Choate Receives an Extension

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iaafan
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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by iaafan » Tue Feb 13, 2018 6:54 pm

I don’t buy playing tougher opponents does all that much to make you better. You get better working, drilling, grinding, practicing. Practice should be so hard that playing games seems easy. A tough opponent will help you gauge where you’re at, but players should figure that out long before they arrive on a D-1 playing field. Playing and beating tough opponents helps your confidence and gets you higher seeding playoffs.

A good team knows if it played well or not whether it plays a bad team or good team and smokes them by 50 or by one.



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by TomCat88 » Tue Feb 13, 2018 7:15 pm

iaafan wrote:I don’t buy playing tougher opponents does all that much to make you better. You get better working, drilling, grinding, practicing. Practice should be so hard that playing games seems easy. A tough opponent will help you gauge where you’re at, but players should figure that out long before they arrive on a D-1 playing field. Playing and beating tough opponents helps your confidence and gets you higher seeding playoffs.

A good team knows if it played well or not whether it plays a bad team or good team and smokes them by 50 or by one.
Yup.


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Cledus
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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by Cledus » Tue Feb 13, 2018 7:49 pm

catatac wrote:So, you're thinkin we should easily blow through this schedule and make the playoffs, but might nt be battle tested enough to go deep in the playoffs?
Yup. That's exactly 100% what I think. :roll:


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1984TwoMinutesHate
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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by 1984TwoMinutesHate » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:18 am

iaafan wrote:I don’t buy playing tougher opponents does all that much to make you better. You get better working, drilling, grinding, practicing. Practice should be so hard that playing games seems easy. A tough opponent will help you gauge where you’re at, but players should figure that out long before they arrive on a D-1 playing field. Playing and beating tough opponents helps your confidence and gets you higher seeding playoffs.

A good team knows if it played well or not whether it plays a bad team or good team and smokes them by 50 or by one.
I completely disagree. The only downside to playing the toughest schedule possible is losing players to injury.

So in theory, assuming you can come out injury-free (which is impossible to predict of course), the goal should be to play the toughest schedule possible every season.

There is a reason we have whooped the jizz the past 2 seasons under Choate. Choate preaches this same mentality on a daily basis - BRING IT ON. Bobcats fans heard this same message from Choate every week last season in interviews. This is not hollow ra-ra rhetoric. Choate means what he is saying here. The players, by & large, believe that Choate believes what he is saying here. This philosophy fosters a mental (and physical) toughness over time and creates a specific team culture that is so critical to the game of football.

The notion that we should be trying to arrange powder puff schedules, like the UM jizz football program has done of late, is both poor strategy & weak thinking. It is also a sign of cowardice.



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by iaafan » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:33 am

Please point out where you’re completely disagreeing. In what ways do playing tougher opponents make you better? You didn’t address that in your post. All you said is Choate preaches the mentality on a daily basis, but that doesn’t address how a game against a tough opponent makes you better since Choate can do that whether he’s playing tough or weak opponents.

Players and teams get better by drilling and practicing hard. There aren’t enough reps in a game for them to improve during the game. If you don’t drill and practice hard playing tough teams or weak teams won’t make you better. Playing tough teams doesn’t magically make you better. Working hard between games does.

You can learn your weaknesses by playing tough teams and then address them in practice and drills to improve, but good players never quit working hard regardless of their opponent.



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by Cledus » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:52 am

iaafan wrote:Please point out where you’re completely disagreeing. In what ways do playing tougher opponents make you better? You didn’t address that in your post. All you said is Choate preaches the mentality on a daily basis, but that doesn’t address how a game against a tough opponent makes you better since Choate can do that whether he’s playing tough or weak opponents.

Players and teams get better by drilling and practicing hard. There aren’t enough reps in a game for them to improve during the game. If you don’t drill and practice hard playing tough teams or weak teams won’t make you better. Playing tough teams doesn’t magically make you better. Working hard between games does.

You can learn your weaknesses by playing tough teams and then address them in practice and drills to improve, but good players never quit working hard regardless of their opponent.
I'm sure there is more than one correct answer, but I see it as a better team will capitalize on your mistakes more so than a weaker team. Also, in order to beat a strong team your execution has to be spot on with no lapses. That becomes habit forming. If you don't intentionally develop good habits, you'll wander into a whole bunch of bad habits.


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by iaafan » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:14 am

I agree with all that Cledus.

I’m a proponent of playing a tough schedule, but not because I think it’ll do a lot to make a team better, but because I like a challenge and I like to be tested.



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by catatac » Wed Feb 14, 2018 9:56 am

Cledus wrote:
catatac wrote:So, you're thinkin we should easily blow through this schedule and make the playoffs, but might nt be battle tested enough to go deep in the playoffs?
Yup. That's exactly 100% what I think. :roll:
My post came off wrong, but still am wondering why you would want to go through a meat grinder schedule like we did last year? I too like playing up and playing better teams once in awhile, but not pretty much every single weekend. Really tough to make the playoffs that way which I think is always the goal here?


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by Buckaroo Bonzi » Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:58 pm

I think an easier schedule is fine if your goal is to make the playoffs ~ however If your goals are loftier, then a
tougher schedule would be beneficial . If you want to be the best you have to beat the best. Tough competition
developes a physicality and mental toughness that’s hard to get, in just practice or playing easy teams . Easy teams
are good for confidence as shown by the grizz , but I think the Cats are beyond that need at this time. It has been
a dam fine recruiting season and we should be at a point to produce significant wins this season and make a meaningful
run deep into the playoffs.


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by lutecat » Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:12 pm

There is a direct correlation to ndsu going on a run of national championships and them beating us in the playoffs before that happened. The challenge of beating us is the springboard they needed. The confidence booster......

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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by Hawks86 » Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:22 pm

Choate talked some about scheduling today. https://soundcloud.com/user-834730292


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by catsrback76 » Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:50 pm

I like the adage that "what you practice becomes reality". And, when playing games against tough competition you discover a lot of important things. What is working and not working in terms of practice, plays, schemes, physicality... etc.

For those who disagree I have only 1 question. When is it ever better to play down???

There is ONLY 2 correct answers, and one is "never". What is the other?



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by catscat » Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:34 am

I have nothing against playing tough teams, but at some point you have to win the games against tough teams. "You get to lose to some of the toughest teams in the country" probably doesn't sell well in recruiting. I hope this year is the year we beat all the tough teams we play (and of course the less tough as well).


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by 1984TwoMinutesHate » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:15 am

catscat wrote:I have nothing against playing tough teams, but at some point you have to win the games against tough teams.
I don't think a single person would disagree with that statement.

It is the simple concept of being "battle tested". A program cannot become battle tested over time while playing powder puff schedules year in, year out.

A team does not become battle tested through hard practices or drills. I'm sorry, it just does not work that way, no matter how much you'd like it to work that way.

I'd much rather go 5-5 every season while playing a tough schedule & finishing the year beating the soft-schedule jizz team vs. going 9-2 on a powder puff schedule, losing to the jizz to end regular season, & losing a first-round home playoff game. The former gives the reality of the program, the latter gives us the overhyped Bobcat teams we witnessed throughout the disappointing Ash era.



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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by Cledus » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:50 am

Nobody would be talking about this if we had won the SDSU and KSU games. Those are games we win if we play them in 2018 instead of 2017. Yes, I know there’s no way of knowing that it’s just what I believe.


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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by TomCat88 » Fri Feb 16, 2018 6:47 pm

1984TwoMinutesHate wrote:
catscat wrote:I have nothing against playing tough teams, but at some point you have to win the games against tough teams.
I don't think a single person would disagree with that statement.

It is the simple concept of being "battle tested". A program cannot become battle tested over time while playing powder puff schedules year in, year out.

A team does not become battle tested through hard practices or drills. I'm sorry, it just does not work that way, no matter how much you'd like it to work that way.

I'd much rather go 5-5 every season while playing a tough schedule & finishing the year beating the soft-schedule jizz team vs. going 9-2 on a powder puff schedule, losing to the jizz to end regular season, & losing a first-round home playoff game. The former gives the reality of the program, the latter gives us the overhyped Bobcat teams we witnessed throughout the disappointing Ash era.
Games are at the very end of the spectrum. Games < practice < drills < heart. Don’t take my word for it:

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Re: Choate Receives an Extension

Post by catsrback76 » Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:32 pm

Known the practice the scales for hours daily, Andres Segovia, generally recognised as the greatest classical guitarist in the world said..."I practice the scales until they disappear and the music is heard."



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