Saturday Chatter: No Fear

Having a bye week always feels like the party is going on without you. Saturday seems so pointless. However, I did catch an interesting strategy to get the Jayhawks motivated over at KUsports.com. Bill Mayer proposed that Mark Mangino use fear to motivate the Jayhawks for the "big bad" conference schedule. A few excerpts:

In looking over the final eight games, I think Mangino would be wise to use the element of terror, abject, gnawing fear of failure, to motivate his charges from here on. 

Nebraska, Texas and Missouri to wind up the regular season. KU might be 1-2 at best there. Three major menaces. Tell your guys to be afraid, Mark, real afraid.

The one thing I'm sure of is that the team knows the schedule inside and out. Sitting around and worrying about playing mighty Oklahoma isn't really the best way to get ready for the most important game of the year -- a road date with Iowa State. Also known as the next game.

Did Oregon State look like they were afraid of USC? They should have been but it doesn't work that way. To paraphrase what the KU players were saying last year -- we're all college football players, lifting weights, training, practicing. Everybody wants to get better. The edge is stepping on the field and knowing that you're going to win.

The fear-based tactic -- that's old-school KU thinking ("can't go to back-to-back bowls, good year last year has to be followed by bad season, we're just a basketball school"). The 7-5 fan/media attitude needs to go away. Look around, it's 2008. We sold out for Sam Houston State. We can absolutely beat anyone on our schedule. It's really a matter of how many good wins can we string together. It starts with Iowa State and getting to 4-1. That's really all we need to talk about at this point.

Comments

[HawksCan]

Observations from the sold-out SHS game seem to indicate that we (the fans, band, cheeleaders) are the ones that are afraid. It seems like we're all collectively holding our breath waiting for the collapse. We need to get over that quick. For a sold-out game, the environment at MS during the SHS game was lethargic and uninteresting. Who do we talk to about making some changes to the game day experience? Even our fight song seemed slow and laborious - lets pick up the tempo - put some energy into it. How many times during the game does the band play a drum beat or song that only they get into? Aren't they supposed to be feeding the crowd? How many times did I see the cheerleaders just standing around talking to each other? And can we not get a recording of the 'wave the wheat song' to play when we score a touchdown just before the half when the band is unable to play? That fight song recording from the 70's that they play really needs to go. Its beat is so tiresome I don't think you could even slow dance to it. And please, lets get some new 'pump up' songs to play during kick-offs. The current choices are played in every stadium in the world - lets be different. And us...the fans. We need to really step it up and get into these games. Students - you need to stay. For the most part, you are great, but really, at times even the family zone is more into the game than you are. And when you look up and see 3/4 of you gone by the end of the third quarter? Look at what the crowd does for the team in AFS - they truly act as a extra player - and do you not mock people at AFS for leaving early - hello? It seems we really need a 12th man to help fill in the gaps on the team. Didn't you notice how the Oregon State crowd got into it from the very start and never let up? It was more like a huge SEC venue in there. I'm afraid our collective lethargy and fears are translating onto the field. We in the stands should be stepping it up as much as the team. The wine and cheese days of sitting and watching are over - lets get up, shake off the crumbs and PARTICIPATE! All of us. Go Hawks...Go Hawk fans. We have nothing to be afraid of.

[DJ]

Very well said ... the atmosphere for big games at Memorial is loud and raucous, but if the fans don't respect the opponent -- they watch it like it's a tennis match. It's been so long since we've had a decent challenge at Memorial that I hope the fans still know how to be a factor.

The students do lead the charge and if they stayed for four quarters that would be awesome. Really, you've got your whole life to be drunk -- plus you never know what you might miss in the last part of the game (I know a lot of people missed Talib's 103 yard return last year vs FIU).

One thing I would suggest is the Family Zone should be re-named. Still make those tickets cheaper, but I would extend that zone to the first 10 rows around the entire stadium. Get the loudest fans up close to the field. The wine and cheese WEF folks will never be loud.