Everyone keeps saying UT will improve from this game against App. State, which they very well may. However, the thing I keep going back to in my head is that long after the first UT touchdown was reversed by replay they were still dwelling on that and just couldn't get past it. They let that little bit of adversity put them into a funk. The sideline reporter mentioned the numerous long faces on the UT sidelines I think midway through the third quarter.
This is not a jab at CMR but a comparison: UT's inability to pick themselves up from some adversity reminds me of some of our annual egg laying game under CMR. It seems we'd face a little adversity and the team would go into a funk. At those points there was no leadership to be found that could weather the storm and stem the tide. Instead, before we knew it we were down by a million with no chance of coming back.
I just believe that how a team responds to adversity is a habitual thing, and old habits die very hard. I'm not sure how they can fix what appears to be a fundamental lack of leadership and overall toughness in the span of a few weeks. Their issue last night was not a lack of execution or employing a vanilla scheme to keep their cards hidden, but was simply a want of mental toughness in the face of adversity.
Lucky for UT they were facing a Sun Belt team last night so they were able to survive. In the future, if they are facing a team with equal talent and they go into that type of funk at the first sign of adversity, they will get steamrolled like we used to in our annual egg laying game. Typical first game execution issues can be fixed in a few weeks. I'm not so sure deeper, more fundamental issues like those apparently afflicting UT can be remedied so readily and so quickly. Time will tell.
This is not a jab at CMR but a comparison: UT's inability to pick themselves up from some adversity reminds me of some of our annual egg laying game under CMR. It seems we'd face a little adversity and the team would go into a funk. At those points there was no leadership to be found that could weather the storm and stem the tide. Instead, before we knew it we were down by a million with no chance of coming back.
I just believe that how a team responds to adversity is a habitual thing, and old habits die very hard. I'm not sure how they can fix what appears to be a fundamental lack of leadership and overall toughness in the span of a few weeks. Their issue last night was not a lack of execution or employing a vanilla scheme to keep their cards hidden, but was simply a want of mental toughness in the face of adversity.
Lucky for UT they were facing a Sun Belt team last night so they were able to survive. In the future, if they are facing a team with equal talent and they go into that type of funk at the first sign of adversity, they will get steamrolled like we used to in our annual egg laying game. Typical first game execution issues can be fixed in a few weeks. I'm not so sure deeper, more fundamental issues like those apparently afflicting UT can be remedied so readily and so quickly. Time will tell.
