Texas Longhorns football coach Tom Herman recently dropped an epic line about practicing hard.
Herman is entering his fourth year as the head coach of the Longhorns, and things haven’t gone as expected through the first three seasons. Yet, he’s still dedicated to building a powerful culture. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Herman told FootballScoop.com the following about the importance of practicing hard:
You want to be a really physical team on Saturdays, you need to be really physical in practice. Nothing in life can you expect, on the moment of truth — and for us that’s every Saturday — if you haven’t practiced at that level, for you to perform at that level. It doesn’t even make sense. You can’t practice soft and play hard.
I know I dunk on Herman a lot because he makes it so damn easy, but this is actually a great quote. He’s 100% correct.
You can’t just blow off practice, and then expect to ball out on Saturday. That’s just not how reality works. It’s not how it works at all.
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If you skip steps and cut corners in practice, then you’re setting yourself up to get blown out when games actually happen.
The difference between a great team and an average team more than anything else is the level of preparation that is put in.
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Don’t believe me? Wisconsin has a roster full of young men most major programs wouldn’t give the time of day, and we still win 10 games a year.
Why? Because Paul Chryst grinds the guys in practice to be ready. You have to treat every rep like it’s real and it’s the last one you’re ever going to get.
Nick Saban’s culture at Alabama is another great example. That man runs his team like it’s basic training in the military!
Now, we’ll see if Herman can actually get 10 wins this year. It sounds like he has the correct mentality, but none of it matters if he doesn’t get results.