Mark Dannio Leadership

Although everyone knows that the NFL is a business, the fact that college football is just as much of a money-making endeavor is often ignored, because of fine slogans about amateur sportsmanship and teamwork. However, the film The Program (1993) shows that this supposed 'amateurism' is a sham at many big universities. The coach of the university in the film must often bend his ethical standards, because of pressure from the administration to win at all costs. Coach Sam Winters, as played by James Caan, is well aware that many of his players do not have a prayer of graduating, and have only been selected to go to college because of their football talent. It is his job to make them into fine athletes and to win games to make alumni and students happy, not to educate them.

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

Alabama’s football program has experienced major success in multiple eras, most notably in the years 1958-1982 and again from 2007-present day. The first of these two dynasties was brought on with the hiring of Paul “Bear” Bryant who went on to lead the program to six national championships and 13 Southeastern Conference championships. A current dynasty also exists in Tuscaloosa, AL, following the introduction of Nick Saban as Alabama’s head football coach in 2007. Nick Saban brought in a winning dynamic to a program in desperate need of a culture change and has transformed the organizational structure of Alabama football forever. Saban’s approach to

Joe Ehrmann describes how he has developed his philosophy of coaching by relating the story of his life in his youth, high school and in college describing two different types of coaches he had played for. The first are coaches who were impersonal, authoritarian, and sometimes abusive which he calls transactional coaches; this is in contrast to the humane coaches he calls transformative coaches. Coaches must face this responsibility because we all remember our coaches. “This is the awesome power and responsibility of coaching: You give your players memories, for better or for worse that stay with them until the day they die” (Ehrmann, 2011 p 46-47). Joe Erhmann goes on to ask, “What is the moral and ethical composition of their program?

McFarland coach really cared about his team he took them places they never been and he cared about

Tony Dungy is a highly respected pillar in the athletic community. Breaking barriers throughout his coaching carrier; he was propelled into the spotlight when he became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl title. Shortly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI came much intrigue into his coaching style and personal life. Many wondering how he gained the respect of all his players and produced positive results while maintaining a calm demeanor. In his book, Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy speaks on the importance of faith and family. Emphasizing the power of prayer, commitment, and patience within faith. As well as the impact of his family on his career, that ultimately changed the path he had preferred for himself.

Alabama Crimson Tide is one of the top power house teams in The National Collegiate Athletic Association. The Tide is slightly behind the most winningest team in College Football; it is also a very driven team, who prides itself on integrity and perfection. The Tide was born in 1892, after William G. Little enrolled at Alabama. Over the span of 124 years, Alabama had a great set of coaches, along with the set of players who have set phenomenal records. Therefore, the following research will reveal the Alabama Crimson Tide’s origin, coach’s records and titles, and the team’s leaderboards throughout its history.

Herb expected his team to achieve elevated, difficult, and challenging goals. He expected his players to sacrifice their time for the greater good and the team. He instilled the importance of selflessness and teamwork into their heart and soul’s. Pushing the team to the point of exhaustion, helped them realize the level he expected them to perform at. They began to realize that giving one hundred percent was not enough, and neither was two hundred percent; nothing was ever going to be enough. He made them realize that maximum performance could always be obtained and exceeded. Herb understood his players, and understood how to get the best out of each individual player. Making their best a part of the team, made the team a strong, unbreakable unit. To have his team achieve such high expectations and goals, he had to find ways of motivating them.

Tom Izzo, the Michigan State Basketball head coach, is excited for this year's team. This year the Spartans have one of the most talented basketball teams in school history. Tom Izzo recruited the the third best recruiting class this season. Michigan State also has one of the best players in the country, Denzel Valentine.

However, the coach can change their mindset and priorities to reflect the concept of a player’s health and safety being more important than winning. In the past, our culture has made winning and being number one a glamorized achievement. As the players come out more often saying that they were abused by a coach in the name of winning, it proves the point, that pressures to succeed are taking precedence over the wellbeing of those attempting such a feat. This mindset can be defended by NFL Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi stating, “ Winning isn’t the most important thing. It's the only thing.”

Transformational and transactional coaching styles affect program philosophy so coaches must learn the difference between the two. A transactional coach exhibits selfish behavior and will put their needs above others. Due to this selfish behavior, the transactional coach will follow a course that will give him the most benefit without regard to his players. For example, winning benefits the coach by feeding his ego, so the coach may use players just to win more games. After playing for several transactional coaches, Ehrmann (2011) wrote, “they ignored athletes developmental needs and often manipulated and distorted the values of winning and losing” (p.7). As a result, the transactional coach disregards any long-term benefits of playing the game and makes decisions for the short-term benefits such as winning. With this mindset, a player-coach relationship does not become a priority and takes on a secondary importance. In fact, how well the player performs may govern the player-coach relationship. Lastly, a transactional coach tends to use extrinsic motivation that uses rewards and punishments to achieve desired outcomes.

Purdue this season has had a better season than they have had in the past, finishing at the top of the Big Ten conference. This conference dominance can be linked to Caleb “Biggie” Swanigan making his return for his sophomore year. The year before, IU had won the conference and Purdue suffered on the road against them. I asked Kyle Graham, a senior at Purdue University and also a part of the large senior group who goes to every game, how he felt about his last Purdue-IU game as a student. Graham said, “It was actually amazing to see them win and do so in such great fashion. When I was a freshman, Purdue had finished last in the Big Ten conference. So, it was almost bitter-sweet, I guess, seeing them beat IU for my last home game, win the Big Ten title, and winning more games than they ever had while I was

UMass on the other hand, does not have the funds to compete with top tier programs like Michigan and looses nationally ranked recruits to such

The last important topic that needs to be addressed in college recruiting is when the players commit to the coach rather than the school. A lot of the high school athletes are just committing to the head coach rather than the university. Whenever a coach leaves another university for a different university, usually the high school athlete will follow the coach. For example, when P.J. Fleck announced he was leaving Western Michigan to be Minnesota's football coach, many of his recruits followed him. “Kyle Sassack an offensive tackle from Pontiac who had committed to Western Michigan, told Gopherillustrated that after speaking with Fleck, he was sold to come play at Minnesota instead” ( Windsor, 2017). Noah Hickcox, a defensive lineman also had been committed to Western Michigan for while, but when P.J. Fleck left, Hickcox decided to follow him. Over 10 players who had verbally committed to Western Michigan ended up switching to Minnesota.

Starting as a new football coach could be an extremely daunting task if you are not prepared to make great change. When doing this there must be steps that you will have to make and then take in order to build a successful football program. This process may be a slow one but in the end, if it is done right, you will reap the benefits. In this article I will describes some of the steps that I would take on order to turn around the football program.