Jabbering JAG 129.3 (Bob's Secret To Success)

What does it take to be successful at this game? How do the awags', pete's, vhoward's, orangepace's, ez's, bkdries' of the world consistently win at this game? Is it that they found a loophole in the game? ... maybe. Is it that they had to break the rules and cheat to do it?... apparently some do. Is it that they run analysis on the game like in real life? ... maybe. Is it that they're in a great recruiting area?... Sure that helps out quite a bit but I would be willing to bet that if you put any of those coaches named above at Portland State, they would be more successful than I ever will be. I believe the true answer lies in motivation.

Let me start this off by saying that I, obviously, am not one of the greats at this game. I do however, talk to a lot of very great coaches in this game.

Some of you may wondering, motivation? What? Let me explain. Sure a lot of the great coaches only run a couple of gameplans or maybe even just run one gameplan and let it carry out throughout the season. Well... how did they get there? They got there by experimenting for quite some time to figure out what worked well and what didn't. It probably goes back clear to beta where most of these coaches figured out how to "play" the game successfully.

I found my motivation for this while watching Bob Ross yesterday. That's right, Bob Ross. Huskerfan26, you know what I mean :). Bob is always saying things like "anyone can do this painting." Or he will say "everyone's painting will look different and that is ok, there isn't such a thing as a mistake." While this isn't entirely true but if you think about it the message makes sense for GD. There is no one way to win and it's ok to fail and try again. You just need to be motivated to try new things and find what works or what you do well.

I think it's important for you to be able to adapt and grow, always. Heck I just found out that I didn't even have a proper hurry up offense installed with one of my teams. The formations weren't correct and the play distributions were way off. Even these great coaches, although you can't always plainly see it... they are always making changes. It might be on a season to season basis, it might be on a number of loss and to who basis but they are always making changes. I just left a conference that had pete and ez in it and it was one of the hardest things I have done in a while. Why? because I wanted to learn from the best and try to create gameplans or out think two of the best minds... well three minds... in this game. Pete just beat ez for a CC and a NC in that world... in the same season. You know what? I bet ez comes back with a nice "counter punch" next season. I left that conference so that I could focus on fewer teams and try to develop my system as a coach. A recent loss in a CC showed me that if I can't even win a conference title every here and there I am doing something wrong and I need to figure out what that is. That isn't meant to be a slight on my competition but one to me, for being lazy and complacent with my system.

I believe that if you were willing to put in the time to find an effective offensive and defensive system accompanied by great talent everyone could be successful. I think recruiting also plays a big part of success as well. These coaches, who are great at GD, always have top talent. It may not be all of the way through or it may not be the top ranked player at every position but they are teams who are generally "deep" with solid talent and guys who will develop well. It's important to know what stats are important and which ones are the ones you can sacrifice a little bit on. It's important to know when to go all out and when you can wait a couple of cycles to find someone else who will end up being just as good. Take the time to properly scout recruits and "unlock" their potential.

I charge you to go out there... try to make the shotgun or wishbone successful. Try to prove cj wrong and show him that an all pass offense or a notre dame box offense can win in the playoffs in Wilkinson. I'm not saying everyone who isn't winning should go out there and change everything right now. See what works or what you like to do and make tweaks until you get your desired results. Play with your gameplans, play with your roster, play with recruiting but please don't play with yourselves while reading this.

Now for what you all really care about is some DIAA content. It won't be anything too exciting tonight. I plan on bringing something a little more interesting out tomorrow.

Richmond vs Western Carolina - Richmond 33-27

Texas State vs Marist - Tex St 26-24

Eastern Kentucky vs Northern Iowa - EKU 34-31

Youngstown State vs Dayton - YSU 33-21

Holy Cross vs Lehigh - Lehigh 30-20

Jacksonville State vs Georgia Southern - JSU 35-24

Drake vs Tennessee Tech - Drake 30-23