“You saw the kind of energy we had coming in Monday. We weren’t all depressed, we weren’t sad about another loss. We came in knowing, ‘OK, we got a win. We know we can win.’ Now, with that kind of mentality … it’s nice. We’re going to continue that mentality of winning.”
Ah, the inexorable mentality of winning.
That’s what BYU linebacker Butch Pau’u underscored this week, after the Cougars stopped a seven-game losing skid, tasting victory for the first time since … since … whenever that last win was. Victory was a long time coming, and it felt to him and his teammates as though it were an even longer time.
The longest time.
Fifty miles north, Utah safety Chase Hansen could relate, after the Utes lost their fourth straight game on Saturday, after winning four straight.
“When you’re losing, it’s not fun,” he said. “You’ve got to find a way out there to enjoy it, to compete. … [You’ve] got to get it fixed.”
Although they are in different realms, for Utah and even more for BYU, the psychology of losing this season has been like a swinging two-by-four to the forehead, coming with more force than Pau’u’s winning mentality.
Dealing with the one makes actualizing the other that much more difficult, particularly in a game as demanding as football.
The effects of working as hard as coaches and players on both teams have and do and then to be rewarded with defeat’s devastation, are often lost in the heap of frustration surrounding the programs’ lack of success, buried deeper in the unmerciful sentence: There’s nothing left to play for.
For these guys, there has to be something for which to play, whether it’s a bowl game for the seniors — “That’s our entire focus now,” Kyle Whittingham said — or the self-respect that comes with improvement — “Getting better is what makes a winner a winner,” said BYU assistant head coach Ed Lamb.
At least, that’s the requirement this season, a season during which seven words have been all too present:
“Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”
That quote has been attributed to a number of people, but I first heard it spoken by an otherwise accomplished football coach in 1985 whose team bottomed out that year, dropping all but one of its games.
He was suffering the full effects when he said it. He said he felt sick for months. He said each loss was an emotional punch to the psyche. He said his mind and body ached. He said he’d rather slam his head in the door than experience another season like that one.
I believed him.
And when the Utes and Cougars speak now, you can feel their pain and their relief, their yearning for relief.
“We’re aware that we’re taking some steps in the right direction,” said BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum, after Saturday’s triumph over a bad San Jose State team. “Everyone’s in a good mood, everyone’s excited. We’ve been working hard, putting in a ton of work. It feels good to have that pay off a little bit, to see the fruits of our labor. It’s motivating.”
Said Whittingham, in the wake of Utah’s loss to Oregon: “Our guys played hard. We seem to be missing that edge. We’ve got to get that edge back. You need an edginess to you when you play. Even though we’re playing hard, we don’t seem to have that edge that can make the difference. I can’t really define it. … That little extra, mojo, swag, confidence, whatever. It just seems to be a little missing. … We have good leadership on this team. … Passion, maybe that’s the word for it. We’ve got to find it. … We’re 4-4, with four to go, we can go one of two directions.”
Said Lamb: “Winners, when they lose, learn from it and it motivates them to get better. … We hope we don’t identify ourselves by the amount of losses we have. Just by how hard we work and how much we can improve from week to week.”
Lamb, though, was unforgiving toward himself and his colleagues at BYU, saying: “We as coaches have failed the team. One win doesn’t change that in any way. … Bottom line is, we must recognize that we have to do better to lead our [guys] to more consistent victory. … We are building a culture and its not yet built in any way shape or form in the way we see it being built.
“We’re behind schedule.”
There are a couple of ways, then, to deal with the psychology of losing. One is to run from it and the other is to run straight into it, picking up the pieces at the point of collision.
While Whittingham said a few of his team’s shortcomings are “driving me nuts,” he said they are being addressed within the reasonable framework of the current roster. He’ll worry about next season later.
“There are simple things we got to work on,” said Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley. “We’ve got to step it up in practice. As a team, we just need to focus on getting a win.”
Added Ute defensive lineman Kylie Fitts: “It’s a confidence thing. It’s a matter of getting our swag back — it comes through practice and leadership.”
And through … well, winning.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.