A Texas Tantrum
Longhorn fans got their way, but Georgia responded in a massive way
Taking a look at NIL lessons from Week 8 of the 2024 CFB season and how they can apply to sports, business and life.
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This college football season has been incredible (they all are), and the unexpected has enthralled the nation. Texas A&M and LSU sit atop the SEC while Vanderbilt is among five teams tied for third.
SMU has overtaken the ACC; Heisman favorites live in Idaho; Army and Navy are both unbeaten; and Big Ten powers Oregon and Indiana are conference frontrunners.
But let’s be honest with ourselves: this is Georgia’s world—we’re all living in it.
Georgia Adversity
Georgia waltzed into Texas and dominated the No. 1 Longhorn team 30-15 despite turning it over three times, and—in Kirby Smart’s words—having the refs nearly ‘rob’ the Bulldogs of victory.
Trailing 23-8, a Texas interception return setting up first and goal was nullified due to a pass interference penalty. By nearly all accounts, it was a demoralizingly bad call.
The fans immediately reacted by throwing countless bottles and other debris onto the field. The main example of field littering that comes to mind is the Cleveland Browns’ ‘Bottlegate’ in 2001.
The second example is when Tennessee fans threw all sorts of objects—including a mustard bottle and golf ball—at Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss squad in 2021. Read here for my reporting on that fan outburst—which also resulted in no penalty.
In Austin, after the remarkably fast clean up, the officials gathered and—in an unprecedented turn of events—reversed the non-reviewable penalty.
Texas would score to cut the margin to eight. Yet with the momentum turning shades of burnt orange, Georgia starred right at their adversity and ran right through it.
The Bulldogs faced perhaps the worse type of in-game adversity you can face and immediately answered with an 11-play, 89-yard touchdown drive that chewed up over five minutes.
In life you will have to navigate countless debris being hurled your way by many critics who are simply not worth your time. You must remember that you are the one in the arena and you have the ability to control how you respond to adversity.
Georgia certainly did that this past Saturday and it resulted with them looking like the best CFB team in the nation for the fourth consecutive year. But if they win the national title, it will only be their third in four years.
That’s because no matter how well you respond to adversity, sometimes—unfortunately—the tantrums win out. Your level of success is not always in your direct control; your response is.
Cigar Smoke
Alabama trailed Tennessee late in the fourth quarter and, after an incompletion, faced a fourth and seven in their own territory with the game on the line.
The situation grew even more dire when the Tide wide receiver retaliated and hit a Vol defender and was flagged for a personal foul. All of a sudden, ‘Bama faced a fourth and 22!
Several NIL lessons here, but no more vital than controlling your emotions when everything is on the line. You never want to make things harder on yourself and your team.
That could be in the form of over promising; firing off an angry email or screaming at a supervisor. All of these actions—no matter how ‘justified’—literally make it that much harder to achieve your goals.
For Alabama, the penalty was a near death sentence and the Tide lost their second game before the calendar has turned to November for the first time since 2007.
Their playoff dreams mixing in with the cigar smoke and dissipating into the Knoxville night sky.
No Ragrets…
(You know what I’m saying?)
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire made headlines when he showed his team a movie clip from Meet the Millers where a character tattooed his motto of ‘No Regrets’ across his neck.
However, he misspelled the word regrets. Since the ink is permanent, you may assume that there may be some regret.
Many Baylor fans did not find him showing this clip before playing the Bears coincidental. Almost as if McGuire—who Baylor passed on for head coach in favor of Dave Aranda, and then left during the 2021 season to take the Red Raider job—was saying he did not regret anything.
Aranda’s Bears played their best game of the year and destroyed their rival 59-35.
But the NIL lessons remain: Don’t regret any of your actions, your deals, your decisions to transfer or otherwise. Always move forward and don’t look back.
Still, it would be wise to use spell check every now and then.
Last Second Wins
The Big 12’s only two unbeaten teams needed last second touchdowns to stay perfect and in an unlikely driver seat for the league title and Playoff berths.
BYU scored with 10 seconds remaining and Iowa State punched it in with 30 seconds left to stay perfect. Both moved into the top 11.
And yet, many analysts believe only one team from the league will make the Playoff and have totally dismissed the conference. (This is inaccurate for an entirely different set of reasons, which I plan to write more about soon).
The Cougars and Cyclones seem to be living on the edge, but it serves as an important reminder to never quit until the final buzzer. Especially if your (Playoff) life depends on it.