It starts with the interns

Nice note out of Indiana where Hoosiers coach Tom Crean not only had team manager Mike Santa suit up last night for IU's game against Northwestern (wearing jersey number "1"), but got him some playing time near the end of the game.

According to Coach Crean, the 5-foot-9 Santa (on the left) earned the right to play.

“I didn’t do this as a reward. It is a special deal to be a manager here. Those guys come out here and they work. [The managers] bring a great deal of competitiveness and energy to our practices. Those guys, they come in and they make it more competitive for our guys. We’ve got to have real competition – well, those guys try to help provide that.”

It raises an important point about getting good people in place at every level of a team -- not just players and coaches -- but equipment managers, video coordinators, administrative assistants, and -- as Ron Shapiro discusses in his book -- interns.

Shapiro, a well-known agent-attorney and author of the book "Dare to Prepare," is the father of Mark Shapiro, GM of the Cleveland Indians. In his book, Ron writes that "Mark spends almost as much energy and focus on hiring his interns as he does on signing up his draft picks."

"That's one of the most important details in my business, believe it or not," Mark said. "It starts with the interns. Every single time we hire at that level we are looking for an impact person. As a culture, we obsess about our entry-level hires. We do rigid interviews, thorough checks on references and background, test analytic thinking. And we look to create a track for succession and promotion."

Putting down expectations and theories on paper

When it comes to hitting, the SF Giants wrote the book. Literally.

During the offseason, hitting coach Carney Lansford (center with Bruce Bochy at left), working with the team's minor league hitting coaches, developed a 16-chapter "hitting manual" designed to "spell out their expectations for coaches, detail their core theories and make sure knowledge is spread consistently and evenly like black earth on a farm field."

The book, which is part of the franchise's overarching "Giants Way" program, is something many teams use, according to Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who says the book helps ensure consistency throughout the organization.

"It's not so much a specific way to hit as much as making sure we're all doing things the same way from top to bottom: that we're teaching the same things, using the same terminology and using the same drills on every level. It's OK for a coach to have different ideas. We just want to make sure we aren't confusing the player."

Adds Lansford, who played in more than 1,800 Major League games with some 7,100 at-bats in 15 seasons:

"Some of the biggest things we can do are the simplest. If you wait till they get to the big leagues, it's too late. We've got guys in the major leagues who don't know how to hit the ball to right field."

Setting a foundation for success

At the All-Star beak, the Blazers are 12 games over .500 with a 20-5 home record.

As this article describes, Portland GM Kevin Pritchard began setting the groundwork at the 2006 NBA draft when he "took out a red pen and wrote: 'We’re Back!!!' on a board in a hotel room."

Pritchard's background has prepared him well for his current role in Portland. He played four seasons at Kansas for Larry Brown and Roy Williams before playing four seasons in the NBA.

He coached at the college level and in the minor leagues, then scouted for the Spurs under GM R.C. Buford. He's also worked in player personnel and, in 2005, coached the Blazers on an interim basis. In 2007, he took over as POR's GM.

"I first wanted to change the culture, have both talent and good guys,” Pritchard said. "It’s all about team, putting individual awards and statistics last and put the team first. I can only control what I can control,” Pritchard said. "There are a lot of opinions out there. We focus on us. We try to do the best we can do, learn from everything that happens and move forward. We have a very good coach and guys that play the right way. You have to get lucky and gel together. We need our young guys to grow. And they are growing."

New pace marks culture change

SI has an insightful article this week about new Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, who put together a strong staff in Knoxville, including his 68-year-old father Monte Kiffin, who was "widely considered the best defensive coordinator in the NFL" with the Bucs.

[Monte took a pay cut to join his son on the Vols staff, saying, "I didn't want to get paid too much. I just want to be a ball coach with my kid. I would've come even if the money hadn't been there."]

Coach Kiffin is working hard to put his stamp on the Tennessee program, ensuring there's a new sense of urgency among the Vols staff and players after 17 seasons under Phil Fulmer. In addition to a new coaching staff, a number of support staffers have moved on since he was hired, unable to keep pace with the new coach.

"You can't count the number of people we've run off because they couldn't keep up, and I'm including secretaries," he says. "They had to go because they weren't going to make it, and they knew it."

Because his family's not yet moved from Northern California to Knoxville, Coach Kiffin is sharing a house near the Tennessee campus with several assistant coaches. In his words, this allows him to "coach the coaches not only on a daily basis but on a nightly basis."

"I don't have to be their buddy," Kiffin says of his housemates. "I don't have time to watch some TV show with them. We have way too much to do. We're too far behind. I'm not worrying about three or four years from now. I want to win now. Wednesdays and Sundays are the same day of the week as far as I'm concerned. We're at work at 5:30 in the morning, and we don't finish until 10:30 at night. Any other way and we'd be average, and we're not here to be average."

Coach Kiffin has also instituted new rules for class attendance, requiring that his players "sit in the first or second row at every class. If a player sits in even the third row, he's marked as absent and faces time on the StairMaster as punishment."

"I was in my 8 a.m. math class the second day we came back," says All-America safety Eric Berry. "I'm the only player in there. Afterward my classmates start coming up to me. 'Dude, did you see Kiffin?' He'd come to the rear door and poked his head in to make sure I was there. Before, the coaches would send the weight-room guys or graduate assistants to check. But this was the head coach."

The role of a team's spiritual leader

Thanks to Ken for pointing me toward the Washington Post's section called "On Leadership."

There's a terrific opinion piece there from former Eagles, Rams, and Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil, who writes about "Strength in Faith."

~~~~~~~~~~

There is definitely a place for religion in football as there is a place for it in all parts of life. It is a deep part of all locker rooms. Every team I've been involved with has had a spiritual leader. They have no particular responsibilities, but rather act to bring players together.

To anyone who would say there is "too much" religion in football I would have to ask: how could there be too much of something that improves the chemistry and attitude of a team whether that be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual? It is completely voluntary and really brings teammates together, sharing beliefs, thoughts, messages.

In my decades of coaching, I never recognized a problem with it. In most aspects of life, spirituality helps bring people together, that's our culture. Sometimes on a team different religions become one faith, they become a belief in each other, a belief in the team and strength grows out of that.

Once you start winning, you don't want to go back

In the week leading up to yesterday's Super Bowl, the Phoenix paper had a story about how, in two years, Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt took a team with "a legacy of losing perhaps un- rivaled by any team in sports" to the NFL's championship game.

In the simplest terms, Whisenhunt was trying to change the Cardinals from a team that lost more than it should to one that won as much as it could.

In short, he had to re-work the team's culture.

In a business, or on a football team, he said it boils down to one thing: "Getting people who are talented to work together as a team." But talking about it is easy. Actually doing it is difficult.

Says Coach Whisenhunt: "I think a lot of people want to say culture change. It's really about getting people to believe. Raise the expectations. Be prepared to work. It has to be everything. Practices, off-season workouts, preparation, accountability. It's got to be every day."

According to one management expert, "there was another important factor that led the team to change under Whisenhunt's leadership."

In his words, "Don't laugh when I say this. Winning culture depends a lot on winning" because it makes people willing to work even harder.

"A team gets into a rhythm of winning," the expert said. "It shows that effort leads to reward."

Another important note is that all of Arizona's coaches are on the same page.

Special-teams player Sean Morey, a 10-year veteran in the league, says the coaches are always on the players about how to do things. "They are consistent in holding players accountable," Morey said in the locker room. "Watching tape, sometimes you have this voice, you can hear it in your head, when things go wrong, saying: 'It's not OK. It's not OK.' "

Says Arizona offensive lineman Reggie Wells, who has played for three head coaches in his career with the team, "Whisenhunt's vision just sounded a little bit different."

"You can tell they believe it," Wells said. "They are sincere in how they think we should approach the game. It's not just words. Winning is habitual, just like losing. But once you start winning, you don't want to go back."

One team's brotherhood

There's an old saying:

"To lead people, walk beside them."

That's a good description of how 76-year-old Steelers owner and Hall of Fame member Dan Rooney leads.

After all, as described in this NY Times article, how many owners of a professional team...

-- Walks to his team's home games, including passing under a highway overpass?

-- Flies on the team charter, where he sits on the non-reclining row next to the bathroom?

-- Eats lunch in the team cafeteria with Steelers employees and players?

-- Invites players into his office to nap on the sofa?

-- Lives in a modest house across the street from an abandoned lot and a Wendy's fast-food restaurant?

“Some owners treat you like a rental property,” said defensive end Nick Eason, who has played in Denver and in Cleveland . “They have some maintenance guy to take care of it, they just come by to check on it, they look and they leave. Mr. Rooney comes around, he always sticks his hand out to you. ‘Hey, Nick’— and I’m like, he knows my name?”

Nose tackle Casey Hampton said: “A lot of owners, this is a hobby, but for him, this is his business, what he does. He’s here, shakes your hand, talks to you every day. Every day.”

According to this article, "strong safety Troy Polamalu said he treats all the players as his equal, “from Hines Ward to a free-agent rookie."

The Steelers family encompasses not only the current team but past players as well. “You come back, and you’re still a part of here,” Ward said. “We know the history of the team. Not only do we represent ourselves but all the players who wore the black and gold before us.”

The former linebacker Andy Russell, who played for the Steelers for 13 years, said: “Here I’ve been out of the game over 30 years, and they jump up and come over and shake my hand and tell me how pleased they are to see me. You know, I’m thrilled to see them. It’s a brotherhood.”

Mr. Rooney takes no credit for the "brotherhood," saying that the team's culture has been cultivated over a number of years.

"It started with my father," he said. "He gave me the values. He treated players, coaches, general staff as people. He was concerned about them."

This author contends that the "culture now permeates the entire organization — a sort of ego-free zone in which players and coaches can occasionally seem as if they’re competing for a Nobel prize in humility."

"We don’t care who gets the credit, and all we want to do is win. It’s very important that a team come together, that they develop respect for each other — you can call it love."

Turning a routine practice session into a team-building exercise

Loved this story in today's Washington Post about how the Caps took "a welcome break from the 82-game regular season grind" by splitting the players into two teams for a full scrimmage on the outdoor rink at a Maryland country club.

The "hotly contested intrasquad, three-on-three scrimmage" brought back memories for a lot of the players who grew up playing on "frozen lakes and ponds."

"It was awesome," Brooks Laich said. "If you looked at the guy's faces, every time someone made a play or a goal was scored, guys were hooting and hollering."

According to the Post article, "the idea to scrimmage rather than run through drills was hatched by Coach Bruce Boudreau, who also served as the linesman and referee. Boudreau has a long history of spicing up otherwise routine practice sessions and turning them into team-building exercises."

Last night's scrimmage, which consisted of two 15-minute periods, was another Boudreau special. [The team's goalies] "drafted" their teams after Wednesday's practice, and by the time the 30 minutes were over, the players were doubled over in laughter as they argued over the final score.

At one point during the scrimmage, Coach Boudreau "halted the scrimmage, called the players over to the bench and implored them to lighten up."

Said one player: "It was a nice break from the strenuous practicing and the businesslike atmosphere. Tonight we had a lot of fun."

An appreciation for preparation and persuasion

Mark Johnson's name might be familiar.

In 1980, he scored twice in Team USA's historic win over the Soviets at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid (aka the "Miracle on Ice"). He went on to play 11 seasons in the NHL, retiring in 1990.

Since his playing career ended, he's been coaching women's hockey at the University of Wisconsin, winning back to back national titles in 2006 and 2007.

Earlier this week, he was named head coach of the U.S. Women's Hockey Team.

At the press conference earlier this week announcing him as head coach of the U.S. women's hockey team, he talked about what he learned from two of his former coaches: His father, the late "Badger" Bob Johnson, who won three NCAA championships at Wisconsin and an NHL Stanley Cup with the Pens, and Hall of Famer Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.

"What I saw first-hand [with my father] was that ability to create a culture, where you give your players the best opportunity, your teams the best opportunity to be successful, and how you create that culture to me is so vital," he said. "[My dad's] enthusiasm was always there, his love for going to the rink to try and work with players and improve them on and off the ice was always there. When you're around that as long as I was, you're going to take a lot of that into your coaching philosophy."

From the late Coach Brooks, "Johnson said he had gained an appreciation for preparation and persuasion."

"He really took us out of our comfort zone and trained us like no other coach had trained us," Johnson said. "At first, there was resistance. Nobody could understand it. If you've seen the movie 'Miracle,' it actually made him out to be a pretty nice guy.

Our toughest practice probably of the season as a group was the day after we beat the Russians. We came to the rink on Saturday, and we were strutting. We thought we were a pretty good group and feeling our oats. We thought we had the gold medal in the back of our pockets. But he caught our attention right when we stepped on the ice and we had one of our most challenging practices.

He knew the opportunity that was going to be presented the next day, and he didn't want us to screw it up. As he mentioned, you screw that last game up against Finland, you'll take it to your graves."

Changing a team's culture by changing its core

Enjoyed this story from the Phoenix paper that describes how "changing the Cardinals' losing culture took more than just changing perceptions and attitudes on the team. It meant having to change the team itself, starting with the roster."

Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt and GM Rod Graves (far right with Whisenhunt and owner Bill Bidwill) identified "specific players to provide solid depth, leadership, and create competition on what had been a complacent team for far too long."

"That's what winning coaches understand, that you need to get some guys who are winners, who are good leaders, who you can bring to a team like glue and make it stick together," said Cardinals cornerback Ralph Brown, who signed with the team last season as a free agent.

Says Coach Whisenhunt: "Whenever you come into a team you're going to make changes and you want to get players that you feel are going to help develop the chemistry, especially ones that have the experience and have been there before."

"I've seen guys come and go. I've seen guys get paid and I've seen guys not get paid," said middle linebacker Gerald Hayes. "But this coaching staff came in here and turned things around. The most important thing is they got guys in here that wanted to win."

Never satisfied, but not demeaning

Before the season began, critics thought Cal's public address announcer Eddy Kleinhans was crazy when he picked the Bears to get into the NCAA tournament.

But after watching Mike Montgomery's team in preseason practices, he sensed something was different.

"To a man, every player I talked to said they were learning so much in workouts," Kleinhans said. "It was obvious that Montgomery was wholly changing the culture of the team."

Cal has won 15 of its first 17 games (including nine straight) -- its best start in nearly 50 years.

According to this article, "Montgomery has been able to walk a tightrope between giving the players confidence in their abilities while demanding even more. He gives them freedom to make decisions, and teaches when they make the wrong ones. He is never satisfied, but not demeaning."

Said Kris Weems, who played for Coach Montgomery at Stanford in the '90s:

"We always felt we were the most prepared team in the country, because we always knew what the other team was going to do. He'll get the most out of his role players, because he can push the right buttons on those guys. The players never have questions about what they are supposed to do, and he knows how to get players to feel good about their role."

One NBA scout contends that Monty's "attention to detail is beyond measure."

Said another scout: "You can see Montgomery learned from his time in the NBA that you have to let players play the way they play. He's a bright guy, so I'm not surprised he could adapt his game. But I am surprised that they're this good."

I've had a chance to get to two Cal games this season. They've really benefited from Coach Montgomery's teaching and coaching style.

A signed commitment to core beliefs

At Virginia Tech this week, coach Seth Greenberg had his players sign a contract asking "his players to commit to his 'core beliefs.'"

According to this article, "the move came in the wake of Sunday's 69-44 loss at Duke -- a defeat in which the Hokies mustered just 13 second-half points. Tech forward Jeff Allen has said that Duke played harder than the Hokies in the second half, and that his team 'gave up.'"

Greenberg said Thursday he didn't like the team's "competitive spirit" in the second half at Duke. He said the contract reminds the players "of the essence of the culture of the program" and makes sure they don't "compromise" that culture. Players said this year's version of the contract covers everything from playing hard and playing up to one's potential in games to not talking back to coaches in practice to not using cellphones during team dinners.

In Coach Greenberg's words, "I've done a contract almost every single year I've been here at different times. I'm taking measures to help us get better."

Says one player: "It's just stuff on and off the court, the stuff that we [were] kind of letting go, and it was kind of affecting the team. [Coach Greenberg] won't tolerate some of the small stuff he was tolerating. A lot of the contract is ... [about] effort in practice."

Putting a priority on winning

Since Chauncey Billups joined DEN in a trade back in November, the Nuggets have won 24 of 33.

According to DEN coach George Karl, the addition of the 12-year veteran, who has played in three NBA Finals, had an immediate impact on how the team approached the season:

"In a strange way, I think Chauncey has defined winning with this team as being the only reason why we play the game. In the past couple of years, it seems like we've won games, but that wasn't the only reason we played. His no-nonsense priority is that we're here to compete, we're here to win, we're here to represent the organization, we're here to represent the city of Denver and do it in a first-class way."

Golfing less, working more

Loved Sam Smith's article on Bulls.com about the Miami Heat's culture, one that really reflects the personality and values of Pat Riley.

According to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, "Pat created a culture with the Miami Heat. He works everybody hard and is a student of the game. It's not uncommon if you get to the office at 6:30 you might be the sixth or seventh person there."

In his article, Smith tells a story about how when Pat Riley is considering hiring someone, "he first checks the trunk of the applicant's car. If there are golf clubs in there, they're not hired. With Riley it's about work."

Smith writes that "when things go wrong [in Miami], Heat owner Mickey Arison doesn't begin looking for successors."

"I won 15 games," noted Riley. "There never was anything written I'd be fired. You take the good with the bad with a franchise and stay with it until you get back on track. In the league now, there's a chasm (too often) between the coach and GM. You have to be tied in some way. I feel it's important that me and Erik are almost one person.

One thing that stands out in all the years was [Erik's] someone you converse with about what you've done, who to trade, someone who has a lot of thoughts and not your typical thinking. He's someone who respectfully disagrees but after that we can unite on a situation.

He's one of those guys who apply their trade and don't look for recognition early, just work and learn. He wanted to learn before being recognized. You teach them and they take some of the culture and learn from a lot of people. I thought he was a guy ready a couple of years ago. You watch them grow, groom them to take your spot and that's the position I'm in."

Establishing a culture of work

Saw the Spurs beat PHX just now, despite being down by five heading into the fourth quarter. Roger Mason hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win it. [Here's a recap of what was a great game.]

According to GMs from around the league, the Spurs' ability to find ways to win is a credit to the team's culture, which is driven is large part by head coach Gregg Popovich:

"Their system has proven to be the best in the business," Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard said. "They have such a strong culture and belief system. That means everything. They do a great job of communicating, from staff to Pop to (GM) R.C. (Buford), what they are about. There are processes in place. They make sure they are very thorough with everything."

Says Suns GM Steve Kerr:

"There is a culture of work, like, 'Nobody owes us anything.' Pop sustains it because he demands it, but also because he's such a great guy. The familiarity over the years is really important. Pop has done a great job of creating the culture. He did that in the first year, and it almost runs itself."

As this article puts it: "Popovich plugs well-identified parts into a precise system and imparts his pound-the-rock motto."

These Jacob Riis words are posted by a locker room door: "When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at this rock perhaps 100 times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow, it will split in two and I know it was not that blow that did it. But all that had gone before."

It comes down to chemistry and heart

There's a consistent theme in articles about NY Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni: Fun.

It's a word you don't hear enough these days.

According to Raja Bell, who played for Coach D in PHX, his former coach's influence extends beyond the basketball floor:

"The work environment he creates has a real family-type feel. With him basketball is fun, and he really helps you believe in yourself."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who played for the Knicks from 1967-78, says he's hearing good things about what Coach D'Antoni is creating in NYC:

"The friends that I have that are still alive (in New York) that haven't passed away from old age are really saying, 'This is kinda fun to watch.' They play freely and they have a certain sense of teamwork. They are sharing the basketball. They like what they're seeing."

Says Knicks PG Chris Duhon: ''We play a fun system. It's very exciting basketball to watch and to play.''

As for Coach D'Antoni, he puts it in perspective.

"This is basketball. This is fun. It comes down to guys having chemistry and heart, and things will come together. I think that the best way to get things out of players is trusting them and their instincts. It doesn’t come down to X’s and O’s or something you can put down on paper. It comes down to heart and brains. To me it’s all focus. You can do it if you have the will to do it."

When transforming the defensive system, sometimes you take one step forward and two back

John Schuhmann has a good story today over on NBA.com about MIL's progress on the defensive end under new Bucks coach Scott Skiles.

Of course, getting a team to break old habits requires "a culture change," in Michael Redd's words, who acknowledges that it was necessary. "We had to get better at that end in order to compete."

As Coach Skiles puts it, "It's not going to happen for us overnight."

The good news is, the new staff's emphasis on defense is starting to pay off. According to the article, "Milwaukee ranks 13th in the league this season defensively, allowing 107.3 points per 100 possessions. Only Cleveland has improved more."

"We've been an excellent defensive team in our practices. We know what we're supposed to be doing. It hasn't always translated [to games], but we are becoming more consistent on that end of the floor. When you're trying to transform the attitude and the defensive system," Skiles said, "sometimes you take one step forward and two steps back. And then all of a sudden you take two steps forward and one step back. And then eventually, you get it all ironed out."

When you create something, it's a lot more positive

Good story this week in the Northwestern University paper about former Wildcats coach Gary Barnett, who coached there from 1991-98, going 10-2 in 1995 and 9-3 in 1996.

When Coach Barnett took over the program, Northwestern hadn't had a winning season in more than 20 years.

Five years later, "on Jan. 1, 1996, Gary Barnett walked onto the Rose Bowl field as the miracle worker who had turned Northwestern from a laughingstock into one of the best teams in the nation."

Coach Barnett's message to his team was simple: "Expect victory." His strategy was to start from scratch:

"We just tried to create something," he said. "When you create something, it's a lot more positive. ... Creating is putting everything together that you have and drawing the best from everything and making something new out of it."

According to Pat Fitzgerald (pictured above with Coach Barnett in Dec. 1996), Northwestern's current coach and a former LB who played for Coach Barnett, "It was all attitude. Expect victory. Expect to win. Work to win. Never sacrifice what you believe in to win. ... There was a clear-cut vision of what we wanted to accomplish, how we wanted to go about it."

After going 5-19 in Big Ten play during Coach Barnett's first three seasons at Northwestern, the Wildcats turned the corner in 1995. The following is an excerpt from this article:

It all started in South Bend, Ind., as the Wildcats took on No. 9 Notre Dame in the season-opener. The day before the game, Barnett took his players onto the field for a workout and showed them it was 100 yards long and 53 yards wide, just like their own, and that there were no ghosts reaching up from the turf to trip them.

When one of his players handed him a penny he had found on the ground, Barnett had all of the inspiration he needed for one of his famous motivational schemes.

As he detailed in his book, "High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena," Barnett brought out a scale at a team meeting the morning of the game and plopped 19 pennies on each side, representing the 19 practices each team had gone through.

But then he reminded his players of the extra practice they had completed on a Sunday morning before leaving for summer training in Kenosha, Wis.

He took the penny lifted from the field the day before and added it to Northwestern's side of the scale, tipping it in the Wildcats' direction.

The message was clear: The Wildcats could bring down the mighty Fighting Irish.

And they did, earning a 17-15 victory that shocked the nation and became what Barnett called a "watershed" game for the program.

That game, said Coach Barnett, "dictated the change in direction, the creation of a new sort of Northwestern. That was the single best indicator of that. The agent of change was that Notre Dame game."

It's about getting the right fit, getting the right players

When asked recently whether he'll coach again, Ty Willingham replied candidly, "Something could be out there for me and something could not."

Coach Willingham, fired as coach at the University of Washington in late October, was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year twice during his time at Stanford, where the school's former AD called the match between the university and Coach Willingham as a "perfect fit."

Todd Husak, who played for Coach Willingham at Stanford "said he believes that... Washington was a bad match from the start."

At Notre Dame, Coach Willigham went 21-15 and played in two bowl games in three seasons. In comparison, current ND coach Charlie Weis is 28-21 in four seasons, though just 9-15 the last two seasons since replacing Willingham.

Tara VanDerveer, the women's hoops coach at Stanford and a friend of Coach Willingham, agreed with Husak about finding a good match.

"I think it's about getting the right fit, getting the right players, being at a place that appreciates what you do. It is all about fit."

According to Roy Lewis, who played for Coach Willingham at Washington (and is now on the Steelers' practice squad), says that, for some reason, the coach's message wasn't getting through.

"I don't think he got across to enough players, and sometimes that could lead to a lot of different opinions as far as players are concerned. The whole thing when you're coaching a team is to make sure everybody is buying into what's going on, and if you don't have guys buying in, that definitely makes the job tough. It doesn't matter how great of a coach you are, if you don't have guys who want to believe and buy in to a program, then ultimately the program won't do so well."

A coach's opportunity for fellowship with his players

Every year, games and practices keep a lot of college athletes around the country from spending Thanksgiving with their families.

But University of Georgia assistant Rodney Garner uses the holiday as a platform for team-building, inviting UGA players over to his house for Thanksgiving dinner.

“I do it so they can have a home-cooked meal and be in a home environment,” said Garner, Georgia’s defensive line coach.

Last year, about 60 players came over to Coach Garner's home for "turkey,ham, sweet potatoes, macaroni-and-cheese, black-eyed peas, greens, dressing, cakes and pies."

According to this article, "Garner started his Thanksgiving tradition when coaching at Auburn in the early 1990s, continued it at Tennessee and brought it with him to Georgia a decade ago."

Says Coach Garner:

“It’s fun fellowship. Even though the economy is like it is, we still have so much to be thankful for. [It’s] an opportunity to fellowship with the guys in a positive manner . You know, sometimes I’m not the most positive guy. So they get a chance to see me in a different light. I hope they see that I do have a human side and I do care and I love them.”