Wisconsin Snowflakes proposed thread- the players/culture
With the stipulation that coaches set the tone, create the environment, and set expectations, and thus are ultimately responsible, IMO it's time to question some on this team's effort, character and commitment.
I was a little emotional at halftime and turned off the game, and returned to it this morning on DVR. I have no special qualifications so will keep this short: effort especially on defense was abysmal, broken tackles galore, missed assignments and little fight.
I don't believe in calling out individual college players, so I won't. But I think it's hard to argue any longer that there are not problems with the culture of this team. Harbaugh and coaches are responsible, but players have to also take responsibility if there is to be any semblance of respectability left. Coaching mistakes don't prevent players from playing hard.
November 15th, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
The team has been coming out flat for big games since MSU in 2017, they looked like they had no interest in being there. It's only gotten worse.
November 15th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
All I know is that if players start tweeting about muggles, I won't watch another game this season.
November 15th, 2020 at 12:54 PM ^
Coaching decisions Due prevent players from playing. JH is the CEO. He recruits and selects the players to be a part of the program. He selects the coachs and analysts. All of these decisions build the culture and foundation of the program.
the players lost the will to play for themselves/teammates/ school etc. The is why did they quit? Lack of support, underlying issues, fractions...this needs to be uncovered and address. It can’t be fixed with a war cry of “those who stay” mantra.
November 15th, 2020 at 2:30 PM ^
That’s a good take. Just to add on—
As a CEO, you have to fight for the best interests of all your stakeholders. It’s clear that Harbaugh has lost the faith of the fan base, which can be fairly inconsequential if you can still deliver results in the mid-to-long term.
The program has seen high attrition in talented coaches going elsewhere. Additionally, the amount of talent on the roster that has turned over seems extremely high. This makes me wonder if there’s buy-in on a clear, shared vision or purpose. In my experience, there needs to be time every single day spent connecting “why we do what we do” or “why we’re here” to the overall organizational goals.
When a leader doesn’t have a clear overall vision or objective for an organization or loses touch with the realities faced by everyone, it’s debilitating. Further, mantras like “those who stay” are tone deaf in 2020 and minimize those realities.
I know that at my firm, the best decision we made was to start our employees working from home in early March. We changed the sick leave and absence policies, asked our employees to look out for the well-being of themselves and their families, and while also acknowledging that we expected some “growing pains” as we adapted to a new environment.
We were surprised to see very little drop-off in productivity and performance versus the office environment. There was a large amount of buy-in and enthusiasm— we showed that we cared about our employees, understood the realities we’re all facing, and they reciprocated in kind.
Now, if we had approached that decision with a “those who stay” mentality, continuing to make everyone come into the office, and prolonged the inevitable transition to working from home during a pandemic, then I highly doubt we would have had the same outcome.
Based on my personal experience, I’m starting to wonder if Jim Harbaugh ever showed the same deference to the safety of his players and staff. If Harbaugh is doing the bare minimum for his players and his staff (the conference and NCAA guidelines), then he’s not going to get buy-in from the people in the program. We know that testing isn’t 100% accurate for the virus, so things that would have been fine in 2019 (like making players play through colds, flus, and minor illness) are toxic and undermine everyone’s trust in 2020. I’m starting to see “smoke” of Harbaugh potentially mishandling his approach to COVID and showing a lack of care for player safety. This is manifesting in the Dylan McCaffrey story and Ambry Thomas (Celiac’s) both opting out.
If Harbaugh is approaching winning and football as being more important than safety in 2020, then we have a serious culture issue with negative ramifications that he may not understand.
November 15th, 2020 at 1:27 PM ^
On the culture thing, just look at the way Juwan Howard put his stamp on the basketball program (which was already successful and had its own established culture from Beilein's reign) after he got here. Beilein's program wasn't one of family atmosphere; it was student-teacher. Juwan changed that theme.
I feel like that initial meritocracy culture was here in 2015-16, but was lost along the way w/ complacency. When you don't have a personality that ingratiates you with your colleagues and players, you better have the results that warrant what you're trying to do.
November 15th, 2020 at 3:35 PM ^
Love this:
"When you don't have a personality that ingratiates you with your colleagues and players, you better have the results that warrant what you're trying to do."
In other words, when you're a weird dude, you'd better win.
November 15th, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
That goes in the coaching -- if there is a lack of discipline on the team, that rests squarely on the coaching, either from the way the team is run to how players are recruited. This is mostly true even in the pros, but especially so in college where the players are younger and aren't getting a salary.
November 15th, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
For $8m per year salary I would expect Jim Harbaugh, or any freaking college coach for that matter, to detect a problem with their player culture and to FIX IT.
This is 100% on Harbaugh stop putting this on the players.
November 15th, 2020 at 3:25 PM ^
Oh yeah...this is definitely 2014 Brady Hoke reincarnate.
same product in the field, same deer in headlights from the players, same coach speak, and same threads on mgoblog lol.
November 15th, 2020 at 4:41 PM ^
Man isn’t this the truth. Still shocked it’s happening. Hoke always looked like he walked into the wrong room. Of all things I thought would happen under a JH regime, being completely lost wasn’t something I contemplated. Last night was the most complete clusterfuck I’ve seen in a while. Offense couldn’t do anything, defense couldn’t stop anything, special teams makes a huge mistake at the worst possible time. Just a complete mess and in year 6.
November 15th, 2020 at 3:33 PM ^
All I want to see the rest of the year is effort. I don’t care if we win or lose. Just play hard.
November 15th, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
Well, I will say that there is something about the culture of the program right now that seems amiss - a few things, in fact - and you are correct, of course, in saying that it is on the coaches to set the tone. The problem is that the tone seems....flat, uninspired. I tend to agree with what some have about last night - there didn't seem to be any real fight, which I found to be very jarring.