Thursday, December 19, 2013

Babers Presser...KEYWORD: Short

Somehow I remember Coach Clawson being a lot more loquacious at this opening presser...

Anyway, 12 minutes, start to finish.

I think the thing we learned most was his style.

He said he came into the player's meeting this morning and all the guys were sitting up, hands in their laps, feet on the floor...he said it looked "military."  He said the first thing he told the players was they needed to "loosen up a little bit."

He says you can be disciplined and tough without being "straight military."  He views himself as a player's coach, and says you can be engaging while holding high standards.  He says players will be comfortable talking to him about what is going on in their lives.

In that vein, he cited Art Briles as an influence.  Briles, who is very hot right now, follows the trending "positive reinforcement" method of coaching.  See the positive, don't focus on the negative.  Doesn't mean you can't improve.  It just means you don't build the team up by tearing guys down.

In his opening statement, he said that "I don't settle."  Continuing, "why do you want to be average?"

Anyway, other than Dan Cummins telling him it was his first head coaching job, there were just a couple questions and away you go.

My overall impression is that this is a guy with a lot of charisma.  I absolutely cannot believe he is not an effective recruiter with that kind of presence.  I personally believe that too much coaching is focused on the negative, so I like that, so long as you are able to keep the team under control.

Anyway, 12 minutes and that was all, but a good start, I think.  He has the bearing of a head coach, which is part of the job but not all of it.  Looking forward to seeing him get to work against WKU next Fall!

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