I'm going to start by saying that this is not a backhanded slap at Mark Madison. I don't know if he is a great motivator or not. Way too early to tell. However, it is a direct challenge to the reasons some have characterized him as a motivator versus other coaches.
A motivator is not a guy who gives a Knute Rockne speech. It isn't a guy that you talk to at an alumni function who makes you wish you were 20 years old so you can lace them up. It isn't a guy who "makes you want to run through a brick wall". This is a fallacy because these are singular events and it assumes that success comes from the game time and maybe the 10 minutes before. It doesn't. Game time success comes from all the work you put in when fans aren't watching.
Neither Bruce Snyder nor Jeff Tedford were guys with fiery personalities. But whatever they did to accomplish it, they had their players working their asses off and making tremendous progress in developing physically and from a skills perspective and both had many players who succeeded at a higher level than was expected out of high school. Both produced a lot of pro level players. You don't do that by getting them excited to run out of a locker room. You do that by understanding what it takes to succeed, understanding that all the little things you do every day add up to big things over time and show themselves on game day. You do that by getting your players to understand that and to be motivated 24/7.
Further, it doesn't matter how rah rah you can be if you can't back it up. If you run through that wall and there was no reason for it, you don't run through it a second time. Joe Kapp was exciting. In 1982 when he yelled "The Bear Will Not Quit! The Bear Will Not Die!" it was electric and everyone felt it. In 1985 when he did that, you were looking for rotten tomatoes and eggs to pelt him with and you felt like everyone else was too.
You cannot tell from watching a guy talk for a few minutes whether he is a motivator. A motivator doesn't send chills up your spine. A motivator gets you to bench press at 6 am or to put in a 1000 reps to improve your game. And a motivator knows how to pick players who will be motivated and motivate each other.
But most of all, the way you tell if a coach is a motivator is if his teams are motivated. Tedford's early teams were motivated. Snyder's late teams were motivated. And their performance also showed that they practiced and trained with motivation. A motivated team is technically sound and disciplined AND plays with spirit and they play for each other. When you see that, you will know your coach is a motivator.
A motivator is not a guy who gives a Knute Rockne speech. It isn't a guy that you talk to at an alumni function who makes you wish you were 20 years old so you can lace them up. It isn't a guy who "makes you want to run through a brick wall". This is a fallacy because these are singular events and it assumes that success comes from the game time and maybe the 10 minutes before. It doesn't. Game time success comes from all the work you put in when fans aren't watching.
Neither Bruce Snyder nor Jeff Tedford were guys with fiery personalities. But whatever they did to accomplish it, they had their players working their asses off and making tremendous progress in developing physically and from a skills perspective and both had many players who succeeded at a higher level than was expected out of high school. Both produced a lot of pro level players. You don't do that by getting them excited to run out of a locker room. You do that by understanding what it takes to succeed, understanding that all the little things you do every day add up to big things over time and show themselves on game day. You do that by getting your players to understand that and to be motivated 24/7.
Further, it doesn't matter how rah rah you can be if you can't back it up. If you run through that wall and there was no reason for it, you don't run through it a second time. Joe Kapp was exciting. In 1982 when he yelled "The Bear Will Not Quit! The Bear Will Not Die!" it was electric and everyone felt it. In 1985 when he did that, you were looking for rotten tomatoes and eggs to pelt him with and you felt like everyone else was too.
You cannot tell from watching a guy talk for a few minutes whether he is a motivator. A motivator doesn't send chills up your spine. A motivator gets you to bench press at 6 am or to put in a 1000 reps to improve your game. And a motivator knows how to pick players who will be motivated and motivate each other.
But most of all, the way you tell if a coach is a motivator is if his teams are motivated. Tedford's early teams were motivated. Snyder's late teams were motivated. And their performance also showed that they practiced and trained with motivation. A motivated team is technically sound and disciplined AND plays with spirit and they play for each other. When you see that, you will know your coach is a motivator.
