Look, I know some of you - like me - have coached kids in a variety of sports. Regardless of whether those kids are younger (Pee Wee) or older (college or even NFL), they make mistakes, as do coaches. All the time. In games or even in practices.
Whether a team wins or loses, mistakes are made. That is a simple fact of life.
And far more often than not, players and coaches understand the mistakes they make much more so than someone observing from the sideline, or watching from the comfort of their living room or friendly bar.
We all make mistakes - and most of the time, we know it.
And when we do, how many of you enjoy someone berating you for an obvious mistake you already know you made? Or better yet, when someone cluelessly criticizes you for the wrong mistake? I get it when someone blames a particular defensive back when he appeared to be late to the ball. But I also realize, as a coach, that perhaps that defensive back was not the one supposed to be on that coverage, and actually happened to make a good play to otherwise prevent more damage.
I know and fully understand that mistakes were made in the MSU game. MSU made quite a few, as well. And I also know how expectations can be artificially ramped up by a very successful game against an opponent like OSU. When you win games like that, you remember the outstanding plays - like when Antonio Blackmon broke up those passes in the end zone. But we also tend to forget the mistakes, like when Blackmon gave up two late passing TDs to OSU.
Win, and expectations are raised and mistakes are glossed over, if not downright ignored.
Lose, and the mistakes loom large, while few want to remember what went right.
The bottom line is that the more one's expectations are artificially raised, the more pain we feel when they come crashing back down to reality. And in our world of Purdue football reality, we have a young, inexperienced, and modestly talented team struggling to overcome years of mediocrity and poor coaching.
There will be games where most everything seems to click and go right, and there will be games where we just cannot seem to make the right play on either side of the ball. And if you have ever coached at any level, you already know that is youth, that is inexperience, and that is simply being human and having ups and downs in your life. Like all of us do.
But we're fans, and we don't have any control over any of it. And after years of misery and lack of hope, we all want this program turned around ASAP. And after wins like the OSU game, we desperately want to believe the team is already there - knocking on the door of a B1G Championship - when in reality, we are still the same young, inexperienced, and modestly talented team that stumbled in our first 3 games. Only now, we are actually better. Maybe not good enough to match out-of-control expectations that have broken free from years of subdued misery, but better nonetheless.
It is at this time that - despite the pain of those expectations crashing all around us - we keep our eyes on the long game, and appreciate where we really are, and where we could have been had we not landed the incredible coaching staff we were fortunate enough to find.
I hurt from our losses just like the younger members of our board. But after all the years of ups and mostly downs in Purdue football since the days of Jack Mollenkopf, I think you just need to sit back, offer thanks for the blessings we do have, re-calibrate our expectations, and rev up for the next game.
You are all good people - even the ones with whom I vehemently disagree - because we are all Boilers, and we all know what that means, even if the rest of the country does not.
Please keep that in mind.
Whether a team wins or loses, mistakes are made. That is a simple fact of life.
And far more often than not, players and coaches understand the mistakes they make much more so than someone observing from the sideline, or watching from the comfort of their living room or friendly bar.
We all make mistakes - and most of the time, we know it.
And when we do, how many of you enjoy someone berating you for an obvious mistake you already know you made? Or better yet, when someone cluelessly criticizes you for the wrong mistake? I get it when someone blames a particular defensive back when he appeared to be late to the ball. But I also realize, as a coach, that perhaps that defensive back was not the one supposed to be on that coverage, and actually happened to make a good play to otherwise prevent more damage.
I know and fully understand that mistakes were made in the MSU game. MSU made quite a few, as well. And I also know how expectations can be artificially ramped up by a very successful game against an opponent like OSU. When you win games like that, you remember the outstanding plays - like when Antonio Blackmon broke up those passes in the end zone. But we also tend to forget the mistakes, like when Blackmon gave up two late passing TDs to OSU.
Win, and expectations are raised and mistakes are glossed over, if not downright ignored.
Lose, and the mistakes loom large, while few want to remember what went right.
The bottom line is that the more one's expectations are artificially raised, the more pain we feel when they come crashing back down to reality. And in our world of Purdue football reality, we have a young, inexperienced, and modestly talented team struggling to overcome years of mediocrity and poor coaching.
There will be games where most everything seems to click and go right, and there will be games where we just cannot seem to make the right play on either side of the ball. And if you have ever coached at any level, you already know that is youth, that is inexperience, and that is simply being human and having ups and downs in your life. Like all of us do.
But we're fans, and we don't have any control over any of it. And after years of misery and lack of hope, we all want this program turned around ASAP. And after wins like the OSU game, we desperately want to believe the team is already there - knocking on the door of a B1G Championship - when in reality, we are still the same young, inexperienced, and modestly talented team that stumbled in our first 3 games. Only now, we are actually better. Maybe not good enough to match out-of-control expectations that have broken free from years of subdued misery, but better nonetheless.
It is at this time that - despite the pain of those expectations crashing all around us - we keep our eyes on the long game, and appreciate where we really are, and where we could have been had we not landed the incredible coaching staff we were fortunate enough to find.
I hurt from our losses just like the younger members of our board. But after all the years of ups and mostly downs in Purdue football since the days of Jack Mollenkopf, I think you just need to sit back, offer thanks for the blessings we do have, re-calibrate our expectations, and rev up for the next game.
You are all good people - even the ones with whom I vehemently disagree - because we are all Boilers, and we all know what that means, even if the rest of the country does not.
Please keep that in mind.
