As we prepare for the full prospect forum, it’s time to discuss the last component to the package that we determined was under the entire umbrella known as character building. If you can develop this last piece of the puzzle to complete the picture it would be like having an insurance policy protecting you against complacency and mediocrity.  This is one of those issues that can affect your reputation AND your character if not given its proper attention.

What should be a given, is often the most difficult thing to perfect, even if your GPA looks more like the San Francisco Earthquake on the Richter Scale rather than a numerical reflection of your academic output.  I’m referring to the way in which you go about achieving your success in the classroom. I’m talking about the importance of not studying harder, but smarter. It’s not rocket science; maybe closer to pulling teeth, but not in requirement of being a Rhodes Scholar to perfect.

If you were taught by your mentors inside and outside the walls that it’s not WHAT you should know, but HOW you go about knowing it like myself, then you should have picked up on the concept that learning is endless; that methods of working at retaining the information require a ton of tweaking and even though they may keep your attention span, your habits won’t always guarantee you success.

There is the obvious importance of needing solid habits when studying, then there’s the ability to adjust them to fit the variable demands of your course load. This shouldn’t be too hard considering you were provided the opportunity to play at the next level because of your basic ability to adapt and improvise on the field. Some courses will need your undivided attention and will grind the crap out of you, while others will simply need you to make sure you show up and try not to over-think it.

Although both courses require work to be done, one of them is going to need you to prepare as if your were starting in the BCS Championship, while the other needs you to prepare for that JV team you’ve scheduled in Week 1 to get you some confidence.

If your ability to perform to the desired standards for yourself or the school and need to change up your approach then try breaking the cycle of insanity which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, (Kind of like LSU’s Offense vs. Alabama in the BCS Title Game) There are a lot of people that are so smart, that they’re actually dumb.

You know exactly the folks I’m talking about. They’re the same ones you MUST pair up with to study in Physics class, but wouldn’t ask them to bring you a number #4 from McDonald’s for fear they may never get it right. You don’t need them for McDonald’s though. You need them because they’re crushing the course that’s crushing you and you could use the opportunity to learn a different way, which in theory is what education is all about to me.

Just because your spread offense can produce 500 yards a game, it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to put that up against a team (or in this case subject matter) that won’t find a way to kick your butts back to where you came from. Everyone has subjects that did them in or know should have done better at in school, yet failed to do so because they didn’t realize that certain situations call for different approaches regardless of their skill-level.

What if you were an all “A” student in and feel like, “I got this!” once you get to campus? Welcome to Phase Two of your 8-yr business plan. Even though you have successfully survived the clearinghouse, the entrance exams, and registrations for your courses and so on you now have to get to work on a completely different level. For some of you that are enrolled in the IB Program, college may in fact be a hell of a lot easier than high school to be perfectly honest.

Here’s where it can get away from you and pretty much every human being (athlete or not) has experienced whether in college or on-the-job and that’s time management.  Just as important is the environment and conditions in which you are working, but the biggest issue is what to do with your time that ISN’T consumed by your job on campus and which is to play football. (I can make the case for it being a huge, if not bigger problem for the IB’s students too.)

If you think that your “free time” in college walking around campus as a player or even a starter that’s known on an area with a populations larger than most suburbs of Tampa, where exactly are you going to go to get uninterrupted time to work on your studies?

You think that RG3 and Andrew Luck were able to just walk up into the library or student union and start breaking down that literature piece their English 201 Professor hit them with? What’s the over/under on how many “distractions” even at their apartments with cell phones ringing and their faces plastered all over ESPN? You think you can let the tutor guide you for the most part? Why don’t you ask the folks at FSU how that worked out for them?

The point is that ultimately the need for sound discipline with your study habits is JUST as important as using that same discipline to be a film room junkie or gym rat. There shouldn’t be a single word lost in this translation as far as I am concerned. Why in the hell can you not show the SAME discipline for 3-4 years for your studies just as you would for your upcoming profession?! (By the way is only about 3-5 years if you’re an RB so…about that degree you’re working on.)

One last question; Do you think that new mixtape that Wayne or Jeezy put out is going to help you focus during your 25 page reading assignment for Western Civilization? Maybe if you were so completely A.D.D. that nothing short of aliens landing on your front lawn like Close Encounters of the Third Kind could keep you from meshing “No Ceilings” with the Mayans, but if you’re not I have some sad trombone music for you. IT doesn’t work. Although I’ve questioned them in the past, it’s hard to completely disagree with a clinical psychologists’ assessment of this approach and there’s some pretty sound research out there if you want to check it out.

You all have gifts. They’re not burdens. They’re gifts. Think of it that way. Your GPA in college (unless trying for Pre-Med, Pre-Law, and a few others) will not define who you are on paper. Your choice of playing football is going to build your reputation, but your academic performance will only be fuel for the flames of discontent if your character is in question.

These critics who could be standing right in front of you in the form of professors and other students can be INFINITELY more vindictive and annoying because they despise athletics. College campuses are very much like their own little cities in this way, especially if you’re on a campus of 20,000+ students. Some campuses are walking around with as many students as Plant City; the actual city, not the school. IT WILL BE a culture shock even if you’ve taken an official visit. It can be a distraction that you’ll never understand until you are actually living on campus and in the routine of class and football. YOUR plan to silence them in the classroom so that they can shut-up, go kick rocks and keep screaming for you on the football field (behind closed doors of course) is what will set you apart from the rest. Make it a good one.

 

Doug Pugh can be reached on Twitter @pughsviewsBCP or you can email pugh@bigcountypreps.com