player, and that is the type of player that has Demin’s (and Mag’s and Stewart’s and Fouss’) seemingly balanced attitude between confidence and humility. Confidence in what s/he can do well, and humility in wanting to learn more and get better.

I wonder if one might look no further than this attitude to see why Demin (and these additional three) was an integral part of BYU’s success. He made mistakes, but also made some excellent plays and was an excellent teammate, as were the others.

I get Catchings is disappointed, but the difference between the players’ exuded attitudes from the interviews last night may be a microcosm of their overall attitudes and efforts throughout the course of the season.

For me, I enjoy coaching too much to want to deal with players/parents with poor attitudes and entitlement. I would rather have a player with lesser ability, but greater humility and desire to get better, than a more talented player who doesn’t want to get better and believes a coach has nothing to teach him/her. Additionally, I don’t understand why some parents are too quick to shield their child from constructive feedback, designed to make them better as players and people, to massage their fragile egos. It makes little sense.

For me, those type of players take the joy out of the team sport. It seemed like after Catchings first field goal last night, he was determined to make a splash, but in a way that was outside of what the offense was trying to accomplish and this the quick hook.

But, clearly, just my opinion, and I am wrong about 85% of the time 🙂