The Calm Before The Storm

I was listening to the Urban Meyer Call In Show yesterday, and thought to myself, what is it that the coaches say to the players, getting them to perform the way they do? This got me to thinking of what I would say. It may not be perfect, but it is what it is. I must preface this by giving my prediction for Indiana and Ohio State.

Ohio State 56 Indiana 10

I served in the Marines from 2005-2009, as an Infantryman. This is where I was taught that relentless effort is perfection, that being good is not good enough. 

Infantry Marines train tirelessly towards the perfection of their craft, so that when the times comes and bullets are coming at you in war, your body reacts before your mind does. Your body is trained by your superiors and seniors to react in a manner that could save a life, whether it is your own or another Marines. This coaching staff was assembled to bring together mental and physical toughness through repetition. You all (the players) have been taught to be more powerful than a coach. When someone messes up and it is not because of effort, your brothers pick up before a coach does. Brotherly love can be stronger than fatherly love. This is the essence of this football team. Our pursuit of perfection extends to every game we play, regardless of who we play. It does not matter if it is Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Alabama or anyone else. Our pursuit of perfection is not not making mistakes, it is making mistakes and learning from them, from each other. Our pursuit of perfection ends when we are in Dallas, holding up the National Championship trophy and not until than. Every game until then is a battle that we must win. At the end of every battle is a war that must be finished. College Football has wages a war upon us, and game by game we have won the battles convincingly. I model our team as if we were in the military because of this; we have the most lethal military known to mankind. On one hand we fight a war as viciously as possible, making our enemy think twice about attacking us once more. On the other hand, we are able to be human beings and help others out in need. We fight a way every Saturday from August to December, just to finish the war in January. The character of a Unit is immortalized with how they end a campaign. Tonight, we choose how we will be immortalized. 

Tomorrow, this team will run into the Horseshoe a motivation we have never seen. This motivation comes from the recognition of how close to the finish line we are, how close we are to finishing what we started. The week after this is TTUN in our stadium. The only way to finish to STRONG!

O-H!!!!!!!!!!