Many coaches, across all sports, are infatuated with establishing, building, and maintaining culture. They all have their own versions and strategies. Some might have a thesis stored on their computer. Some display it on signs throughout facilities. Some know it by heart. Some exude it. Some are so immersed in it the process becomes second nature.
“The first year was more of an introduction to who we are as a culture; who we are as a football team,” stated Oscar Giles. “And with coach Herman's background of developing culture at Houston, we brought that culture here. And they embraced it. You saw it last year, and now this is just a continuation of the culture we’re trying to lay as a foundation here.”
It’s not the only thing affecting winning and losing, but most coaches treat it as importantly as the air they breathe. Some are great at cultivating it, and some aren’t. In year three at Texas, it certainly appears Tom Herman fits into the former classification.
But the best coaches want to hand off their culture to the young men they’ve recruited. Why? Why would the men in charge of running a program and generating success hand over something they cherish and obsess over to college athletes?
“When players lead, you have a chance for really great things,” Texas receivers coach Corby Meekins said.
Well, there’s your answer in its most simplistic form. A message received from coaches is one thing; a message received from teammates is different.
“Something happens on the football field before I as a coach can say something at times, I'm already hearing it echoed from two or three people behind me. That's what you want,” stated Meekins. “And we're seeing that happen. And as they continue to grow, we should see more of that.”
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Herman. Remember the conversation surrounding the program following a loss to Texas Tech in 2017 to end the regular season? Sorry for reminding you. Thanksgiving was more like Give-me-booze-and-leave-me-alonegiving for Longhorns fans that season.
Something important came out of it, though: more player leadership, voice, and ownership was cultivated as the players wanted to earn control while the guys in charge listened. Texas has never been the same since, and in a good way. The interactions between coach and player the following preseason camp were different, and so was the demeanor and effort of players. Despite the season-opening loss to Maryland, it became obvious, over time, the installation phase of Herman’s culture installation was complete. Results, eventually, followed.
What we’re seeing now is the next step when more and more of the roster gets infected by the 1-0 bug.
“When you have guys have actually taken ownership of mistakes that are happening, and say, ‘Hey, listen…’ before we even get a chance to talk to them and correct them, they're actually doing it themselves. And that's when you know that the culture is alive and well, and guys are starting to buy into it,” said Giles. “And even when we're not around, they're actually grabbing guys saying, ‘Listen, you got to get in for workouts,’ or ‘Hey, get your butt up here at a certain time. Don't be here late.’ When you start seeing that, you know that the culture is spreading and spreading out to the young guys. And we'll build from there. Until we get our culture ingrained to every one of our guys, we're still a work in progress.”
Perhaps no person associated with the Texas program better understands what a player-led program and a successful football culture looks like at Texas than Giles. He played at Texas, coached at Texas, won a national title at Texas, left, and came back with the staff now in charge of Texas. He has a unique background compared to anyone else he works with, and the longtime coach sees similarities between this Texas team and successful ones of past.
“Every team has its own makeup, culture, and you never know what the team is going to be made of. You got through training camp to experience that. But this has some similarities of some of the teams that I've been on,” Giles stated. “It’s a player-led team. We're kind of young in some spots, but you see the leadership starting to grow from the training camp, from a Malcolm Roach to a Sam Ehlinger. Those guys stand out in my mind… they’re grabbing some of the young guys and telling them the culture way of doing things.”
What is a player-led team? What does it look like? Maybe it’s Devin Duvernay being asked to more to the ‘H’ receiver.
“We just said, ‘Hey Dev, we need to slide inside to the H.’ And he goes, ‘Okay.” Explained Meekins.
Maybe it’s Brandon Jones help coach young teammates like Chris Adimora and Montrell Estell thrust into unexpected roles because of injuries against one of the nation’s best offenses. Maybe it’s Ehlinger playing through a rib injury and taking blame for the LSU loss even though he played very well. Maybe it’s the offensive line helping accelerate Parker Braun’s understanding and fit into a new offense, and offering instruction during practice. Maybe it’s Roschon Johnson making the move to running back, and playing the position without an ounce of hesitation or fear while receiving help from fellow running backs like Daniel Young.
Or maybe it’s everything that happens during the offseason and preseason camp when games are off in the distance and what’s left is sweating and going through pain to prepare; what’s left is accountability shared in all directions. While it might not show then, if the work isn’t done when coaches aren’t watching, those same coaches will see when it matters most.
“The reason it's such a big deal is about accountability. And one of the things that I always talk to the offensive line about is called shared accountability. When you have shared accountability… it's one thing if I'm standing in front of the room. And I've got my guys there sitting in front of me. And the accountability… I want them to be accountable to each other. So, the accountability is kind of running east and west, if you will.
“I also want them to be accountable to me as their coach. So, there's a northward, if you will, accountability, right? Well, I want them to hold me accountable as well. So, if I tell them I'm going to coach you hard. If I tell them how I’m going to be the best offensive line coach in the country, I want them to hold me accountable to what the standards I'm setting for myself. Now, there's accountability running north and south as well as east and west. So, you have you have shared accountability among everybody.
“Well, it's no different than the locker room. You have your leaders. Right. Sam, Shack, Malcolm, Collin, Brandon the guys that are team captains, right? They're going to hold everybody accountable east and west, but it's also the players holding those guys accountable to the standards. That's why it's so important. And then when you're when you feel accountable to somebody, the biggest thing that you don't want is to let that person down.”
The Longhorns want to and are developing a program filled with players that look across the locker room and want to compete for the guy next to them.
“The only things I wanted to do were win, number one, and number two in the locker room after the game I wanted my teammates to look at me and say you know what that dude right there I can count on him. He's going do his job. That's what you want as a player. So, you develop that shared accountability. That's when it becomes player-led when it when they're holding each other accountable, east, west, north, south. And it's not just a coach is holding them accountable. So, now you have a player-led program.
“And we always talk about the core of that if you peel the onion back. Peel the layers back. Why does it work? Because they love one another. At the core of the onion, is the brotherly love that they have for one another to hold each other accountable. So, when you get that… It takes time. You know, there's a lot of process that goes through it.”
Indeed. It’s a process. Building a program doesn’t happen overnight just like the accountability, player leadership, and brotherly love Hand referred to doesn’t immediately develop after one workout or one game or one offseason month. Fortunately for the Longhorns and their fans, they’re seeing progress over time.
“If you're doing it right, you’re going to get that to happen more and more and more as you go through the cycle of your program. The player-led is the leader senses, ‘Hey, we didn’t start this practice very well.’ They can handle it themselves. Somebody had something with accountability, maybe they’re few minutes late for something, they handle that positively; that never gets to us and never gets the head coach. They control those situations more than we do. So, the player-led part is the high level of accountability within the team, not just from the coaches pointing the finger and doing that it's something. It’s players creating the juice and energy right off the bat rather than coaches doing that.”
Texas isn’t a finished product. But the juice is flowing.
