Summer Project: Effort Alone Not Enough For Linebackers
A dedicated approach will breed consistency
Mike Brohard
Effort is a given. But Adam Pilapil told his group that was just the start.
Without a determined, focused approach, the first step is rudderless.
“My biggest thing is we walked in on day one and said, how do we win a football game? Effort and execution,” the Colorado State linebackers coach said. “If we have great effort to the football, in the way that we play, plan and prepare, we give ourselves a chance to win. If we go out there on Saturday’s and execute it, we’re going to give ourselves a really good chance to win.
“It’s creating that consistency and understanding. Look, at the end of the day it’s two things -- effort and execution. The third thing is how much energy can we put into that. Can we play with tremendous energy, can we play with that enthusiasm and that excitement and that joy of really loving what you’re doing?”
It didn’t take long for the room to get to know its new mentor. So, when he spoke of effort, they knew it didn’t just end there.
There has to be an intent behind the effort, whatever it was directed at. It could be on the practice field or film study. Maybe it was the weight room, and most definitely it referred to everyday life.
There is no hidden message. His linebackers know exactly what it meant when he directed them to approach everything, they did this summer with a healthy dose.
“I think the word he’s really been harping on is intent. Effort and intent are hand in hand, but intent is doing it at full speed but with focus,” Dequan Jackson said. “You know what you’re doing the drill for and how to get better, so that’s been my biggest thing. The way I feel like I’m helping out and the way I’m leading is I try to go first in everything we do, and I try to do it exactly right and with the mindset this is how this translates. The guys that come behind me, then they can think this is how it translates. A lot of times people do drills they don’t feel translate, but we do a lot of drills with him that go straight into game play.
“We don’t have a talent issue. In order to fix what we’ve got we have to give full effort and we have to have full intent. We have to focus on everything. If you’re going nowhere fast, or there’s a play where you false step, you’re going the wrong way. We all read him the same way that you can go 100 percent, but you must have focus.”
Effort for Pilapil isn’t just physical. It also incorporates the mental, whether a player is learning a concept or learning to overcome. It bleeds into the strain of everything they do in drills and workouts, but also in the approach to their schoolwork and how they treat others.
Bam Amina, who spent the spring on the sidelines coming back from a knee injury, understood he was going to put effort into his rehabilitation, but it would be more effective if he did it correctly. And while he was watching, he had to make sure it wasn’t in a casual manner, but with a determination to see and understand what he could not do.
If you put the effort in to doing it the right way, then giving it 100 percent, honestly, what can stop you?Bam Amina
“Recovery wise, I wish I never had to go through it, but it does pull a lot more of me to have to get extra effort in. Not only do I have to work hard in the weight room, I have to work hard in the training room,” he said. “I have to put more effort getting back on the field, because I have to make sure I come back right.
“The most effort I’ve been putting in in the spring, and even now, is mentally. I know during spring ball since I wasn’t able to participate, I’d have to do a bunch of mental reps. I would stand in the back of the end zone and shadow people from the end zone. There was a lot of effort going into that. If we have any time, the extra things we put in count.”
Finding that time can prove challenging, so Pilapil encouraged them not to waste a moment.
For instance, if they had 20 minutes before they had to leave the apartment to go somewhere, use that 20 minutes. Watch film. Do a drill at home. Visualize a play and response. No matter what they did, they should do something.
“I think the thing I’ve really tried to get with these guys is 20 minutes is enough. If you have something to do at 5 o’clock and it’s 4:40, you have 20 minutes, so pop open your playbook,” he said. “Watch some film. How much better can you get in those 20 minutes? That’s the effort in those little moments that are tough to do. As football players, we’re so used to physical effort, but that mental effort and strain has to be there just the same.”
Jackson knows at Canvas Stadium the message is centered around football, but he gets what Pilapil is inspiring all of his players to do is carry forth the same intensity when they leave the facility.
If effort can be given on the field, it can become a habit which can lead to the same form of determination toward how they approach their degree and carry themselves on campus. By no means is it a subliminal message from their coach, but an intention to inspire them.
“That’s what he does. When he comes into the meeting room, we’re not just talking about football in there,” Jackson said. “We’re going to talk football, but he’s going to hit on grades, hit on communication, being a gentleman and all that stuff. If you practice one way in all you do, you can be a consistent person, and that’s what it’s about. You can build that habit of being consistent and having intent if you do it with everything you do. How you do anything is how you do everything. With my schoolwork, I’m not going to BS the schoolwork and think I can come in here and not cut corners. That becomes who you are. We’re trying to get all the guys to see the same thing.”
The program is one which doesn’t want to contend week in and week out, but win. The linebackers aim to be a group which spreads the vibe that the minimum isn’t enough. That the extra work is great, but not if it isn’t done correctly.
With fall camp quickly approaching, the group can already sense a change in the way they are approaching everything they do, whether Pilapil is in person to demand it or not.
When he requests effort, that’s just the start.
“Everybody can go 100 percent at something, but not everybody can do it with right technique and do it the right way,” Amina said. “If you put the effort in to doing it the right way, then giving it 100 percent, honestly, what can stop you?”