Need to Know
Going into college as a freshman to play ball you really don’t know what to expect. What do I say? Am I going to keep up with the speed of the game? Am I going to get man handled? But don’t worry all of that, it will take care of itself, just play ball. The things that shocked me, I never saw coming. I had no idea what it was like to go from a hero to a zero. I was from Union High! How dare you not have heard of me! How dare you not have heard of my town… You mean to tell me there is more to life than Roosevelt…and high school sports. Talk about a culture shock! In God’s country there are those couple guys who are just stuck in the glory days. There hasn’t been a time that I go back that someone doesn’t corner me to talk about the glory days. My favorite was when a guy told me he had twenty inch biceps and ran a 3.9 forty. He seriously said that, Jade Alden Fenn as my witness. I sat there stroked his ego and told him how awesome he was for at least twenty minutes. So when you get to college don’t be that guy. It is not like everyone on the team is not going to see you play. If anything say that you are just above mediocre. For me it’s true.
You should always respect your elders and in football it is no different. By all means don’t let someone shit on you, stand up for yourself but don’t be a punk. Watch how the older guys approach the game, the weight room, and their team mates. Learn the system from a “crafty ol vet” it will make things a lot less foreign to you.
Don’t be a kiss ass. Earn your relationships with your coaches. The first two years of college I didn’t say anything to any of my coaches (except Taps). Coach Bennion hated Blake and I when we first got here. We didn’t know anything about the weight room, we worked out in DC’s (due to lack of funds), and we bothered him daily about places to hunt and fish. But through a lot of hard work and dedication, along with being respectful and coachable we have earned the respect from almost all of the coaching staff.
Another thing to consider is taking care of your body. I promise you when you get to training camp it will be the worst three weeks of your life. Your body will be in complete shock. I remember my first day of training camp, it was what I thought at the time to be the worst I had ever felt in my life. We were running the conditioning test and I was dying. Lav’ar was holding me up by the neck telling me to quit being such a pussy and finish. After days like that, take care of yourself, ice bath but don’t run in there and be the first guy, wait your turn. Injuries happen…and they suck. But push yourself during rehab, pain is just an emotion. Block it out and work through it!
As long as you take it that you are a nobody now, learn from the old, don’t kiss ass, and take care of your body you should have a good career. And remember it’s just a game, that is now your life, your full time job, they own you now. Good luck.
