The challenge of being the best

By Paul Haynes
Head Coach

I read a section from our Winners Manual to our team today after practice. It talks about what it takes to be the best and the things the best do better than anyone else. 

There are 11 traits to being the best. Reading through it again, I wanted our guys to understand what the standard is. What do you want to be? How do you practice? How do you want to play the game?

A lot of this game is about attitude and effort, and I want our guys to play and practice to a certain standard.

I could see a little bit of a letdown today in terms of the intensity. There wasn’t the same excitement today that we had on Monday. That’s part of camp. But that’s also part of the challenge of camp. You can’t come out here like that. That’s the mental part of camp.

There are guys out here that you can count on for the same effort every day. Right off the rip, I think of Najee Murray. He is a guy who comes out here and plays with excitement every practice. Nate Vance is also that way. Casey Pierce is also that way. That’s three guys. There are more, but we are not going to get where we want until all 105 guys come out here with that same intensity. 

There are guys out there practicing hard, and there are also guys out there who are passing on their knowledge to their teammates. You see that with guys like Najee Murray. That’s the kind of culture we want here, but that’s also the kind of culture he came from, too. 

We’ll be coming back out this afternoon for our walkthroughs, and we have to be better. We need better focus and better energy today and then for the rest of camp. That’s the challenge. You either get better or you get worse. You don’t stay the same. We need to make sure we get better.

EDITOR'S NOTE: 

Read David Carducci's "The Press Box" Blog for notes, photos and highlights from the first two day's of Preseason Camp:

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