Clawson

Stop Complaining and Do the Unthinkable, Dave Clawson

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During his most recent press conference, Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson said his life lately has not been fun.

He complained about all the uncertainty with players entering the transfer portal, the fact that he had to visit 14 recruits in 8 days, that Wake Forest can only recruit a certain type of player, and that he had to get his team ready to play its bowl game this Friday. All crammed into the month of December.

December is usually the most hectic month for college football coaches, he said, and with all the new turmoil this month has been more stressful – and not enjoyable – than ever.

You get paid millions of dollars a year to college football, Dave. No one sympathizes with millionaires.

Everybody’s aware college football has profoundly changed. This is far from unprecedented.

Many of us experience transformations that unsettle our nerves and diminish our bank accounts. Back in the 1980s AT&T clenched onto a monopoly providing telecom services all over the United States. It was mashed potatoes and gravy. But deregulation unleashed wild west competition and the telecom giant, facing competitive pressures from all directions, ended up splitting into three different companies and hasn’t been as dominant since.

The company is more of an afterthought than anything else. I know you well enough to know, Dave, the last thing you want to be known for is an afterthought.

Industries get reformulated. Laws change. Rules get tossed out like the one that prevented college football players from transferring off one team and playing for another the next year. Like the one that didn’t allow them to get paid.

They can transfer now, Dave, anytime they want. They can get paid, Dave, as much as someone is willing to pay them. You and hundreds of other control-hungry college football coaches have lost control of your football programs. The players are now dictating much of what happens.

No one likes having their power taken away. But it happens in this real world we live in.

You can complain about how hard you’re having to work in December (a lot of us work a lot in December) and how little control you have of your roster and how little time you have to recruit guys to play for your team. A lot of us have little control over our lives, Dave. But no one’s feeling sorry for you or any of the other coaches.

Wake Forest football fans such as me still want you to recruit four- and five-star players who can defend against the long ball so your team will win more games next season. University boosters still expect wins. No matter what how big the paradigm shift in college football has been, you’re on the hook to bring us victories. And you know it.

Bemoaning your situation won’t help. Business is often cruel. Feelings don’t matter. Only results do. So now’s the time to see what you’re made of. You claim to be a big reader. I hope you’ve read the unmatched business book The Blue Ocean Strategy. It stresses the importance of creating an organization that is so far out there in the blue ocean waters where there’s no competition – rendering foes irrelevant – that you never have to float into the red bloody waters of competition.

Make your Wake Forest football program impervious to competition. Make Clemson’s recruiting of players not even a concern of yours. Turn the tables on everybody. Don’t play the game with everybody else. Create a new game. Think of the iPhone. It’s a product no one had ever seen before. There was nothing like it when it came out. It was an unthinkable, uncopiable product. Create an iPhone version of the Wake Forest football program that changes the entire world.

Make the Wake Forest football program difficult to copy, easy to understand and sustainable over the long term.

How?

Above all else, be different. You can’t outspend Phil Knight money that he pours into lavish facilities for the University of Oregon football program. You can’t go into any high school kid’s home and tell him he should come to Wake Forest because he’ll have a better chance of getting to the NFL there than going to play for the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

Ask yourself this question: What is different that high school kids love that is difficult to copy? Is it air balloons flying overhead during games? Is it Bojangles chicken after each game in the locker room? Is it prom dates with cheerleaders? Is it artificial intelligence-powered football film study? Is it quantum computing football video games? Is it cryptocurrency machines in the weight room? Rock concerts before every game? Rock concerts during every game? Sounds like fun but any college football program could easily copy any of this.

Don’t copy anyone. Trailblaze. Be the most free-thinking pioneer the college football game has ever seen.

You’re the guy getting paid millions. You should have ideas, novel ideas, never before thought of ideas. But you better make sure it’s something kids love that makes your program stand out and makes all the competition irrelevant. Execute the blue ocean strategy. Blue waters are the only place you can stay afloat. Bloody red waters will sink you and the program.

What is it you can offer that’s hard for any other college football program to be able to do? Whatever that is, do that. Do the never-before-imagined.

Figure it out, Dave. You went to Williams College, one of America’s best academic institutions. In theory, you learned how to think with more shrewdness and mental horsepower than most other college football coaches. Virtually all of them went to lesser academic schools than you did. You have a special brain.

This is on you, Dave. Swim out there, into the blue ocean, and never come back.

It’s the only chance you’ve got of winning next season, of surviving as the coach over the long term.

Sammy Sportface

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Sammy Sportface

Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here: Sammy Sportface Has a Vision -- Check It Out Sammy Sportface -- The Baby Boomer Brotherhood Blog -- Facebook Page
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Sammy Sportface
Sammy Sportface
Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:

Sammy Sportface Has a Vision -- Check It Out

Sammy Sportface -- The Baby Boomer Brotherhood Blog -- Facebook Page

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