How To Handle Your Team’s National Championship Hopes

Harrison Lee8 years ago

I would like to preface this with the fact that I was fully prepared to write this column with a “there’s always next year” theme. My mind was ready to come with the excuses like “we’re such a young team,” and “one more recruiting class with his guys and we’ll be flying.” While still cautiously optimistic about the team, I was expecting to sympathize with the OU and LSU fans. But then something astonishing happened — we won, and now I’m convinced we are title contenders. No, despite being around a bunch of Longhorn fans, I am not talking about the fighting Matthew McConaugheys. I am talking about the real best team in Texas: The SMU Mustangs.

Being a title contender comes with some perks and some pressure, so you’ve got to be well-prepared mentally to handle the expectations.

Stay Humble/Act Like You’ve Been There Before

Maybe this is your first time having a chance at a title in a while (ahem, Houston), maybe this is what you’re used to, Bama fans. Whether you are new or old, you got to keep an even head on your shoulders. Stay humble. By this, I mean that you should be constantly talking shit to other teams’ fans, but on Twitter, the home of civility. When you beat a team, make sure they know it. Let them know your running back spent a Saturday afternoon teabagging the ever-living shit outta their defense. Act like you’ve been there.

Take Things One Game At A Time

Matthew McConaughey told the Texas football team last week before Notre Dame that you can only play one game at a time. Can’t go all the way to the end of the season. You hear it all the time with head coaches, too. Take things one game at a time. As a fan, you should too. Whip out the schedule and a pen, and start going through the rest of the schedule one game at a time.

Those three wins against top 25 teams are going to be hard to overlook, in my opinion.

Trust The Coaches

The coaches are paid the big bucks because they know what they’re doing. So when your offensivee coordinator goes 1-yard run, 2-yard screen pass, and a 3rd and 9 draw play that goes for 1 yard, just trust the process. That process should go something like this:

1) Yell as loud as possible at the TV (or the sideline, if you’re at the game) that the OC is an incompetent baboon who couldn’t cut it in a pee-wee league. Really lay into his sorry ass.
2) Send school tape of your NCAA Football accomplishments as a résumé.
3) Bring the team back to the promise land.

Just remember, Brandon Harris is in the game for a reason. And that reason is so you can relentlessly remind him how shitty his play is.

Start Looking Towards Next Season

Now that you’ve already started sizing your ring finger for this season, you can sit back and relax the rest of the way. It’s one week in and you’re undefeated; your team has basically wrapped up the championship this year. You can start looking towards extending that dynasty to next season. What blue chip recruits will you be taking in? What’s the schedule going to look like? All of that. Soak it in, champ.

Unless you’re me, who will get to watch SMU’s hopes come crashing down after an 80-10 loss in Waco..

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