Winning programs never look backward. Successful programs review history but they stare forwards. They look and plan for the future. It is only a matter of time before the next season is up and running and the clock is ticking. Deep program thinking leaders never really shut down. That last whistle of the current season turns on the next pursuit. They know that time is never on their side and they know that just matching the performance of the current season isn't good enough. In fact, if you have a bad season you might be looking elsewhere in college football. Right or wrong it's all about winning and all this chatter about Student-Athlete is ambitious but hardly the key focus of any blue blood or rising program. Families love to hear this when in the living room and they truly do hope that their child is getting their education and respectful colleges.
As we enter a new year or season you hear all sorts of what if's and this is what we need to improve but in reality, very few programs reach that pinnacle of success where this is built-in. The understanding of what needs to be improved is running through their blood. These leaders didn't wake up with this. They were not born with the instincts of a leader. They learned this. They had a mentor who may have seen a quality in them that warranted the deep sense of training to bring them to a level of excellence.
This is the root cause of poor resumes rising to the top. Accepting what is arms reach away from you is all too often the beginning of the problem. It's exactly what Pat Haden did to the USC Football program when he promoted from within. Had he really given it thought and perhaps used some of the Search Firms efforts externally he would have seen exactly what the future would look like with Clay. Clay is your classic skip to the head of the line without any sense of what the first position is all about. He even got a ransom for something he didn't even have a clue on. So now, with all the programs around who are trying to better their schools or Conferences (PAC-12 and Larry's goodbye) the Trojans sit in their own morass.
Fight On
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