Over Confidence is a Season Killer
Rockne was often prudent with his coaching advice and issued a warnings to his players.
Notre Dame is 9-0. The No. 2-ranked college football team in the country. Their next opponent, Syracuse, is 1-9, one of the weaker teams in the country. And they’re playing at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday afternoon.
What could possibly go wrong for Coach Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish?
“If you are afraid that a team is overconfident,” Knute Rockne advised in “Rockne of Ages,” “you might try to impress upon them that their opponents are going to go through them here, there, and everywhere. Impress upon them that losing this game might ruin the whole season, and appeal to their pride.
“However,” Rockne stresses, “over-confidence, once it sets in, is a hard thing to counteract.”
Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book seems to have the over-confidence thing in check. In a recent interview with ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, Book said Kelly is making the players well aware that any stumble at this point of an undefeated season would be disastrous in their ultimate quest for a national championship, even though they’ve already locked up a spot in the ACC conference championship game and a potential rematch with Clemson.
“It’s good to be aware of that, but also just to focus week by week on who we’re playing,” Book said. “Syracuse is a good team. They have good players and they’re going to come here and want to ruin our season, and there’s no point of looking too far ahead.”
Book says Kelly is punching the right buttons in the locker room this week.
“Coach Kelly really just sets the message every week that every week is a new battle, a faceless opponent every week, taking the season one week at a time and the rest will take care of itself.”
Rockne cautioned it’s healthy to be as nervous before a game against a 1-9 team as it is against a top-ranked squad.
“The whole thing is to get your team to realize exactly the situation,” Rockne warned. “Tell them they must have more grit, and more pluck, and greater determination...
“Or they will be beaten.”
Knute Rockne excerpts taken from “Rockne of Ages”
Ian Book interview published in IrishIllustrated.com Dec. 4, 2020
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