FB: American Rivers Conference

[Fannosaurus Rex]

Yes. If I'm not #1 with my clients, then I do not make a living, at all. That is why I have to work my tail off to be #1 with them.

I don't presume to know your business but if the only way for you to succeed or make a living is to get all of the business from all of your competitors, heaven help you.

[BB]

A few football quotes that I thought made sense.

Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. Are you kidding me? Playoffs? I'm just hoping we can win a game, another game---Jim Mora    (Statement could go for many teams this year)


"You play to win the game"--Herm Edwards

Like Sk said well in his rant, too much drinking really is a poor excuse for not winning football games.   The Wartburg teams of the past drank alot but also played with an intensity that was rarely ever matched.   Those teams knew that they were going to go out and not only win, but beat the living piss out of the opposing team.   Swagger is a word that people have been throwing around.  Swagger comes from the leaders of your team, players that others look up to.  It does not have to be seniors, it can be anyone.    

As far as the use of the fullback....WH was right, college football had become pussified ().   Look at the Big Ten, I believe that Iowa and Wisconsin are the two teams that have held out from going to the spread (as much as others).   I am sure the people on here that coach hs football have seen the same thing.  In the last 5 years,  the amount of spread teams has increased tremendously.    Maybe it may be harder for teams to find a good fullback/tight end  if fewer teams are running pro sets in highschool.  

[knightlife06]

In today's world I hate that in order to be successful you have to be number 1 or win the championship, it just sets up a lot of people for failure. Basically your saying at the end of the season only 1 team had a successful season. From what I'm hearing from wartburg and central posters is that if they don't win conference then its a disappointing season. Well what let's look at it from a player's perspective. Let's say your a freshman or sophomore on that team, your playing your a*% off every week and just falling short, or barely getting by. Do you think that maybe that will be some motivation for the off-season, do you think that maybe a program builds itself up and occasionally it has to have a reloading year. I never won a conference championship at Luther, and I would never consider my time their unsuccessful. Give this kids a break, you'll learn way more about yourself and your program in a down year then you ever will in a successful year.

I've read this quote over and over and I can't see anything that even remotely suggests not keeping score. Every team has more than just one goal. I doubt that every team had a stated goal of winning the IIAC this year. Goals need to be obtainable to be of any value. Not every team is capable of winning the IIAC this year. To set a goal of doing something your not capable of, would defeat the whole purpose of setting goals.

I really hope every team's stated goal is to win the conference.  I don't see why it wouldn't be.

[DutchFan2004]

  + K for coming around to the Norse way of thinking. There's hope for you yet.

Thanks for the k

[Walston Hoover]

WHen I meet with a client, they usually are working with someone else as well at the same time, we compete for the client's business, fortunately I have a great tool to back me up, but if I lose, I don't make a living. There's no "next time" for me.
I don't have to take all of my competitor's business, but I have to be #1 in how I present and how I service the clients that we compete for or else I would be out of business.
I would hope many people treat their work that way, that they need to be #1, but I know many are content with just clocking in and picking up their paycheck every other week.

Yes. If I'm not #1 with my clients, then I do not make a living, at all. That is why I have to work my tail off to be #1 with them.

I don't presume to know your business but if the only way for you to succeed or make a living is to get all of the business from all of your competitors, heaven help you.

[doolittledog]

I think we can look at this from preseason and postseason perspectives.  

Preseason I think every team wants to win the conference.  Going in to every game a team gameplans to win that game and are upset if they don't win that game.

Post season, teams can take a step back and look at their season.  Central, last year could look back and while they won the conference for a 3rd straight year, they also advanced out of the first round of the playoffs.  The Dutch could look at last year and call it a success.  Getting back to the perception thing.  Central has won 3 straight conference titles.  If Central doesn't win the conference this year there will be some Dutch fans that look at this as a dissapointment.  Taking a step back at the end of the season and realizing how many senior leaders they lost from their last team they might reconsider their earlier assessment.  

For a team like Wartburg that came into the season with a team loaded with returning starters, I think it is realistic for Knight supporters if they are dissapointed at the end of the season if they don't win a title.  For Cornell, they were hopefull of getting a conference win or two this year.  If they win no games this year they will be dissapointed.  If the Rams are able to get one or two conference wins this year, after going 0-8 each of the last two years, I would think their fans would be able to call this season a success.  

Preseason, yes, all teams should have it in their heads they could win the conference title.  Post season, you can reflect back and look better at your season.  For Wartburg, it might be a conference title.  For Cornell, it might be a single conference win.  

The idea is to win the game.  Just how many wins equals success can be defined diferently by different teams.  

[TheOne89.1]

In today's world I hate that in order to be successful you have to be number 1 or win the championship, it just sets up a lot of people for failure. Basically your saying at the end of the season only 1 team had a successful season. From what I'm hearing from wartburg and central posters is that if they don't win conference then its a disappointing season. Well what let's look at it from a player's perspective. Let's say your a freshman or sophomore on that team, your playing your a*% off every week and just falling short, or barely getting by. Do you think that maybe that will be some motivation for the off-season, do you think that maybe a program builds itself up and occasionally it has to have a reloading year. I never won a conference championship at Luther, and I would never consider my time their unsuccessful. Give this kids a break, you'll learn way more about yourself and your program in a down year then you ever will in a successful year.

I've read this quote over and over and I can't see anything that even remotely suggests not keeping score. Every team has more than just one goal. I doubt that every team had a stated goal of winning the IIAC this year. Goals need to be obtainable to be of any value. Not every team is capable of winning the IIAC this year. To set a goal of doing something your not capable of, would defeat the whole purpose of setting goals.

I really hope every team's stated goal is to win the conference.  I don't see why it wouldn't be.

I agree.  I would assume that every team in every conference sets at least one goal..."Win the Conference".  We are seeing it this year that it probably won't be Wartburg or Central.  We have seen that on any given Saturday any team in the IIAC can beat another (still looking for Cornell to support this statement).  Most of the guys come from the same high schools or similar.  There are a few who were offered D1 or D2 scholarships but chose D3, but the majority are just the same as the guy across from them meaning anyone in the Iowa Conference can win the title.

[TheOne89.1]

To me, swagger sounds similar to cocky.  Which reminds me of a-holes.  To me I would rather have confident players.  Players that know they are good and just go about their business. 

I also don't know if we can go back to the days of smash mouth football.  Two backs in the backfield and run run run.  Good defenses can load up 8 in the box and beat you.  2006 Wartburg/Dubuque comes to mind.

Swagger is confidence.  Swagger is stepping on the field with supreme confidence and knowing that if you play as hard as you can you are going to beat the guy up against you. 

Fullbacks and tight ends are still the way to go in college football.  Those positions create matchup problems, much like Wartburg used to have with Ben Thomsen. 

When I was reading the couple of posts before this concerning the running game at Wartburg and the "swagger" idea, I was thinking of Ben Thomsen.

He was the kind of guy who definitely was not cocky.  Hell, he barely said one word the whole game.  But he would run right over two or three guys at a time.  True, he may have gained no yards but the next time a running back came towards that guy he was thinking "God, I hope I don't get leveled again".  That's swagger.  To know you are gonna run over someone and if not well at least you did everything you could that play to run over them.  Then just get up and go back to the huddle to do it again.

[oldNorse]

   
Good debate guys on the value of post season play.  Makes the board interesting.

One more thought about playoffs.  Luther softball had to get so many games in region and out of region in order to qualify for the playoffs......so they went to a Wisconsin school and played in the rain just for qualification.  Seems an unnecessary expense for the college.  I expect there are other qwerks like that in other sports.  Of course they could have decided not to try to qualify but if a coaches job is to win as much as possible no coach is going to not play.

Don't kid me.......IIAC schools do schedule patsies just to pad the wins.   

[doolittledog]

I also think a lot of what WH has said is true as far as attitude.  Be it on the field or in the office, you have to have a belief that you are the best if you want to succeed.  Last years senior class at Dubuque didn't care that the Spartans had won 12 conference games between 1990 - 2005.  They believed they were a good group of football players and went out and won 10 conference games over their last two years.  They didn't win a conference championship, but I think they would consider themselves a success.  You bet they wanted to win that conference championship though.  If WH goes out and gets 50 new clients this year and makes X amount more money than the year before, he was a success.  He wouldn't be a failure if someone else in his company got 51 more clients and made 1 more dollar than he had.  

[LCNorse]

I'm away from the comp for a couple hours and look what I stirred up...haha

All I was trying to say is that I think it is very unfair to think only one team can have a successful year. I'm all for giving the winner the credit they deserve and by no means do I think that winning isn't important. You wouldn't be around sports for very long if that were they case. I just don't think that it is very fair to say that you cannot have a successful year unless you win a championship. If that were the case then once your eliminated from being able to win then what kind of drive would players have?

Very much enjoyed this little debate we have going on...need to do this more often!

[Fannosaurus Rex]

I also think a lot of what WH has said is true as far as attitude.  Be it on the field or in the office, you have to have a belief that you are the best if you want to succeed.  Last years senior class at Dubuque didn't care that the Spartans had won 12 conference games between 1990 - 2005.  They believed they were a good group of football players and went out and won 10 conference games over their last two years.  They didn't win a conference championship, but I think they would consider themselves a success.  You bet they wanted to win that conference championship though. If WH goes out and gets 50 new clients this year and makes X amount more money than the year before, he was a success.  He wouldn't be a failure if someone else in his company got 51 more clients and made 1 more dollar than he had.  

What if he tried to get 60 new clients?  I wouldn't call him a failure if he learned from the 10 he missed and used his new knowledge and kept trying.  But again, I don't know his business.

[doolittledog]

I also think a lot of what WH has said is true as far as attitude.  Be it on the field or in the office, you have to have a belief that you are the best if you want to succeed.  Last years senior class at Dubuque didn't care that the Spartans had won 12 conference games between 1990 - 2005.  They believed they were a good group of football players and went out and won 10 conference games over their last two years.  They didn't win a conference championship, but I think they would consider themselves a success.  You bet they wanted to win that conference championship though. If WH goes out and gets 50 new clients this year and makes X amount more money than the year before, he was a success.  He wouldn't be a failure if someone else in his company got 51 more clients and made 1 more dollar than he had.  

What if he tried to get 60 new clients?  I wouldn't call him a failure if he learned from the 10 he missed and used his new knowledge and kept trying.  But again, I don't know his business.

Well then darn tootin he would be a big failure   We could use all kinds of analogies here.  Each I suppose could be right. 

Ok, back to football.  Who wins the IIAC this year and what will their conference record be???  What will be their playoff seed???

[warthog]

Iowa resident/Wartburg Fans:

The WARTBURG license plates are now available from the Iowa DOT.  

I want to get mine ordered.

I know this is dangerous, but I'll ask the board for some help.  I don't think I want to use WARTHOG.  That might identify me too much.  According to the DOT application I can have 2 to 7 characters (letters, numbers, spaces).  I can't use profanity or sexual content.  

Please help me out.

[BB]

I would bet each team starts the year out with numerous goals...one of them being to win a championship (conf, state, national, etc).   Obviously, those goals are more realistic for some teams compared to others.    Success is in the eye of the beholder.   Central finishes 5-5, the season is disappointing...Cornell finishes 5-5 and they will be dancing in the streets of Mt. Vernon.