room as far as veterans and younger players. Everyone got a chance to show what they can do.
With that comes more confidence from the coaches, that we have younger guys that can go in and contribute. Even if they may not contribute as much as a veteran, theystill have gotten the views, the reassurance that they came here to play also.
Being a veteran, you know how things go, how things move. And you’re pretty much..... I don’t want to say you know the games like the back of your hand, but you know all the little things that go with this game. As a freshman the only thing on your mind is playing and you don’t take everything as serious as a veteran. So that’s probably the difference, the maturity level and understanding things.
I remember when I was a freshman at Georgia. I came in thinking that I’m probably the best player here just coming from being the best player at my high school in South Florida. That ego got me messed up, believing that. Because when you get to college, there are other good people out there.
I had no clue when I was a freshman. I was arrogant, was big-headed. I’m happy it happened the way it did back then because it taught me a lot. The biggest thing I took from it was patience. I had to learn patience all over again.
I could say it hurts your confidence as a younger player coming in because you might feel you’re better than an older guy, you may be a little bit quicker and faster than him and you don’t get your chance to get on the field and you start portraying all these negative thoughts and things like that. That’s never good, but you have to learn patience. It’s way more than going out there and running plays.
Really this game is a game of inches, too. So you might be at the wrong spot at the wrong time and give up a play, let a big play happen. That’s really what it is. From freshman year to now, I’ve been paying more attention to the details, making sure every little thing is right instead of looking at the big picture.
The game Saturday helped the young players build their confidence up, that they can play with anybody, and they can. It makes them feel like they are part of the team again, making them feel they have a shot at playing on future Saturday’s. It was just overall happiness for them going out and playing in front of their family.
And now the coaches know how the young guys react in the game. Because you can practice all week, do it right all week, but in the game when you start feeling nervous in your stomach you might start to do things differently.
Even a game like this, it’s still a football game. With the freshmen going in and doing everything they have to, doing it the right way. it gives coaches confidence to them in a game like this on Thursday or maybe in a future game.
THE PREPARATION FOR THE CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE GAME
There wasn’t a difference in our preparation for Saturday's game other than from the veteran guys. We were warning the freshmen to make sure they know the plays, do everything right, that when they get in not to panic, just play their game, know you’ve done this before, they’ve done it all through practice.
The game might speed up a little bit because other people might be running fast, but pretty much everything you see we’ve gone over in practice.
Every week we’re making sure they understand what’s going on, because you never know what’s going to happen with this sport and we want to make sure once they are in the game that they’re on top of everything.
When the young guys got in, I was excited for them. In a tight game, tight schedule and the way our season is going they might not get that opportunity many more times because we dug ourselves a hole and we’re digging ourselves out.
So there might not be the right time for them in most weeks to get their opportunity. So Saturday was amazing for them to go out and build their confidence up and be able to let them show the world what they can do.
You know, after the last loss I feel the mood of the team changed because we realize we have a lot ahead of us.
And if we don’t pick it up now, we’re going to have the same result. So the mood changed after that game.
But with the freshmen going out to play, it was exciting. Now it’s a happy locker room and we’re still preaching to stay focused, move on to the next game. Kudos to the young guys for doing what they have to do, but now it’s on to the next.
AFTER PRACTICE I MAKE SURE I KEEP MY BODY RIGHT
One of uncles, Uncle Randy, has been one of my mentors in my life. He preached to me since 10th grade just take care of my body.
I often go in the weight room after practice - just to make sure my body is in top shape, This is what I do and my body is all I’ve got. I have to make sure I take care of it
I go in, get extra stretching, roll out. Just get stretched out, stuff to make sure my body, hamstrings are loose. I do that every week.
We have team lifts after practice, sometimes I go on my own, go in the training room, hot tub, trainers work on me if anything is nagging.
From this year to last year, the way I take care of my body, I feel more fluid, feel comfortable and just feel a lot faster than I played last year.
You prepare yourself by doing all the little things you’re supposed to do, and Saturday is when things are supposed to come easy. For me it’s more of a mental thing - my legs from stretching don’t get as heavy, and I’m not as short of breath as I was early in my career because I put in extra work now
When I started college I didn’t understand the importance of it, not at all. But now I know my body is my temple, and the more I take care of it, the less likely I am to be in the injury tent.
LOOKING AHEAD
Everything is still in our grasp, we just have to go out and grab it. Nothing is going to be handed to us and nothing is going to be easy starting with Virginia on Thursday night.
The ACC, from watching the games, you realize every team is coming in to play this year. It isn’t one team that’s on top. The Clemson loss to NC State, I watched that game. It’s just a fact a lot of teams aren’t frightened anymore of Clemson.
Watching highlights, many ACC teams have gotten better. You can tell by just some of the leaders coming back and being the key factor that the team needed.
Everybody is improving in the conference. And we are improving day by day too.
We’re just working - it comes down to doing the little things right. We are working on fundamentals and then everything else will fall into place.
I’m ready for the start of the conference schedule. It’s really time to buckle down, time to come out and just be dominant, more dominant than we have been and make sure we’re on top of everything beginning with this Virginia game.
link:
CanesCounty - Tyrique Stevenson Blog: Everyone improving in ACC, and we are too
Tyrique Stevenson gives an inside look in his weekly CaneSport.com blog.
miami.rivals.com
![Miami[]_[]Smoke](https://data.canesinsight.com/avatars/m/16/16959.jpg?1664075159){kind=avatar}
