From Athens- Friday Thoughts

Good Morning All,

There is much happening under the radar with our football program.

I shared an article here in another thread written by Marc Weiszer from the Athens Banner Herald….. aka AHB fish wrapper.

Marc got it right…. Not just for the clicks but real meat on the bone. Good read…..

With each passing day we learn a little bit more about CKS.

His words…. I want the player next to me putting as much sweat in the bucket as I am…….

Be hard not to understand what the message was…..

You best understand that giving anything less than your best will not be accepted…..expect to be called out if to try…..

CKS was late for the Macon Touchdown Club meeting this week he volunteered why he was late….seems that there were a group of players who tried coasting during a off season workout….it caught CKS eye and he addressed it before leaving Athens for the drive to Macon.

Players found out don’t count CKS missing anything….

IMO players are learning what HS means when he said “learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable”…

I think many eyes were opened…. Thing got tougher with CJP and Locke ….but CKS and crew have pushed the bar higher

So far they have not had any players jump ship…..but……..

HC looks for same from his assistant coaches when it comes to matching the sweat going into the bucket….truth is …it applies to anyone working inside our football program…

IMO the HC wants the fan base to ante up also….we make demands for our team and coaches….he wants us to have skin in the game also…. His call for a sellout for the “G” game is not a PR stunt…. He believes in the message it sends to recruits….

We all know that the Bama fans our different… not saying better
Just take a different approach…. HC is looking to build some of that with Georgia….. not a bad thing….

The second …point that stood out in Marc’s article was to me was…

that several years ago CKS spent time with Bill Belichick at the Pariots

Facility in Foxboro. While waiting for Belichick CKS noticed a sign
behind a desk ….. “Do Your Job”….. during his time there HC noticed
at least 30 more of the same sign posted in various places…..even over they urinals in the men’s room … he ask Bill about them… Bill’s answer… he made sure that everyone knew what their job was and what was expected from them….

Direct responsibility ….. Leadership 101….. hmmmmm….

CKS took it back to Tuscaloosa and installed it…wasn’t long before it became a part of the entire team’s culture ….

Complacency has gone south with Finish the Drill… thank you…

Fun meter moving up…..

Pause and give thanks

Have a great weekend and a safe week

As always “Go Dawgs"

Old Man and a Bucket of Shrimp

This is a wonderful story and it is true. You will be glad that you read it.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.

Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a
thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly.

Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.

He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water,
Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say.

Or, to onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty.

They can seem altogether unimportant....maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida ...

That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific.

They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst.

By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive.

Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.

The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.

They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose.

Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft...suddenly Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move.

With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait....and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.'

That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm", pp...221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America 's first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

It is a great story that many don't know...You've got to be careful with old guys; you just never know what they have done during their lifetime.

__________________________________________

yankeedawg1, hope it is ok to post this here. I do that for this reason, one of the reasons anyway . . . . You often close your posts with respect to Veterans. My way of saying thank you, and there are other board members that I feel sure think the same as I do.

Go Dawgs

You are so right Buc, it's hard to articulate how we feel some times

Thanks for taking the time and effort to share Eddie's

story.....much truth.... Fits perfectly......

Good to know that the regulars here already know about

Sweat in the bucket......enjoy your Bloodies ... Buc

Masters on the horizon.... Spring ball....like many

Things in Athens......not going to be the same.....

Go Dawgs.......

The hero might be the homeless veteran living under the bridge.
We will all be judged by our actions
Or inactions.