Few thoughts on the team’s discipline this season. This year they’re averaging 6.0 penalties per game. Last year was 6.7. Most of the good Mizzou teams over the years average somewhere between 4.4-5.6 penalties per game, so they’re not too far off. The issue is the type of penalties. I couldn’t find a breakdown of the penalties, but this year seems to be a lot of false starts, targeting, offsides. Those are lack of discipline penalties.
When I was at Mizzou the football staff of Pinkel, Odom, Hill, etc all worked hard on coaching discipline, but the better part of our winters/summers were spent with Pat Ivey and the strength staff. I think most outside of the program don’t understand what was in place for success. I’ve said for years that the strength staff developed me for the game every bit as much as the coaches themselves because of the physical and mental things we did to prepare, the time we spent in the summer developing disciple, accountability, and cohesion. You can’t see the infrastructure from the outside, but there were a ton of things in place to reach that success. Most of them weren’t visible to those outside the program.
But this team appears to be struggling with discipline and I don’t think that’s necessarily only the fault of the coaching staff that everyone sees. It very well may be the lack of a system we had from Pat Ivey and the staff that aren’t there anymore. I don’t know the new strength staff. Maybe it’s there and the players just aren’t doing it, but I know the football coaching staff, many of which were there coaching me, and I know they’re disciplined and know how to coach discipline well. But my experience tells me that discipline can’t just be learned on the field. It starts way before that in places you’d never see.
All of that being said, I don’t know what’s happening on the inside. It’s just a possibility. I’m an Odom guy. I think he’ll get it fixed, but the team’s lack of discipline on the field this year has been the biggest issue in my opinion.
When I was at Mizzou the football staff of Pinkel, Odom, Hill, etc all worked hard on coaching discipline, but the better part of our winters/summers were spent with Pat Ivey and the strength staff. I think most outside of the program don’t understand what was in place for success. I’ve said for years that the strength staff developed me for the game every bit as much as the coaches themselves because of the physical and mental things we did to prepare, the time we spent in the summer developing disciple, accountability, and cohesion. You can’t see the infrastructure from the outside, but there were a ton of things in place to reach that success. Most of them weren’t visible to those outside the program.
But this team appears to be struggling with discipline and I don’t think that’s necessarily only the fault of the coaching staff that everyone sees. It very well may be the lack of a system we had from Pat Ivey and the staff that aren’t there anymore. I don’t know the new strength staff. Maybe it’s there and the players just aren’t doing it, but I know the football coaching staff, many of which were there coaching me, and I know they’re disciplined and know how to coach discipline well. But my experience tells me that discipline can’t just be learned on the field. It starts way before that in places you’d never see.
All of that being said, I don’t know what’s happening on the inside. It’s just a possibility. I’m an Odom guy. I think he’ll get it fixed, but the team’s lack of discipline on the field this year has been the biggest issue in my opinion.
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