About Burning Down Those Boats
by Bellerophon on Oct 30, 2011 5:45 PM PDT
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PrintAs I mentioned during the game thread, I was wondering what the BTB's on our players' shirt meant. Some folks thought it meant "Back to Basics" or something as simple as "Beat the Bears." Nope. Jon Gold has the answer:
"We burned the boats, man," said Jones, referring to the 'BTB' shirts that players wore on the sidelines, a motto that signifies no retreat. "It was a suicide mission we had."
Apparently, Rick and the players decided to do the full Hernan Cortes (read: use some lame motivational speaker's revision of history for profit). But I digress: I appreciate that sentiment from Jones and our players. I like the fact that our players are rallying in what is a desperate situation around them. However, the problem here is that we find ourselves in this kind of situation with a talented roster, mixed with veterans and up and coming youngsters. And ... please ... we are not going to argue about whether this team has talent. We have gone over that topic in post after post this off-season. Also, don't forget after getting his talent excuse debunked on BN, Neuheisel conceded that his football team has all the pieces for a winning program, saying that UCLA "do[esn't] need anything else from the outside."
Anyway, I (like most of my fellow BN frontpagers) don't like bringing up the name of our former basketball "coach." But this whole BTB deal reminds me of gimmicks from the hoops teams in Lavin's days when the team needed to do something year after year to get fired up after underachieving regular seasons.
Something like this would have been fun in year 1 or year 2 of a rebuilding program when coaches need to look at all possible options to fire up a team that may not have all the pieces in place. Right now, it's not comforting to see a talented team in a coach's fourth season having to put on special shirts to get fired up and win against an average to slightly above average opponent. In other words, beating Cal was expected and predicted before the season began. Beating Cal, at home in the Rose Bowl, who has new starters at both QB and HB, was part of our bare minimum expectations for Rick.
We shouldn't be quick to pat the team on the back for winning a game they were supposed to win. That'd be like telling the Lakers great job for beating the Warriors (and hey, I'm a Warriors' fan). Or congratulating the Yankees for beating the Royals. You get where I'm going with this. I mean, don't get me wrong: Tedford is a pretty good coach (he's the best Cal has had for more than half a century), but no one had Cal pegged as a serious threat in the Pac-12 this year. They're in the middle of a transition as they try to figure out who their QB of the future is, whereas UCLA was picked by a lot of folks to contend in the Pac-12 South this season. So this year, yeah, Cal is a team we should beat. When Kevin Craft was our starting QB and they had Longshore, yeah, they should beat us. You don't get a bonus for beating the teams you should beat.
I guess the silver lining here is that the team didn't quit, which would have been easy to do following the disaster in the desert, where it became clear that Rick is not the man to lead the Bruins anymore. That's something I guess, but it's not much in the big picture; not as long as Dan Guerrero still leads Morgan Center and its diseased culture of mediocrity.
GO BRUINS
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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I would be OK with CRN were he be given one more year..
As long as D.Guerrero was replaced.
+1
Give the new admin some tome to before cleaning the house.
But then we would miss our chance at Mike Leach.
Most likely Rich Rod who is not a ‘lock’ like Leach.
There are more than one reason why we need wholesale change right now.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Motivation is motivation
I tend to disagree with the assessment that the BTB thing is a gimmicky waste of time. I think that a lot of things that motivate someone come down to gimmicks and what matters most is whether it works. If it takes a silly saying (and, yeah, the burn-the-boats thing is silly and a bit of a historical stretch, but I, too, digress…) to rev you up, then go for it. The important thing to realize about motivation is that you have to find something that works for you and be honest about it. For example, I know that when I’m out running and I hit a really tough stretch, I flip on – and gosh, it’s embarrassing to admit it – a Killers song (the “I got soul but I’m not a soldier” one) and it totally pumps me up. And the reason I pick that song was because it was in a Nike commercial a few years ago.
My point – motivation is motivation. If it works, use it.
CAN'T LOSE!
Speaking of, Peter Berg writes the afterword in the book of a certain individual who many here would like to call our coach: http://books.google.com/books?id=aWFOUA3Aa28C&pg=PT117&lpg=PT117&dq=peter+berg+quote+swing+your+sword&source=bl&ots=TisC8ciXyw&sig=wE4MrqNt5A80DhIol05DQTwMJ0M&hl=en&ei=q56uTt26I5PYiQLews2hCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false
Oh UCLA you sweet bitch, you've BRUINed me for anything else.
One kid who clearly didn't need any hackneyed motivational tricks...
…was Jerry Rice Jr.
I don’t know if this has been covered in any other posts, but JRjr should have earned a spot in the WR rotation based on yesterday’s game.
He’s slow, short, and will remind nobody of his father…except in one respect. That kid CAME TO PLAY.
Sitting in Sec. 5 there is one play that sticks in my mind…and it’s not either of his catches. It was a simple Kevin Prince read down the left side, aided by a block by Rice, which resulted in a first down.
Impressive…considering that Rice had lined up as the RIGHT flanker on the play. He ran ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE FIELD to blind side block the safety, which gave Prince an extra 5 yards.
This was sometime in the 2nd quarter. I kept watching him…he gave maximum effort on every single play. Most receivers go through the motions and play patty-cake with the opposing corner on running plays opposite their side of the field…but Rice didn’t take a single play off.
Now…I wonder if anyone on our coaching staff noticed…or will the suspended WRs just be handed their jobs back?
Are you sure you don't mean Randy Moss?
Just kidding. I know that those two names should never be linked.
There were a lot of people giving a lot of effort last Saturday. I was going to say that if they’re not rewarded with starts or at least more playing time, then the coaching staff has to go, but that fact of the matter is that the coaching staff has to go anyway.
If this weekend was "are you smarter than a fifth grader"...
The BRUINS just correctly answered a first grade math problem.Q.) If you’re playing a really bad QB who gives you 5 turnovers…and you have 2 giveaways…what’s the difference?
Next week they are getting a 5th grade exam from Oswelier and company.Q.) A guy named dennis erickson puts 9 guys in a box so you can’t run the ball…will you gain more than 37 yards rushing?
I'm okay with RN as AD...
but no longer think he is ‘our guy’ to run the team. Reading the comments above about whether or not Rice Jr. earns his spot should be something we keep an eye out for. If RN does what he did (not clearly signaling that Brehaut was his QB) with the young guys that clearly played better…well, we already already know we need wholesale regime change.
I think Rick is too nice to be the AD at UCLA
I think we need someone who is secure in his own psyche, and someone who doesn’t need the job. Our new AD needs to be the opposite of an entrenched, ivory tower bureaucrat. Our new AD needs to be prepared to tell Block to F*** off when needed, and to publicly call him out when needed. I don’t think Coach Neuheisel brings any of that to the AD’s desk.
Right now, I would like to give the head coaching gig and the AD gig to Leach.
Head coach maybe, but not both..
UCLA needs a real full time dedicated AD, this is first and foremost because it relate s to more than just football.
???!!
How about Colin Powell? Jack Welch! Krusty the Klown!
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Toledo's 98 Team
sported T-shirts emblazoned with the legend “Unfinished Business.” This was a referral to the slow start to an otherwise stellar season. Though Coach Wooden frowned upon gimmicks instead of soundness preparation on fundamentals, this is a different era, and if BTB was a way to reach some of the roster to dig down and grab their full potential, what the heck? Now, Rick, pull out a rabbit, and find a way to get this crew to step up against ASU – a team y’all had on the ropes early before tanking on them last season.
The Mad Bruin
Joe Maddon does that here in Tampa Bay
In 2008, the shirts said “9=8,” meaning if nine guys played together, they would be one of the eight teams in the playoffs. He does stuff like that all the time. Actually, Joe would be a great head coach or general manager for the Bruins.
yep...
i’ve got no problem with the shirts. it shows some solidarity among the guys and as athletes we’re always looking for any sort of perceived edge… for the team at this point, maybe what they need most is an “us against the world” attitude which may be enough to get them to believe in themselves. hopefully they can build on it and move forward with some more w’s.
I agree with the silver lining that the team didn't quit
especially after Cal scored first. In most circumstances, the team would have crumbled after that, but they didn’t. However, what we saw last night, should have been the case from last season onward. I feel that CRN just didn’t trust the new players, and talent enough. He didn’t do the adjustments necessary to improve the outcome of a game, until he was forced to by the suspensions and injuries the team had. I have no doubt that CRN was handicapped by the AD, but he’s also had a lot of self inflicted wounds.
So what if Cortes(z?) scuttled his ships ...
Because he would have been executed for treason, if taken back to Cuba, and didn’t burn them? The metaphor motivated the team, apparently. That’s all that matters! Isn’t it?
Gimmicks?
To be fair to "BTB," I think it’s too early to call it a gimmick. I think that if Neu lets go of "BTB" or trades it in for something else, than, yeah, it’s a gimmick. But, what’s the difference between BTB and, let’s say, "Semper Fidelis" or "Never leave a Marine behind?" I was in the Marine Corps, so this is what I know. All the Marines I knew reminded themselves of this in one form or another. Some tattooed it on their arms and backs; others shouted it during 20 miles hike while going up and down mountains in full gear. I think it goes from being gimmicks once it turns into a core believe. That is, people have to believe in it and it has to be constantly reinforced. It then becomes internalized, a way of doing business, how you go into battle, or how you approach a football game. I guess we’ll just have to wait if the gimmick changes the football culture. However, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so excuse me if I’m not holding my breath.
by TheUniversityOfTheMasses~Reconize! on Oct 30, 2011 11:43 PM PDT reply actions
haha
i hope not, but that definitely made me laugh
by bucknellbruin on Oct 31, 2011 4:10 PM PDT up reply actions
Good One!
Hope not. Unfortunately every bright spot recently is a train coming.
Great catch
I was hella wondering what the BTB shirts were, but that kind of attitude is the kind of attitude that the team should’ve had since day 1. I’ve mentioned before that it feels as though some of the starting players (which didn’t play on sat) were showing slack, it’s great to see that fresh faces came in with intensity
the 94 basketball team had special shirts
For the tournament…that said no dunks or layups in the red zone…I thought those were pretty cool shirts…I think they even sold them in ackerman after the championship…does anyone still have one? : p
by andyland on Oct 31, 2011 4:57 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
They had every right
They won the conference championship in dominating fashion and finished the regular season overall number 1. Not the same situation.
by Nestor on Oct 31, 2011 5:03 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Good thing
UCLA decided to make those shirts in Kal blue, I was confused for a second which school we were. Come on…
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