One thing no one tells you about growing up and being an adult is how much you’re constantly stuck between stations. You can see where you want to go, and where you’ve been, but getting there isn’t as easy as closing your eyes and waiting for the conductor to tell you, “Doors open on the right at Damen.”
It’s that constant push and pull of recognizing your past and acknowledging your future that all adds up to living in the present. Spend too much time at one end or the other, and your present gets muddled and unrecognizable. Refuse either extreme, and there’s this sense you’re floating, and not in a good way like Nintendo’s adorable Kirby.
In a sense, this is where certain teams are finding themselves after they’ve decided to make coaching changes midseason. The present is not what they want it to be, so there’s need for something different. Teams run the risk of stripping too much of the past away if a certain coach tries to only look forward. And if you grab a guy who is too rooted in tradition, there’s not enough of a look at what the team can be later on. Like anything else, balance is critical. Being secure in yourself (as a person and a program) seems so necessary. But as we all know, it’s easier said than done. And mistakes will always be made. What happens after tends to define who you (and your team) will become.
Anyway, here’s the mailbag.
@ry_hudson: Question: Why didn’t you go to JMU on Saturday?
https://instagram.com/p/9OOb3GprQr/
Mr. Hudson is pulling no punches here. I thought long and hard about going to James Madison, and truth be told, it was on my list of places to go that week if GameDay hadn’t attended. I ended up deciding on the Florida State-Georgia Tech game in Atlanta instead because I had a place to stay, and I’d never been to Bobby Dodd and wanted to check that off my stadiums list.
This is the tricky thing in balancing a season’s worth of story ideas. You’re constantly being pulled in different directions and there’s so much you want to do. Then you look up, the calendar has turned to November and you’re freaking out about how there’s no time left. Inevitably pitches you love have to get nixed for a variety of reasons – other people end up writing them first (or writing them better than you ever could), budget gets in the way, credentials get denied or access isn’t approved, a team struggles and you miss your window, there’s a conflict with something else you were already doing, or you flat out don’t have enough energy or hours in the day.
I’ll say this much; it’s what makes college football one of the richest and deepest sports to cover if you can get past the rough surface and dig a little deeper. I’ve long since joked about getting a cross stitched phrase in my living room that I say to myself over and over: “There’s always another story.” The problem is sometimes that can be overwhelming. I’ll get to JMU for something else, and I’m looking forward to it.
@IAmSpillly: How do I live my life now that Pitt is good?
I wish I had the answer to this question. I think you enjoy it as much as you can while remaining aware that this is Pitt, and the ejector seat may be triggered at any given moment. It isn’t fair that certain teams can’t just expect success or believe it when it happens. Living your life like something bad is going to happen if you allow yourself to believe is not fun or healthy. But it’s a coping mechanism, and one that Pitt fans unfortunately know too well.
Hopefully this is a year when things change. The Panthers have done some amazing things under Pat Narduzzi in Year 1 of his tenure, and they head into Thursday night’s game against UNC with a lot to prove, and even more to play for. Maybe they’ll do a thing (and not Pitt a Pitt).
@ZacEllis: Which SEC coach would shoot Greedo the fastest if he were Han Solo? Who would be slowest?
I know it’s a copout, but the fastest has to be Gus Malzahn. And I’m only saying this because I want to use the phrase HUNH, which of course means Hurry Up No Holster. Although we know Kevin Sumlin will say #yessir at a moment’s notice. And Mark Richt is all too familiar with Star Wars after his cameo in Chris Conley’s short film.
But the slowest is a bit of a perplexing dilemma. You might say it’s tempting to go with Bret Bielema, but let’s be honest, Bielema’s gun is already out and waiting for an opportunity. Butch Jones likes to do things slowly and on his own time, so he’s a likely candidate. But it has to be Saban, right? He’s not doing anything without a process. Here’s how I’ll rank them as a whole:
1) Gus Malzahn
2) Kevin Sumlin
3) Bret Bielema
4) Jim McElwain
5) Les Miles
6) Hugh Freeze
7) Mark Stoops
8) Mark Richt
9) Shawn Elliott
10) Dan Mullen
11) Derek Mason
12) Gary Pinkel
13) Butch Jones
14) Nick Saban
@JohnCassillo: If you were in charge for a day at Syracuse (sorry in advance), what would you do to fix the football program?
One day? Wow, that’s not a whole lot of time. I don’t know. I guess I’d start with telling the players I believe in them and that they don’t have to let their record define them. These things take time, and I think they’re all great people the way they are. Then I’d probably throw out some coach speak like “Play smarter, not harder” and get them all tacos to let them know I think they’re great. It might and probably won’t work, but at least we all get tacos out of it.
@KerithBurke: If you were John Bianco and got a my bad/emoji shrug from Texas, would you do one small subversive thing your first day back?
First, some context for those who are like “who is John Bianco?” Bianco was the longtime media relations person for football until former athletic director Steve Patterson came in and did Steve Patterson things. Bianco was no longer the media relations person for football, even though he was good at his job. Patterson is no longer the athletic director. So, now Bianco is the media relations director again.
The question is tough because I am not John Bianco. I am just me. And I wouldn’t as me do anything subversive because things were made right essentially and the person who made the decision in the first place isn’t there anymore. But I could see someone else wanting to do a little damage here or there, nothing big, just something small like not refilling the coffee pot, or eating a second donut when it clearly said to please eat one, or parking in someone else’s parking spot. You know, as a goof.
