Everything I Told Kansas Football Before Their Season

See, excellence is not a switch that we turn on and off. Excellence has to be a switch that is permanently on. And when you make excellence your standard, again, in every area of your life, when you make excellence your standard, that now becomes the foundation to which everything in your life is built. And this goes far beyond just the game of football. I'm a keynote speaker, an author, and a former basketball performance coach, and I had an absolute blast talking to the Kansas football program today. We focused on the traits of what it takes to become a champion, but with that, we talked about what loses football games, and how can we avoid doing those types of behaviors. We talked about the things they need to do in the fourth quarter to finish games strong, things they need to do to find their edge, how they can earn their confidence both collectively and individually, and figure out who is going to lead this team to the season that they all deserve. So, I'm incredibly grateful to have spent the last 24 hours observing you guys and and sitting in on meetings and watching you guys work out. And there's a few things that are blatantly obvious to me. First and foremost, as you guys know, you are elite-level football players. I also hope you know and you recognize you have an elite-level coaching staff. You have an elite-level facility. You have elite-level resources, and you play for an elite-level university. And I I know that that's been said to you before, but make sure you understand the difference between playing at Kansas and playing for Kansas. Now, the fact that you all are so elite makes me fairly confident and have the humility in knowing that everything I'm about to share with you guys you've probably heard before. In fact, several of the things I'm going to share with you, I've heard your coaches say in the last 24 hours. But I'm going to tell you guys the same thing that I tell my my three teenage children, that I tell every single elite athlete that I've had an opportunity to work with, and that I tell myself on a daily basis, and that is repetition is not punishment. Repetition is the oldest and most effective form of learning and skill acquisition on the planet, and that will never change. So, if I say something today and you have heard it before, there's a reason for that. It's because it's true. It's because it's important. It's because it's valuable, and it's because it works. And if if you want to get better at anything, and if you want anything to remain sticky, then the key is repetition, repetition, repetition. And I'm also a huge believer in the old adage that a man never walks through the same river twice. Because the river's always different and the man's always different, which means my goal today is I hope that I say something today, even if you've heard it before, I hope I say it in a way that lands a little bit differently with you, and maybe the light bulb finally goes off. So, I'm going to thank you in advance for your attention, for your presence, and for locking in, and for making sure that you guys listen with your eyes. We hear with our ears, but we listen with our eyes. Now, I have a few phrases written down on some papers here to to help uh make sure that I'm guiding this talk and being really efficient with it. What does this say? >> Behave like a champion now. Before you can become a champion, you have to act like a champion. You have to behave like a champion. You have to show up like a champion, but you have to do it every single day. You have to do it on the field, you have to do it off the field. See, behaving like a champion is not something you have the luxury of doing when you feel like it, or when you want to, or when it's convenient. It has to be something that you do on and off the field in every area of your life, every single day. See, excellence is not a switch that we turn on and off. Excellence has to be a switch that is permanently on. And when you make excellence your standard, again, in every area of your life, when you make excellence your standard, that now becomes the foundation to which everything in your life is built. And this goes far beyond just the game of football. But excellence needs to be the foundation. And once you make excellence your foundation, then we can switch gears to start to emphasize three other key components to being excellent in everything that we do. The first of those will be discipline. The second of those will be process. And the third will be progress. So, first let's talk about discipline. Probably a word you've heard ever since you were this big. But I don't know that very many people take the time to define it. So, here's how I'm going to define discipline for you. Discipline is making a decision in the moment that is most aligned with the goals that you've set or most aligned with the man that you're trying to become. Which means you need to make every single decision in the moment to be congruent and parallel and in harmony with what it is that you all are trying to achieve, both individually and collectively. With the man that you're trying to become. And every time you make a a decision that is in alignment with the person you're trying to become or the goals that you all have set, then that is a disciplined decision. And the goal is to get as many of you making as many disciplined decisions as consistently as possible. See, I'm a huge believer that motivation is highly over indexed and highly over glorified in our world today, especially on social media. See, the problem is motivation is a feeling, discipline is a decision. We don't control our feelings, we do control our decisions. Which means even for those of you that skew towards being highly motivated individuals, and I put myself in that class, We're not motivated every moment of every single day of our lives. So, if we rely on that as fuel, then we become inconsistent. So, we can't control whether or not we feel motivated every single day. Even for those of you that are super elite, there will be days you don't feel like practicing. You don't feel like lifting weights. You don't feel like going into a film session. But, it doesn't really matter how you feel. All that matters is how you behave. And if you are disciplined, then you'll make the decision to give your best effort in that practice, in that weight room, or in that film session. So, we decide whether or not we make discipline decisions. So, that means you're in control. You're not in control of whether you feel motivated. You are in control of the decisions that you make. The second of those key pillars is process. Certainly a word that you guys have heard, again, probably since you were little. I understand that you have chosen a vocation and you have chosen a sport that heavily relies on outcomes. I mean, let's be honest, the name of the game is to win. And I I I want you guys to do everything in your power to win. But, we can't get too caught up in outcomes because we don't have control over outcomes. If you had full control over the outcomes, then you would easily go 12 and 0 because everybody in this room wants to win every single game. I know that. But, guess what? So do the guys in the other jerseys. They want the exact same thing that you want. So, it's not a matter of wanting to win. That has nothing to do with it. I I know that you want to win. The matter is who is going to pay attention to the process and stick to the process to give themselves the best chance to win. The best analogy I can think of is if you were ever tasked with building a brick wall, don't focus on the wall. Focus on the bricks. Because if you can lay each and every brick exactly where it needs to go, guess what? The wall will take care of itself. You don't have to worry about the wall. You set each and every brick exactly where it needs to go and the wall will take care of itself, which means when you obsess relentlessly over the process, the scoreboard will take care of itself. And that's the process. And then the third pillar is progress. Is making sure that you individually and collectively are a little bit better today than you were yesterday. And that you will be a little bit better tomorrow than you were today. See, you guys have to understand, you need to have short-term urgency blended with long-term patience. I'll say that again because it's vital. You have to have short-term urgency and long-term patience. Now, right now when I'm saying long-term, I'm actually talking about the finite confines of this season. I'm not talking long-term like your entire life or decades, although this still applies, but I'm talking about the confines of this season. I want you all playing the best football that you're capable of in September. But you know what I really want? You to be playing the best football you're capable of, even better football in December and in January. See, you guys have to realize, if you stick to the process, you won't be fully cooked as a program until December or January, and that's a good thing. So, I want you being the best you're capable of now, but you have to respect the process enough to know that if you incrementally, systematically, and progressively get better, you will be a better football player and you will be a better football team in December than you will be in September, and that needs to be the goal. So, we have to make sure that we are paying attention to progress. Now, once we do those three pillars, then you guys give yourselves the best chance to make winning the natural byproduct of that. Again, we don't control winning, we do control the process and the progress and the disciplined decisions which give us that best chance. But, I want to take a step back. Before we even concern ourselves with winning, you have to be aware of and you have to do everything in your power to eliminate or reduce what loses. Before you worry about winning, you have to stop doing what loses. Now, I come from a heavily basketball background, so I do not have the football acumen or IQ that anyone in this room has, but I'm going to do the best I can to speak your language even though basketball's the sport that I know. But, I've watched enough football to know what loses on the football field. Penalties lose football games. Right? Turnovers lose football games. Missed assignments, missed blocks, missed tackles, miss football games. Missed field goals, dropped passes. On the field in the micro, those are the things that that lose football games. Now, let's be honest, football is not a game of perfection. Life is not a game of perfection. Those things are going to happen. That is a part of playing this game, but if you can drastically reduce the occurrence of those happening, you give yourself a better chance to win. But, let's zoom out and look at the macro. You know what loses football games in the macro? Selfishness, entitlement, arrogance, lack of toughness, lack of effort, lack of execution, and making decisions that are silent, soft, and stupid. Those things will lose football games. So, once again, collectively, if you guys can do everything in your power to reduce the occurrence of those things and in fact do the opposite of those things. You know what wins football games? Selflessness, humility, hunger, mental toughness, physical toughness, perfect execution and precision. So, those are the things that we need to continually focus on. And And as I said before, you can't just focus on them when you feel like it, when you want to, when it's convenient, when you feel fresh. You have to focus on those things every single day. And it's not enough for you to focus on that as an individual. You need to look to your right and to your left and make sure the guy on your right and the guy on your left is just as committed to doing those things as you are. So, that you guys start to hold each other accountable and police each other. Now, there's a few more things that will contribute to winning. So, we have the major pillars in place. We've identified the things that will cause us to lose. We're going to try to stop doing those things to the best of our ability, but there's a few more things that will contribute to winning. First of all, I hope you understand that football is a we game. It's not a me game. If you want to play a me game, play golf or tennis or wrestle or box. Just mano a mano, but you guys haven't signed up for that. You guys have signed up to play a team game. Which means one of the most important qualities you can have is being a great teammate. And I know that sounds cliche and again, I know this stuff you've heard since you were little, but I hope it sinks in differently. You know my definition of a great teammate? Is being the teammate you'd want to play with. Is being the teammate that you love to play with, but would hate to play against. That's a great teammate. A great teammate is someone that's selfless. Someone that supports, encourages, pushes each the other guys. That it's not about them, it's about the group. You don't have control over whether or not you're the fastest guy in the room, the strongest guy in the room, the most talented guy in the room. You don't have full control over that. You have absolute control over whether or not you're the best teammate in the room. And I don't care if you're a a future NFL first-rounder or you're a walk-on, you have the ability to be the best teammate in the room. And I would highly encourage every single one of you to make that commitment. And I'll tell you this right now, if you do happen to have the potential to be an NFL first-rounder and you are an exceptional teammate, you're what Hall of Famers are made of. You're going to make a whole lot of money playing this game. But don't ever sell short the fact that being a great teammate, being a great locker room guy, that those things matter. Here's another major separator when it comes to winning. There is a huge difference between waiting and preparing. The overwhelming majority of human beings just wait for things to happen. The elite prepare for things to happen. Do you wait for practice to start or do you prepare for practice to start? Do you wait to go see Matt in the weight room or do you prepare mentally and physically and emotionally to go to the weight room? Do you wait for film session or are you doing things to prepare for the film session? When you learn the difference between waiting and preparing, it's a huge separator. It's a game-changer. Something else that massively contributes to winning is becoming a finisher. You've got to finish. And finishing is a habit. Everyone in the world starts stuff. That doesn't make you special. Only the elite finish. I want you to finish reps in the weight room. Finish workouts. Finish plays on the practice field. Finish practices. Finish film sessions. What does finishing a film session means? It means you're just as alert and present as focused in minute 15 as you were in minute one. Anyone can pay attention for 1 minute. Can you be locked in for 15 minutes or 20 minutes or however long your film sessions are? Learn how to finish. And when you learn how to finish in the small things, then you condition yourself to finish in the big things. Because ultimately the goal is to be able to finish games, to finish seasons, to finish in the fourth quarter. But as I'll talk about in just a moment, that doesn't just magically happen. You have to consistently condition yourself to do these things. So there's a checklist, and I see a lot of you taking notes, which is awesome. I want you to write this checklist down. This checklist, and this is for players and coaches. I'm going to tell you now, if every single person in this room can check off everything I'm about to say, every workout, every practice, every film session, and every game, you guys are going to be really happy at the end of this season. I can't guarantee it. I can't promise it, but I've done this long enough to know if you do what I'm about to ask you to do, and you can check this off at the end of every practice, workout, film session, and game, you guys are going to be very happy come come January. The first is, was I early? I'm not asking you if you were on time. You better be on time, but I believe in being early. I I come I have old school values. I think if you're on time, you're late. Was I early? Number two, was I prepared? Number three, did I give my best effort? Number four, did I have my best attitude? Number five, was I coachable? Number six, was I a great teammate? Number seven, did I get better? And number eight, did I make us better? Every single person in this room, if you can check every one of those things off with every single team activity you have, the only byproduct even possible is to win, and to win at a very high level. So that's how we behave like a champion now. What's this say, my friend? >> Make plays when it matters most. Everything I just shared is is true and I I hope helpful. But, let's be honest, at the end of the day, football comes down to execution. You have to be able to make plays, and you have to be able to make plays when they matter most. But, here's what you need to understand. In order to make plays when it matters most, you got to make plays when it matters least. If you want to make plays when the stakes are high, you have to make plays when the stakes are low. If you want to make plays when everyone is watching, then you got to make plays when no one is watching. See, these things need to become habitual. These This just needs to be the way that you do things. Again, the same way I don't want ex- excuse me, excellence to be a switch you turn on and off, I don't want execution and precision to be a switch you turn on and off. These can't be negotiable. This can't be do I feel like doing my assignment on this play today in practice. Your feelings are irrelevant. You have to condition yourself to have a high standard of excellence and to execute as precisely as possible in your role and your assignment every single day. See, the best teams are at their best when the best is required. But, that does not happen magically. It happens through conditioning. It happens through intentionality and being purposeful. Which takes us to our next one. How about this, my friend? >> The fourth quarter doesn't create you. You know what the fourth quarter does? It reveals you or exposes you. The fourth quarter is not when you build habits. The fourth quarter reveals the habits that you already have. See, you're not in the fourth quarter going to magically ascend to some level of performance that you've never had before. You're going to sink to the level of your training. You're going to sink to the level of your toughness. You're going to sink to the level of your preparation. So, the higher you can raise the floor, then the more potential you have in the fourth quarter. And that goes back to what we were talking about before, the ability to finish. Playing well, playing hard, playing smart for three and a half quarters is not good enough at your level. For many of you, that was good enough at the high school level. Cuz you guys are unbelievably talented, incredibly athletic. For many of you, many of the things that I just shared with you, I'll be honest cuz I know I worked a lot at the elite high school level. You could get away with in high school. You can get away with having less than perfect footwork in high school because you were physically superior to the guy lined up across from you. That ain't the case anymore. And for those of you that aspire to get paid to play this game and start playing on Sundays instead of Saturdays, it definitely will not be the case. So, it's vital that we are conditioning ourselves now in every single thing that we do so that these things are revealed in the fourth quarter. And that will help give you confidence, which is the next one that we'll talk about. Here, I'll go over here. What do we got, my friend? >> Confidence is earned. >> Confidence is earned. Confidence is not something you're born with. It's not in your genetic code. Confidence is not even something your coaches can give to you. Now, your coaches can, and I know they do. They support you. They love you. They challenge you. They encourage you. They push you. But, your coaches cannot give you confidence individually or collectively. Confidence has to come from within. But, here's the beautiful part. You're in control of that. Because confidence is earned, confidence is created, confidence is built. But it's also not a permanent fixture. Confidence will ebb and flow. Every single human being on the planet, even the most elite athletes, will have moments where they feel a little rattled, feel a little shook, where their confidence is wavering. That's part of the human condition. No one is immune to it. But there are things we can do to increase our confidence. And I'm going to give you that list right now. If you want to increase your confidence, and this works in any area of life, but obviously we're talking about football. First thing you do is you make disciplined decisions consistently. We covered that earlier. You start making disciplined decisions consistently in every single area of your life, and your confidence will build your confidence will build. I can promise you that. Confidence also comes from demonstrated performance. Now, certainly that demonstrated performance needs to be on the practice field, needs to be in the weight room. Like you need to build your competence by having the confidence of knowing, "Hey, I know how to run this play. I know how to make this block or this tackle." You have to do those things over and over, but a good portion of your confidence will come during the unseen hours. The hours when no one's watching. TV cameras aren't rolling, the cheerleaders aren't dancing, no one's looking. The only person there is you, and you can build and strengthen that confidence by improving your demonstrated performance during those unseen hours. The reason Steph Curry is the greatest shooter to ever play the game of basketball is because in empty gyms, he has seen that ball go through the basket more than any person that's ever walked the earth. It's cause and effect, it's not accidental. So, if you want to get better at something, then you have to see yourself doing it and being competent at it, and that's what we do during the unseen hours. That's what we do during practice. That's what we do before and after practice. The next way we build confidence is you learn how to keep the promises you make to yourself. I would hope that you keep your word to your teammates and to your family and to your coaches, but I sincerely hope you learn how to keep your word to yourself. If you say you're going to do something and you do it, your confidence increases. If you say you're going to do something and you don't do it, your confidence decreases. I love the attention that you guys pay to to to quality nutrition here. I I really I think that is is phenomenal and that plays a massive role. If you tell yourself you're going to eat the colorful high protein high carb breakfast that was shown in the picture yesterday and you actually eat that, your confidence will go up. If you say you're going to eat that and at the last minute you go for the picture of the food you're not supposed to eat, your confidence will start to go down. Keep the promises you make to yourself. You can fool everyone in this world, but you can't fool yourself. The man in the mirror. So, make sure you're keeping the promises you keep to yourself. And the last way that we build confidence and arguably the most important is that little voice in your head. How you talk to yourself. And if any of you are sitting here now thinking, "I don't have a little voice in my head." Who do you think just said that? Yeah, it's the little voice in your head. We've all got it. We all talk to ourselves. And I can make a pretty compelling argument that the conversation you have with yourself in quiet is the most important conversation you'll ever have in your life. Now, I want you to hold yourself to an incredibly high standard. This is not being casual. However, I want you to learn how to talk to yourself in a way that is empowering. In a way that shows belief. In a way that that you're supporting and you're encouraging yourself. See, one of the reasons you guys are in this room is because you're probably incredibly competitive, you're unbelievably driven, and those are great qualities. We want to throw gasoline on those. But usually what goes hand in hand in that is sometimes that voice in our head, we can be very critical to ourselves. We can beat ourselves up after we miss a play or drop a pass or whatever it may be. And no one's saying that we want those things to happen. No one's even saying those things are okay. But what we're saying is after you make a mistake like that, how do you talk to yourself? If you beat yourself up, your confidence will erode. If you empower yourself and you say, "Man, I can't believe I dropped that pass. That ain't going to happen again. That's not like me. I'm the best receiver in there." then your confidence will improve. And the framework at which we use is you have to learn how to talk to yourself the way that I hope you would talk to a teammate or the way that I hope a teammate would talk to you. I would hope, and again, I don't even know who our receiver is in here, but if you're a receiver and you drop a pass, I would hope that these two guys aren't critical of you and getting on you. I hope they come over to you and give you a fist bump and say, "Hey man, it's cool. You're going to get the next one. We believe in you. You got this next one." So, you have to learn how to talk to yourself in the same empowering language that that you would talk to a teammate instead of being critical. And that's how we build our confidence. And the beautiful thing about confidence is it's circular. Once you start doing these things and building your confidence, then it starts to grow. And then your belief starts to grow. And then you become almost bulletproof. And that's the very first step to having that next play mentality. All right, next one. Let's go uh second row. What do we got there, my friend? >> Find your edge. It's all about separation. Well, first and foremost, I hope you make your preparation your separation. Again, you don't control whether or not you're the most talented team in the country. You don't have control over that. You know what you do control? Are you the most prepared team in the country? You don't control whether you're the most talented player at your position, even in this room. But you absolutely control whether you're the most prepared person in your position. So, make your preparation your separation. It's my opinion, and that's all it is is just that, that after two five and seven seasons, there's a chance some people are going to sleep on you this year. There's a good chance you guys are going to be underdogs. And I hope you relish that opportunity. I hope you love that. Because honestly, it doesn't matter what anyone outside of this room right now thinks about you. All that matters is what you guys think about yourself. And having that, and I know they're our core values, pride and belief and relentlessness. See, you don't control preseason rankings. You don't control what people on social media say. You certainly don't control what the talking heads on ESPN or any of the sports shows say. You have no control over that. So, we learn how to disregard that and we put all of our focus on the things we have control over. And if you want to have an edge, then you give every ounce of heart, soul, and love you have into the things you have control over. And most of which we've already covered these. You control your effort. You control your attitude. You control your preparation. You control your toughness. You control your conditioning. Conditioning is huge. You realize every moment that your coaching staff has to spend conditioning you is a moment they're not spending teaching you? So, take it upon yourselves to get in great shape. Because every time they're spending time doing something that you have the capability of doing a lot on your own, that's taking time away from things they could be doing for you. So, then you're in essence, you're losing your edge. Your edge is all about doubling down on the things you have control over. And for you guys individually, taking something that you're really good at and making that skill set great. Some of you take something that you're great at and make it world class. Double down on the things, especially for those of you that are planning to play this game on Sundays. Take the things that you're already good or great at and learn how to level those up. That, my friends, is how you get an edge. I know Coach Kay said this one yesterday. What does it say, my friend? >> Adversity is coming. Tough days are coming. There are very few guarantees in life, but here is one that is absolutely foolproof. And that is adversity is coming. Now, adversity comes in small doses, it comes in large doses. I mean, adversity can be a whole lot of different things, but no one is immune and no one is resilient to adversity. So, you have to know it's coming. The only question, and again, Coach covered this brilliantly yesterday, but it's worth the repeat and the double click is how are you going to respond to it? I already gave you guys the list of things that lose football games. And even though every single one of us is in full agreement and we all know those things, those things are still going to happen. They're still going to be missed assignments, missed tackles, dropped passes. That is part of playing the game of football. Now, we're going to try to reduce them as much as possible. But in addition to reducing them, if we have the humility to acknowledge that they're still going to happen anyway, then the only question is, how do you respond to that? How do you respond when things don't go your way? Everyone in this room is capable of having a great practice. But the world is binary, which means everyone in this room is also capable of having a really bad practice. Because we're human beings. There'll just be times where you're just not at your best. Now, hopefully the guy next to you will help pick you up. But but here's my question. You You got on the practice field and you don't have your best practice today. But then you guys have to go in and do a weight room session with Coach Matt. Then my question is, do you also go in and have a bad weight room session cuz you're in your feelings and you're pouting and you're upset cuz you didn't play well in practice? Are you able to move to the next play and say, "That was not my best practice. I'm going to get it again later, but right now I'm going to refocus the lens and I'm going to go in there and kill the weight room to the best of my ability. How do you guys respond when you turn the ball over? How do you respond when the other team you make a mistake and the other team breaks open a big play and scores? Like what is your bounce back? What do you do the very next play? And the answer to that question will define who you are as a man, who you are as a football player, and what you guys will accomplish this year. So you have to be able to recognize that adversity is coming. Don't be surprised by it. I mean, how foolish is that? I've just told you that the only thing guaranteed in this world is you're going to have some adversity. So why would you possibly be surprised by it? I've already told you it's coming, so be prepared and brace yourself to be able to bounce back from it. And the last one, my friend right here, how do we got? >> Who will lead you? >> Who will lead you guys? I hope the first thing you didn't do was all look over your right shoulder at your coaching staff. They're going to lead you. That's their job. That's what they get paid to do and they're excellent at being able to do that, but that's not what I'm concerned with. I want to know who's going to lead you guys. And notice I didn't ask who the captains are. I didn't ask who the seniors are. I didn't ask who's got that shiny gold car outside. Like I'm not worried about any of that. I want to know who in this room is going to lead when leadership is required. When leadership is necessary, who's going to step up and lead? And I hope at some point every single one of you right now is thinking me. I want to take that responsibility on. I want to be able to step up and lead. For those of you taking notes, I want you to write this down. I want you to circle it, underline it, and go buy a highlighter and highlight it. A player-led team will outperform a coach-led team in the long run. You have an elite coaching staff, and they're going to do everything in their power to pour into you and put you in a position to be successful. But, as they said yesterday, if they believe in you more than you believe in you, there's a finite ceiling on what you guys are capable of of achieving. And I'm going to say the same thing when it comes to leadership. If the only people leading this group are the people in the polos and the coaching staff, you guys have a finite ceiling on how good you're going to be. When you guys start to lead each other and police each other and hold each other accountable, now we've got something really special. When you guys are running a play on the practice field and somebody messes up an assignment, I know they're going to get on you. That's what they get paid to do. But, when are you going to get on each other? When are you going to tell him that it's not cool that he just messed that up or tell him, "Hey, you're doing something wrong with your footwork." When you guys start to hold each other accountable to the same degree that the coaches hold you accountable to, now you got something really special. And we've already established you guys have the ingredients to win at a super high level. You have the talent, you have the skill, you have the athletes, you have the facilities, you have the resources, you have the coaching staff. You have everything that you need. So, on some level, you are in massively in control of your own destiny. Now, it's just a matter of doing all of the things that I just shared with you. And again, I know none of this you're hearing for the first time. There's a huge difference between saying and doing. And the last thing I I'd tell you to write down is every single thing I just shared with you is very basic in principle. Not a single thing I shared with you is easy to do. None of it. If it was easy, you'd all already be doing it. I wouldn't even need to be here. And honestly, you really wouldn't even need a coaching staff. But, that's not the case. This stuff is really hard to do, but it's also the separator. 99% of people walking the earth will not make the commitment to do the things that I just asked you guys to do. A large portion of elite college football players won't make the commitment to do the things that I just asked you guys to do. So, you're in control of your own destiny if you're you're willing to do those things. So, as I pick up these papers, let's just go ahead and quick review. I want you guys to figure out who is going to lead you. And I hope that some of you are ready to step up and say it's going to be me. I want every single person in this room to know adversity is coming. It might be coming this afternoon, it might be coming this morning, it might be coming in the fourth quarter of your first game. I don't know exactly when it's coming, but it's coming. So, I want you guys to be prepared to have some great responses. Next, if you don't already know what your edge is, you need to find your edge, you need to develop your edge, and you need to use your edge for the betterment of yourself and your career, but more importantly, for the betterment of everybody else in this room and for Kansas football. If anybody in here is lacking confidence, that's okay, because that's part of the human condition, but I want you to know that you can earn it, you can build it, and you can create it. And I want every single one of you to do the things I shared with you to earn your confidence. And just remember the fourth quarter's not when we develop habits, it's when they're revealed. It's not when we develop mental tough- toughness, the fourth quarter's going to reveal whether or not you're mentally tough already. So, let's start working on that today. Football's a game of execution. So, make plays when they matter most, but the only way you make plays when they matter most is when you make plays when they matter the least. And then lastly, start behaving like a champion now in every single thing you do in every single area of your life, live to that standard. And with that, I say thanks, guys. I appreciate you very much.