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ECU News, Notes and Commentary
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The
Bradsher Beat
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Holtz seeks to harness
team's psyche
©2005 Bonesville.net
The
ability to fight back from trials is a measure of toughness on any football
team. But Skip Holtz is a little concerned that his team might go out and
look for adversity to battle.
“It’s
almost like we get a mindset as a football team when we get down by 10 or 15
points, ‘OK, now, let’s play,’” Holtz said. “I wish we could take that
mindset going from the opening whistle. When you look at our scores, we’ve
been outscored very badly in the first half, yet we’ve outscored almost all
of our opponents in the second half.”
With
two-thirds of his inaugural season as East Carolina's head coach in the
books, Holtz is evaluating the group of players that have carried the team
to this 3-4 juncture and considering the alterations that will give them the
best chance of bringing the program its first winning season in five years.
Holtz and
his fellow coaches are pleased with many aspects of this squad: their work
ethic, their perseverance and their quick adaptation to a new system. But
Holtz, offensive coordinator Steve Shankweiler and defensive coordinator
Greg Hudson each have items on their wish list for the current Pirates.
For
Hudson, the final four games would be perfect if they came packaged in an
impenetrable wall of rushing defense, allowing them to avoid a scenario like
the 226 yards tallied by Memphis running back DeAngelo Williams in
Saturday’s 24-21 loss.
“I didn’t
anticipate that we would play four of the top 30 rushing teams in the
country this year,” Hudson said. “I think excluding some big plays, that’s
probably hurt us the most in the rushing defense.”
Shankweiler’s preferred adjustments would be on the mental side, he said,
since he sees a correlation between the Pirates’ recent history of losing
and their inability to produce in crucial situations.
“Any time
you’re building a program, one thing is learning how not to lose,”
Shankweiler said. “Sports is kind of like life. If it’s kind of been
bombarded into you that you’re not very good it’s hard to overcome that
initially, but it’s even harder to develop the expectation of winning and
really believe it.”
Hand in
hand with the habit of winning, Shankweiler said, is a team’s ability to be
the initiator on the field, to make things happen rather than just
responding to the circumstances. Players who routinely make plays out of
nothing reach a point where they expect good things — like victories — to
happen.
“I don’t
think it’s always the talent, I don’t think it’s always the coaching, I
think it’s the mental makeup of the kids,” Shankweiler said. “They want to
do it, they believe they can, but now go do it. We’ve shown spurts of that
all year, but we just need to continue to find ways to get in their heads.”
As Holtz
sees it, the senior leadership has set the tone for all of the intangibles
that show on the practice field, factors that he expects to be catalysts for
years to come as the program gains velocity under its new leadership.
“I’m
encouraged with the direction,” he said. “I wish some of the results were
different, but I’m encouraged with the direction and with the attitude these
players are developing.
“This has
been a season so far of ‘almosts’ and ‘what-ifs,’” he said. ‘Everybody that
we’ve played with so far and lost to, I think this team believes, ‘You know
what? We could have won that game.’”
Astros: The Ties That
Bind
Growing up
in Houston, the summer soundtrack of my young life was the nightly
broadcasts of Astros games. Most nights during baseball season, my family
ate our dinner on TV trays as we watched players like Jose Cruz and Mike
Scott and dreamed that this might be the year. Major Houston sports
milestones are memorable to my family in the same way that Disney World
vacations might be to yours.
So last
week, when that elusive National League pennant finally came our way, my
phone rang three times in five minutes. First my Dad, then my sister, then
my brother, called to celebrate and even to shed a few tears talking about
my mom, a wholehearted Astros fan and the one you always wanted on the couch
next to you when the stakes were high. She died of cancer 12 years ago, but
the gaping hole in our lives seemed bigger than usual as we said, “She would
really love this.”
I’ve heard
all about football widows and I know that at times sports can have a
fracturing effect on families. But in my family, this magical October, the
opposite effect has grabbed us and pulled us together, as the four of us
lose sleep in front of the TV in three different states with our phones by
our sides.
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Bethany Bradsher.
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02/23/2007 01:11:47 AM |
