The Buckeyes enter this weekend’s game against Miami as a 39-point favorite. It’s not hard to imagine a team looking past that kind of opponent.
But if you watch the game trailer produced by the program, it’s clear the coaching staff is intent on that not happening.
“You’re 3-0, 1-0 in the Big Ten, but we’ve got to keep building on this because we can be the best,” Ryan Day says in the locker room after the 51-10 win over Indiana.
And his message looking forward to this weekend’s game?
“One game at a time. Remember the goal. One game at a time. Stick together.”
The theme of the rest of the video is similar.
“It’s about us, man. Let’s go out and play for our brothers.”
The rest of the video features highlights from the Indiana game. If you remember that game, you’ll know the Buckeyes produced a LOT of highlight-worthy plays.
And in the end, “We’re going to take what we came here to get.”
You can watch the official gameday trailer for Ohio State vs. Miami below.
Drive the momentum‼️#GoBucks #ToughLove pic.twitter.com/x0fl2U6bmu
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) September 19, 2019
Coach Day’s comments reminded me of a passage in a book, where followers asked their leader what they could do to “increase their faith”.
The leader explained, then concluded with this perspective:
“So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say ‘we are unworthy slaves: we have done only that which we ought to have done’. ‘”
===What a strange…and intriguing… thing to say… maybe. For example, It could sound ‘totally negative’ to a successful person…..
“You’re 3-0, 1-0 in the Big Ten, but we’ve got to keep building on this because we can be the best,” Ryan Day says in the locker room after…”.
What is this? IMO it is a “reminder of what we already know” …for whosoever would be, or say they are, a Buckeye fan. Reminder of what? Reminder of what unifies ‘us’, similar to ‘e pluribus unum’; with the authority and responsibility tOSU gives our Head Coach by contract terms. Coach Day sets, defines, and applies the ‘doing’ standard of “present continuing action, and demands the same of his staff and players.
Even in the immediate aftermath of a ‘victory’, [“the locker room after…”], Coach points to the continuing future goal of “what we can be…’the best’ “.
Is Coach’s message and timing ‘on point’? Relevant; authoritative; clear?
He reminds in the midst of the flush of ‘celebration”: “One game at a time. Remember the goal. One game at a time. Stick together.”
“The theme of the rest of the video is similar.” This means to me, ‘yes’ to what Coach Day said, keeps saying, keeps trying to apply daily to ‘walk his talk’.
“It’s about us, man. Let’s go out and play for our brothers.”
For…so far…Coach Day is saying, based on what we have done so far, we… “can be”…IF…
IF… we keep walking our talk. This would mean the goal of ‘the best’ would be measured daily, BUT…
…but not ‘achieved’ until ‘after’… the season is FINISHED. Then, IF we keep that goal achieved by whatever means… we immediately shift our purpose… to the PAST!
Therefore, talk of greatness; hyperbole; conclusions, and feelngs thereof…
are, to put it ‘nicely’… premature inasmuch as our goal is…’current’.
And, premature ‘feelings’ are distracting; and, by definition, not ‘on task’ with Coach Day & staff & player ‘leaders’ daily “focus”.
Or, as Coach Meyer put it from the dais at the ‘championship crowning’ in January 2015, “many people say it, but few live it”. And then…from Jan 2015 to his departure, proceeded to prove by examples & narratives, just how difficult it is for anyone… to keep ‘doing it’.
Food for thought: IF ‘we’ want to ‘be the best’, are we ‘in it’ ‘for the duration’… but assess our selves day by day not by or for our selves, but in order to contribute with team-mates by helping to build the ‘walk’ we have chosen?
This ‘could potentially be’… the attitude of a ‘broken record’ IF the universal standards set… yet endure. GO BUCKS!
GO BUCKS!