Every detail counts in building a winner

You know how new coaches are introduced at programs that have been mired in losing seasons and they frequently say all of the right things in telling how they’re going to turn things around?

Many times it’s a litany of phrases we’ve heard before. There’s a buzz of excitement, and then often reality sets in that the challenge was too great, and another new staff is brought in.

But, sometimes it works. I saw it up close as a student reporter at the University of Iowa in 1978 when Texan Hayden Fry was announced as the successor to Bob Commings, who had directed the latest editions of 17 straight non-winning seasons in Iowa City. I did a feature story on linebacker Gene Holtorf from my hometown of Fort Dodge, who spelled out the many different ways of doing things that ranged from housing together, how they practiced, how they did study table and transforming their lifestyle to fit the cause.

One thing Fry did was assemble great people around him like defensive coordinator Bill Brasher, offensive coordinator Bill Snyder, Dan McCarney and Barry Alvarez. (Alvarez had won a state title at Mason City, which is next to impossible, having worked there for awhile. Fry saw a winner in him. Snyder, McCarney and Alvarez all became successful head coaches.)

Last week I heard second-year University of South Florida coach Alex Golesh interviewed on the Jim Rome radio show talk about his process for turning things around. Not many people pay attention to what’s going on at USF, but a lot of what I heard took me back to 1978.

In two years Fry had the Hawkeyes playing in the Rose Bowl. His teams went to 14 bowl games and won a share of three Big Ten championships. This in a program that lost regularly throughout my childhood.

Golesh looks capable of similar feats. He took USF from 1-11 in 2022 to 7-6 in his first season a year ago, capped by a 45-0 Boca Raton Bowl win over Syracuse. This year they’re 2-3 but that includes losses to powerhouses Alabama and Miami.

His history of working on turnaround staffs includes Iowa State going from three wins to three straight bowl games in the early years of Matt Campbell’s run to becoming the all-time wins leader at ISU last week at Houston. Golesh was tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator for Campbell from 2016-19.

Golesh, whose family emigrated from the Soviet Union when he was 7, said he seeks recruits with a chip on their shoulder, something to prove, and the mindset to work and grind. You also have to shed the loser’s mentality.

“Close games are for losers,” Golesh said echoing what Fry often said. “The easy thing to do is say we played these guys tough. That’s a loser’s mentality. The truth is, it wasn’t good enough.”

“I was hired here to win games,” he said. “We talk about our buildup and process daily to help us actually win the games. If you rationalize failure, you’ll accept failure your whole life.”

In true rebuilding efforts, everyone who interacts with the players has to be taught what a real, authentic winning process looks like. You set standards in every aspect of your program. You tell them this is the process to get to that standard every single day, adding up to what you do on game day. Golesh and Campbell must have meshed well, because you often hear Campbell make similar statements.

Golesh said no detail is too small to matter. “How we wake up, how we eat, how we sleep, how we hydrate, how we treat our teammates, how we keep our lockers looking, our attitude and body language and our demeanor as we take the field to practice, how we get coached,” he said. “When my teammates talk to me in the middle of a play, what does that look like and how do I communicate it back?

“At the end of the day, you don’t control the outcome of what happens on Saturday,” he added. “Whatever happens, you go back and evaluate the process, how you went about it, and if you can pinpoint what was wrong, you fix it and move on.”

New Creston Hall of Fame inductee Larry Goodrich said legendary coach Maury Geist even said it mattered what they wore and how they sat before their game, as they won three straight Hawkeye Eight basketball titles.

That’s how you get there. Small detail by small detail.

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Email: malachy.lp@gmail.com

X: @larrypeterson