Coach to Coach

17Game Day

Game day for a college football team is filled with tradition. After all, one would expect there to be a number of traditions when two colleges have played each other for almost 100 years.

Brian and the team woke up and reported for a team breakfast at 8 a.m. Already you could feel the adrenaline starting to flow as the players loaded up on eggs, bacon, and oatmeal. A former star player for the team who was now doing a good bit of motivational speaking gave a speech to the team.

He focused on what it meant to be a player for the college and experiences from his four different times playing against the team's main rivals. The main thesis of his speech reminded the players to “make the most important thing the most important thing.” Of course, his finale focused on the fact that this game was the most important game on the schedule.

During the speech at breakfast, Brian was sitting with the coaches, but after it ended he made sure to make his way over to Marcus to see how he was feeling.

“You ready for this?” asked Brian.

“It's always easy to get up for games like this,” replied Marcus. “But I'm really hoping we do something special today. The guys have been working hard and I wouldn't want to see it go backward with a loss.”

“Nobody wants to lose,” said Brian. “But as you're going to find out eventually, Marcus, you can't control whether you win or lose all the time. But you can always control your effort and enthusiasm. I'm just asking you to focus on those and give ...