Leadership in Sports

by RMHorn on Dec 2, 2011 9:33 AM CST

Interesting article in the Washington Post about leadership in sports. It uses Tebow as an example - who I don't really want to discuss as an individual, but moreso as an example of what I think the whole QB debate in Austin has been about since Colt graduated. (WaPo link let me get through first page but prompts me to register for remainder of article, found this link that continues story but not sure is entire thing since I don't register at many sites just to read content for one time).

The point of the article is that real leadership is different than formalized authority. The whole Gilbert/Ash/McCoy debate that's engulfed the fans of the program as it's struggled these past few seasons is what it could relate to. But it could also have applied to the Applewhite/Simms debate of a decade ago. I've called it "intangibles" here on a few occasions, but this article gives a more thoughtful presentation of the concept I've intended to convey.

"Leadership only works when other people find you credible and grant you their cooperation."

More after the jump.

Here's some quotes from players on the team who play defense for the Broncos:

Cornerback Champ Bailey:

"Tebow is a special player. I have never seen a player quite like him in my whole career! I’m gonna play all out for the guy! I know he will be out there giving 110% every play every week, so I’m gonna give 120%!"

Linebacker Von Miller (yeah, I know it's hard to excuse his Aggieness, but just for this brief moment) from the WaPo article:

“I’ve never seen a human who can will himself to win like that. He gave us a great speech. We came out fired up. And that was a wrap."

If college players spoke with the press as freely as they do in the pro's I'd be really curious to see what the Longhorn kids say about whoever is starting!

Quarterbacks don't get graded or have any statistics for what the defensive side of the ball does. But given those quotes can you argue that who's pulling the trigger on offense doesn't have an impact on what happens when he's not on the field? My belief has long been that I'd trade an all-world arm and better natural athlete playing at the same level of competition for even the most average arm on a merely adequate athlete who's a natural leader.

Again, I'm not trying to make this a Tebow love/hatefest, but in light of all of the comments on Case McCoy and his fitness for being the Longhorns starting QB the similarities in criticism of Tebow in the NFL is too much to not apply the discussion to where Texas is at at the QB position. I'd like to generate conversation here NOT about Tebow, per se, but about leadership instead, and how much having a good leader at QB in the sense of a leader that the WaPo writer is trying to convey means to the ultimate success of a TEAM. Even if the leader isn't the best pure athlete in the position on the team.

The external links I've found to WaPo story so far seem to close in the middle of a thought, so if you find a link that shows additional content that doesn't require registration please link it below, I'd love to find a conclusion that sounds like a conclusion because I believe there's a lot to this that we all, as fans, could begin to appreciate about what it takes to be successful at QB for Texas, in the NFL, and in any leadership role in life.

I hope this can be a good discussion here about that, not Tebow himself or the controversy he generates for non-football related comments, even though he'd tell you the one begets the other for him. PLEASE stay out of that here, though! Leadership, followers and team accomplishment is all I'm interested in kicking around.

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Leadership is why I think Texas is in good hands for the next few years at the QB position.

Before I get started yes I know, there needs to be a lot of improvement, but the leadership is there.

All you have to do is realize the Mason Walters and Case McCoy scene from last Thursday. Case could have given Walters and earful back, but didn’t and let it go. Plus in crunch time Case stepped up even after a horrendous game and made the play of the game.

David Ash could have sulked and pouted the entire A&M game after losing the starting job, but who was right there before the game winning kick pumping up and slapping Case on the helmet? It was Ash and he had a smile on his face the entire time.

I know the QB’s at Texas have a ways to go, but I think they have the leadership nailed down.

Just like Tebow, jeez it looks horrendous watching him play, but I’d be damned if the guy does not know how to grab the lead and take control when the game is on the line.

I learned this about coaching: You don't have to explain victory and you can't explain defeat. Darrel Royal

by HornsRiverine on Dec 2, 2011 10:58 AM CST reply actions

Gotta walk the walk before you can talk the talk

Good topic, thanks for posting…

Obviously, myriad factors contributed to the 5-7 season last year and the hole we’re still trying to dig ourselves out of, but I’d argue strongly that the biggest problem last year was a lack of “on the field” leadership. It’s also the last hurdle to overcome before UT gets back to the elite level.

I played 13 years of organized football, including 3 at UT, and I’ve been on teams with all the talent in the world that went winless and teams with talent deficiencies that won games they’d already lost on paper. The common factor was always on the field leadership and they were almost always Seniors (or Juniors that had already lettered a couple of years).

Coaching matters too and you have to have strong leadership at the coaching level, but at the end of the day, coaches are really there to put players in the right position to make plays, enforce discipline and encourage players to be their best and focus…but believe me, when there’s two minutes left on the clock and you’ve got 80 yards to go for a game winning TD or when it’s halfway through the 2nd quarter and you’re already down by 3 touchdowns, there’s little the coaches can do at that point to will the team across the goal line.

The biggest fear coaches have isn’t a lack of talent. It’s apathy. Coaches can scream until they’re hoarse, they can threaten all manners of punishment, they can tell you that they’re dying to try and motivate you…but they can’t make you care. Only you and your team leaders can do that.

And the trick isn’t identifying your team leaders, it’s establishing them. The coach can name captains, but that doesn’t make them leaders. Players can vote on team captains, but that doesn’t make them leaders.

Only trial by fire can make a leader. You’ve got to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Otherwise nobody’s listening.

The leader or leaders are the guys that have already consistently proven themselves in the weight room, at practice and most importantly, on the field. Seeing is believing. And this is why young teams struggle so much, particularly young QBs. They just haven’t had a chance to bonify the leadership position that’s been bestowed on them.

I’d love to tell you that the guy with the most heart can be the leader, but he has to have the talent too. You won’t follow someone through the gates of hell or sacrifice yourself for them unless you believe they’ll lead you through it.

The good news for Texas is that last Thursday night in College Station, Case took a major step towards winning the hearts and minds of his teammates and establishing himself as the leader. Basically by getting the shit knocked out of him for four quarters (and if you saw the back of his jersey that night, that’s what getting the shit knocked out of you looks like) and still finding it within himself to lead the team down the field for the winning FG gave him the credibility he lacked.

Now he’s got to back it up with continued hard play and success on the field. Again, gotta have the talent to go with the heart, but that was great start and what Texas players, coaches and fans have been waiting two years for.

Good stuff.

@longhorn54b

by 54b on Dec 2, 2011 1:01 PM CST reply actions

This is my favorite topic

I did my masters in Sports Psychology and the area I focused on was leadership. It is something that I study in my personal time and try to improve on myself. The first point that the article makes about leadership is not implied (i.e. is not designated by position in life) is spot on. For example, you can make someone the starting QB or the President of the company but being in that position doesn’t ultimately make someone a leader. What they do in that position is what makes them a leader. If they don’t bring leadership to that position then they are only managers and not leaders. There is a big difference.

What I have found with myself, through study, and by watching my own athletes are that people will first flock to the person with the most talent for leadership. People do this subconsciously because they believe that their physical or mental superiority automatically deems them acceptable to lead. This is the first step. The next step is people determine whether or not that “leader” values you or holds the same valus or goals as you and the rest of the team do. This is where Ryan Leaf failed as a leader and why everyone hated him. It was all about him. The third thing I think sells people on a leader is whether or not they are willing to sacrifice just as much if not more than you are in order to accomplish team goals. This is what I think sells people on Tebow.

Leadership is the most dynamic aspect of modern culture to me. Companies spend millions of dollars on trying to develop leaders in their ranks. Everyone talks about it. Some people think leaders are born, some think they are made. I tend to believe that while there are certain characteristics you can be born with that make you more inclince to be a leader if you don’t work on developing those things then you are no closer to being a leader than someone who wasn’t born with those same characteristics.

"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton

by CoachEtch on Dec 2, 2011 2:26 PM CST reply actions

Good Insights Coach!

Question for you: How does a coach make the decision about who should be a starting QB when the position opens up? Obviously Coach Brown makes millions at a different level than you so critiquing him might be odd. But his biggest controversies at UT have all been around who he picks to start.

The Simms/Applewhite controversy lingered on. Many fans and probably players saw Major as the “leader” while others saw Simms at the physically superior player, there wasn’t a consensus on who should start, though MB made the final call. Young beat out Walton for the position over the course of the first few games after Simms graduated and that was an obvious good selection by MB. Colt beat out Snead very early on and that was an obvious good selection. While the team did drop off from VY’s level behind an underclassman, it wasn’t a drop like we’ve seen the last few years when Gilbert/McCoy/Wood became a controversy, then Gilbert/McCoy/Ash, now McCoy/Ash.

At this point I’ll contrast Mack to Stoops in that BS has either been luckier in identifying who the “leader” is from his QB roster, or he’s made adjustments earlier on, benching one in favor of another after he spots the deficiency in leadership from my observations. Is Mack just slower to pick up on the inter-team dynamics than BS? He’s obviously done fabulously well relative to 99% of all college coaches, so I’m arguing over who’s better in the final 1% (not THAT 1% :). Could it be that Mack is simply more loyal – to a fault – than BS when it comes to sticking with the guy he makes a starter? How do the best coaches pick up on the vibe that comes from players on the team themselves so they’re not just anointing one to the position over another based on talent alone?

I’m sure if you had all the answers and instincts that nailed it right all the time you’d be on a track to the top of your profession (don’t know if you are or aren’t, but…). But as a student of the subject you surely have opinions to share based on experience I’ll never know and can only speculate on.

by RMHorn on Dec 2, 2011 4:14 PM CST up reply actions

Very loaded question

There is no easy answer to this. There is just so much that goes into player evaluation and every coach weighs certain attributes he looks for in a QB differently based on scheme, personnel, etc etc. I couldn’t begin to tell you how he makes those decisions because they are made so much differently at the high school level. Some coaches will just consistently put their best player at QB because you need to make sure that player gets enough touches every game regardless of arm strength, accuracy, poise etc. My personal choice is to breed QB’s from the middle school up. Have drills and fundamentals vertically aligned to where they get to the high school level we’re not reinventing their throwing motion or footwork but just adding more detail to what they have already done.

I should be clear, I am an offensive line coach. I hope to be a head coach one day (I’m 26) and have ideas of how I would want to run my program. I’m not even going to be skeptical of how Mack chooses who starts and who doesn’t. That is where I separate being a fan from being a coach. I look at this situation from that perspective and after you’ve dealt with parents tell you how their kid is the greatest thing since sliced bread and should be starting you realize just how far off some people are in their realistic evaluations of who should be doing what on a football field.

"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton

by CoachEtch on Dec 2, 2011 7:25 PM CST up reply actions

Okay, Q for Your Pay Grade

Much has been made in the past of MB’s development of relationships with HS coaches in Texas. With the underperformance of WR’s, OL, QB, RB’s (period between Charles and Brown) in recent years what could explain the misses? I thought the value of having established that kind of pipeline was to help sort through the high rating and get to know what’s inside a kid better than film can show.

Have the Horns started to take those relationships for granted? Has the “system” that was set up begun to be taken for granted by HS coaches fooling themselves in order to make themselves seem more valuable in the short term by selling their kids as something they’re not based more on hope than reality? Have other programs begun to crack UT’s hold on HS coaches by telling them to give Texas top-rated talent while giving other programs guys with more “leadership” qualities?

Too many misses of late to not indicate something structurally afoul, IMHO, curious if the word on the street has changed about what types of recruits Texas wants?

by RMHorn on Dec 4, 2011 6:47 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mack

but every coach that I know that has raves about him. The words literally used were, “Mr. Texas”. I don’t think the misses has anything to do with his relationship with high school coaches. I think they just got lazy in some of there evaluations and were content with taking the low hanging fruit. Not that the people they brought in weren’t talented but they were OK with taking those who would commit right away rather than doing their due diligence in bringing in the right people. Mac McWhorter is as guilty of this as anyone. Bobby Kennedy, too. I think Case’s offer was definitely a legacy offer.

That being said, there is a lot more that goes into player development than just calling people “misses”. Sometimes people are just athletically maxed out. Sometimes kids get into the program and they don’t have the want to or drive in order to reach their potential. You can’t coach heart as much as you try. There have definitely been misses in recruiting. But there have also been people who got here and are just athletically maxed out. Luke Poehllman and Kyle Kriegel come to mind. Granted Poehllman has been a nice contributor this year but a lot of people were hoping he would lock down a starting tackle position and he has just not been able to do that. I don’t think that makes him a miss, just he has maxed out his physical abilities.

"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton

by CoachEtch on Dec 7, 2011 10:31 PM CST up reply actions