What Went Wrong? Lack of Burning Desire

By Sir John

This really is one day I do not have to read the sports pages by experts to know what went wrong. 47-21.

I found the answer in what Coach Weis stated. "I was surprised that we collectively, from me on down laid an egg. I expected us to have a better performance."

Coach is saying that no one stepped up to the plate. "Let Joe do it." It was someone else's job to come out of mediocrity and be a star. Collectively means everybody, but that itself starts with each individual having the burning desire to win not being flat or lacking enthusiasm. Burning desire. Burning desire is an expression a wise coach once used to make undersized, overlooked nobodies manhandle teams better then they were.

There have been times I have said we don the blue and gold and simply show up saying 'We are Notre Dame and you're not.'

We often live in a rarefied atmosphere of we are the best. This fails to see that the other team usually wants us worse then we want them. It fails to see if we beat them we simply beat Michigan. If they beat us they beat Notre Dame and humiliated millions. That's incentive, that's burning desire.

It's having something go wrong once, then again and again until it is an unstoppable drumbeat. Collectively means waiting for someone else to do something.

That's an assistant coach even saying hold up, I have a better idea, or a player thinking 'I need to hit that sucker harder next time' or 'I need to run my route faster'.

The drumbeat of no 1st downs until minutes in the second quarter, 3 interceptions, 4 yards rushing and 11 penalties.

I got to thinking again about "Burning Desire", a limited edition book about my old high school, Flaget and it's coach, Paulie Miller. Paul Hornung came out of that school along with Howard Schellenberger.

There's a wide range of things coaches can do at halftime in a game if behind, whether it is deciding on personnel changes, schemes or chewing out a team. Important things and this is 2006 with complex offenses and defenses.

I'm reminded of an incident when Flaget got pounded in the first half and were trailing badly. Everyone trudged to the locker room except there were no coaches. The players sat around in silence waiting for the coaches to come and chew them out. Nobody appeared until a couple minutes before the half ended. The door opened and coach popped his head in and said, "Oh excuse me, girls, I was looking for the Flaget locker room."

One can't say that about 'girls' in politically correct 2006. But the team stormed out angrily and won that damned game. Sure, it was psychology in action. No schemes, no adjustments, just a mental change and the burning desire to win.