How To Cope When Your Team’s National Championship Dreams Die

Harrison Lee8 years ago

Well, here we are folks. We are entering week 3 and your dreams of crashing the College Football Playoff are officially gone. This here is for the Cals, the TCUs, the Oklahoma States, the UCFs, and the fighting Ponies of SMU. Sure, TCU and OSU might be on the fence, but they need a lot of help to get there. For all intents and purposes, they are holding on as much hope as SMU would have had if they had gone undefeated.

Playing for basically nothing but pride and a bowl game sucks, so you’ve got to be well prepared mentally (and have a stocked fridge of beer) to handle the depression, as well as master these coping tactics.

Remind Yourself This Team Is Still Young

Coach still needs to get his guys. It doesn’t matter if your coach has been there for many years and already has his guys; he still needs to find his better guys and mold them. A true championship isn’t built in one year. This isn’t Alabama, after all. Gotta get these kids in the system for at least two years before we can see some real progress. Giving these kids a full year in the weight room and some reps in games as freshmen will lead to a preseason ranking in the top 25 next year.

Play For A New Year’s Six Bowl

So you can’t win the whole damn thing. So what? Why not at least play in a meaningful bowl game instead? This likely means you’re going to have to win out the rest of your schedule. So just as if you were still in the running, you’re going to want to take things one game at a time.

A 12-1 SMU team is an easy choice for the Cotton Bowl, in my opinion.

Put Out An Ad For A New Coaching Staff

Does this totally contradict point number one and number two? Yes, but logic and reasoning are not meant for college football when your team is already out of it. Do you know what this does? It lights a fire under the coach and the team and encourages them to play well. Case in point: LSU and Les Miles last year. When he and the team knew his job was on the line, they went out and finished the season with a win at A&M and then ran all over Tech in their bowl game. It’s a win-win situation, really. You either find yourself a new coaching staff who can come in and ignite the fanbase like Sterlin Gilbert, or you can keep the staff like LSU and it’ll definitely work out for next year, as always.

Start Looking Towards Next Season

Recruiting is a year-round event for us cellar-dwellers. Honestly, I’m shocked this isn’t an advantage for schools. Instead of focusing on winning, we can focus on recruiting and be the girlfriend who shows way too much attention to someone who will eventually spurn them for someone prettier than us. I guess commitment really is dead. The road to getting your sanity back and getting out of depression starts now. Put a sign above your door like Notre Dame, except have this one remind you “There is always next season.”

Yes, I am delusional in believing that SMU will ever be good again. But someone has to do it..

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