We didn’t set a goal to say we want to be No. 20 in the country

[Brad]

Some philosophy from the Skipper if you haven't already seen...

Excerpt:

“I said everybody’s getting giddy over the polls. This is not where we want to be. We didn’t set a goal to say we want to be No. 20 in the country,” Holtz said. “ I said all we’ve got to do is continue to take care of business and that’ll all take care of itself. We’re not going to talk about it every week, ride the emotional rollercoaster up and down. Let’s keep our nose to the grindstone. And when the dust clears at the end of the year, let’s see where we are.”

...

“I’m not undervaluing having the opportunity to be ranked. But for the football team and what it means to us on a daily basis, that’s not something we want to dwell on,” Holtz added. “We’re not going to ride that rollercoaster ... because then you start trying to play to protect something. You start playing to make sure we don’t lose our ranking rather than going out and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Link

[MechanicalBull]

Got to love this guy!

[CousinRicky]

Gotta love the guy.

However, better to be ranked than not.  When the coaches are out recruiting and be able to point to that ranking can't hurt.  Don't know how much they recruit now except for off weeks, but having their name up there with UF and FSU can't hurt. 

[DELdaBull]

Man is flat out a great speaker and motivator of men. I'm 30+ and when I listen to him, I want to sit there and grasp what he is trying to say, then I want to run through a wall for him.

This team so far has an air of business like, calculated, emotionless (even though the play WITH emotion) play that I am loving.

[Ricky the Bull]

He also mentioned the positives, such as being mentioned in just about every college football sports broadcast and having your name scroll at the bottom of the screen whenever this week's games are shown.  

He then went on to say what was quoted earlier in this thread.

I love the way he is keeping the team on an even keel.  This may have won us the marathon in South Bend.  As much as he discounts this from a team performance standpoint, I'm sure that between the Notre Dame win and our ranking, our program is getting us noticed by the more elite recruits and that is being leveraged strongly.

[USF_Grouper]

I do love this coach, but realistically what are the alternatives?  Have you ever heard a coach interviewed who said "oh yeah, at our Monday meeting we spend the first 20 minutes discussing the latest AP and Coaches poll, arguing why this guy or that guy put us beneath this team.  Generally throughout the season we asses our performance based on how far up or down the polls put us."

In other news, Coach Holtz takes the bold coaching stance of requesting his players get a good night sleep before each game.  Turns out, in his experience, that tends to improve performance.

[usfbullrider]

I'm with Skip, I wish people on this board and fans in general would stop talking about polls.  When we beat WVU then we should have a long thread about it.

[Fold FB Invest in BB]

If Skip can keep these guys focused on solely doing their jobs, then we will have a great season.

[MikeG]

people on a message board are going to talk about polls forever

in relation to threads about uniforms and helmets and some of the other nonsense we wade through-- this is almost a football discussion.

as long as our players aren't obsessed by it, no harm- no foul

[Bull94]

I love the way this guy tales. Always positive. Always upbeat. I dont like this approach however. I think he should use the ranking as motivation for every game. Winning the be is great but it does not keep them focused in the short term. I forget which coach said it but one of them didn't want the players to focus on the ranking but winning the be. The problem is you can lose a game and still win the be. After a loss the coach said it was o.k. We can still win the BE. Problem is you can never tell a team it's o.k. To lose. We went on to lose the next game or two.That makes them not focus on winning. I think he should use short term motivations, like protecting the ranking, in order to achieve long term goals. Winning the BE is a long term goal. Much like winning a game. You need short term goals, like winning a play or series, in order to obtain the long term goal of winning the game. Keep them focused in the short term and the long term goals take care of themselves. Staying focused on protecting the ranking will lead to winning the BE.