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Whether we got fired yesterday, our spouse left us, or we lost a football game, we have to wake up this morning and do something. Well, we don’t have to. We can lie in bed, not talk to anybody, and hide from the world.
But we all know that’s not a good idea.
I am thinking about this tough truth about life – get up and keep going no matter how awful you feel – as I reflect on the 46 to 36 Wake Forest football loss I witnessed in person last night in Winston-Salem against Cal.
I am thinking mostly about the comments coach Dave Clawson made after the game in the presser. To summarize, he said he didn’t think his team played well at basically any aspect of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. I didn’t think Wake played great, but expected less harsh criticism given his team did come back and almost won and never showed one scintilla of evidence that they had quit.
The fact that they remained persistent made me proud to watch. I felt these guys made plenty of impressive plays despite the four turnovers and two kickoffs drawing penalties going out of bounds. The trick play for a touchdown, Taylor Morin’s glue hands catching passes, and Donovan Green’s TD catch stood out. And the play of the game for Wake was the wicked cool interception by Nick Anderson.
But Clawson wasn’t spinning anything close to a positive narrative. He especially went after his defensive backs, a group he clearly doesn’t have a lot of confidence in who he implies – and almost flat-out admits – aren’t ready to play well at this level of football. As he talked about Cal “going after” his second, I thought about how I would feel if I heard him criticizing their talent levels.
If I were one of them, I would be asking myself: Hey, this coach gave me a scholarship to play here and now he’s saying he doesn’t think I’m good enough, so which is it? Am I good enough or did he just take me even though he didn’t want me because he couldn’t convince anybody better to play for him in the secondary? When he told me he thought I could play for Wake Forest, did he not really mean it?
Which is it, coach? Do you think I’m good or not? And why are you blaming me when I’m doing the best I can and you tell the public I’m not good enough and you don’t think I played well?
There’s a theory behind why Clawson lashed out. Maybe he knows he doesn’t want these guys on his team next year and is sending a message to better defensive backs that they can get paid money to play for Wake Forest.
But this theory probably isn’t realistic. He says Wake doesn’t have enough money to entice the more talented defensive backs to come play for him.
So he’s in a tough predicament. It feels like a Catch-22 ensnared in a Rubik’s Cube. You’ve been caught in such traps. So have I. We all have.
This is a prickly problem with the Wake Forest football program. They’re caught in an NIL situation they’re going to have a hard time thriving in. What made Wake succeed before all this happened was keeping guys on the team for four and five years, but that’s becoming less easy to do with players being enticed to leave for more cash.
As frustrated as he is, no matter how hard he’s working, regardless of all the different ways he’s been trying to sustain a winning program, I don’t think he helps his cause hurling insults at his secondary (he went after his whole team for bad play but especially the secondary and this is an ongoing point of soreness).
The secondary guys surely don’t like it. At practice on Monday they may not be as motivated to give all they have for a coach who publicly pronounced he doesn’t think they’re ready to play at the level they’re at and who said they got exposed for inferior abilities by Cal’s offense.
I see a man I like, respect, and admire saying things I don’t like, respect, and admire. Football coaches are supposed to be tough and can get on their guys to play better and he knows more about this than I do. But watching this unfold doesn’t feel like the way I want my Wake Forest football coach to be over-sharing with the world.
Sure I want them to win and last night was hard to watch – especially fumbling the kickoff for a touchdown return to fall behind 10-0 positioning Wake in a catch-up nervousness the rest of the game.
Being transparent, they’re just not as talented as Cal. Overall, Cal was bigger, stronger, and more athletic – and they have much better defensive backs. The team with the better secondary usually wins and, over the past several years, Wake just can’t seem to get enough of them. It’s a big reason they struggle to win just about every week.
College football is probably going to continue down this NIL path. The solution to the Wake Forest football conundrum isn’t apparent. But what is apparent, to me at least, is that coming into a press conference and telling the world your team played badly across the board will do more harm than good.
Positive words lead to positive results. Negativity festers more negativity. Your team did their best last night, Coach. They were overmatched. It’s not their fault they were overmatched. They were born with the abilities they have and definitely tried.
You constantly say, and it’s admirable, that the well-being of your program ultimately is your responsibility. You admit when it’s your fault as you did last night
This is all appropriate and sound leadership behavior.
But find a way to spread more positive vibes. It’s not the fault of your secondary players they weren’t born as talented as Cal’s secondary players. It’s not their fault you offered them a scholarship to play for you. It’s not their fault NIL money is corrupting the sport and more talented players are getting more money playing for other college teams.
Complaining over and over about a twisted system you’re working in puts more strain on you to find ways to win – especially about not having enough money – isn’t you? You’re better than that.
It isn’t Wake Forest either. We’re better than all that.
Many people would like more money. But they don’t have it. And they wake up and keep going. They shouldn’t blame others for that. They don’t need to imply that if they had better co-workers and employees they would be more profitable.
People deal with these financial pressures and talent deficiencies every day their whole lives. And when they complain about it it’s hard to sympathize because we don’t want to hear it, because we’ve got money pressures too.
And talent shortcomings. And competitors taking advantage of us.
An upbeat attitude almost always leads to better results and happier co-workers, teammates, and players.
Don’t make your players feel bad about themselves.
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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:
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