Overcoming Adversity

UNTLifer · December 27, 2021

A number of players have tweeted out that they were proud of what the team accomplished this year because of all the adversity they had to overcome. Any idea what they are talking about?

Cr1028 · December 27, 2021

1 minute ago, UNTLifer said:

A number of players have tweeted out that they were proud of what the team accomplished this year because of all the adversity they had to overcome. Any idea what they are talking about?

UNT 90 Grad · December 27, 2021

46 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

A number of players have tweeted out that they were proud of what the team accomplished this year because of all the adversity they had to overcome. Any idea what they are talking about?

No doubt injuries and the season starting QB not panning out mixed with issues at the QB coordinator position.

Maybe overcoming 6 losses in a row was adverse as well.

Edited December 27, 2021 by UNT 90 Grad

Billy Clyde · December 27, 2021

Maybe they had to overcome poor coaching?

untjim1995 · December 27, 2021

That after getting manhandled many times against teams with a pulse, falling to 1-6, the adversity they faced to fight to keep Coach Softie Mumbles around so as to keep it fun and enjoyable for the players…if he gets fired, a new coach might just be mean and hard…that’s ADVERSITY!!

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · December 27, 2021

Well I think it would be obvious…

ADLER · December 27, 2021

Hell yes there was adversity. There was a six game losing streak, a star player was arrested for domestic assault, a top recruit was digitally lynched, and many fans, including myself, were questioning the direction of the football program. It was a shitty situation.

These players and coaches could easily have thrown in the towel and given into the adversity. They didn't.

They fought through the adversity, gave us a five game winning streak, and qualified for a bowl game. Every one of these players has done more than enough to win our support.

There certainly was adversity and I thank them for fighting though it.

UNTLifer · December 27, 2021

Guess I was reading more into it.

RBP79 · December 27, 2021

This team needs to get use to adversity or should be use to it...one or the other.

They still have at least one more year of Adversity....

UNT Texas Hooligan · December 27, 2021

Littrell as head coach is the adversity. He couldn't win a bowl game if his job counted on it

Aquila_Viridis · December 27, 2021

So ... it's adversity when the other teams try to keep you from winning the games?

Cr1028 · December 27, 2021

11 hours ago, ADLER said:

Hell yes there was adversity. There was a six game losing streak, a star player was arrested for domestic assault, a top recruit was digitally lynched, and many fans, including myself, were questioning the direction of the football program. It was a shitty situation.

These players and coaches could easily have thrown in the towel and given into the adversity. They didn't.

They fought through the adversity, gave us a five game winning streak, and qualified for a bowl game. Every one of these players has done more than enough to win our support.

There certainly was adversity and I thank them for fighting though it.

Not only that, we had a signee murdered just a few months before he was to step foot on campus.

https://dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/mean_green/unt-signee-willie-simmons-iii-killed-in-austin-shooting/article_402cb1a2-08c5-5484-8dd3-ecc3b6a43ac1.html

rcade · December 27, 2021

11 hours ago, ADLER said:

These players and coaches could easily have thrown in the towel and given into the adversity. They didn't.

They fought through the adversity, gave us a five game winning streak, and qualified for a bowl game. Every one of these players has done more than enough to win our support.

I'm glad for the players that they earned five straight victories, including one over a ranked opponent. Particularly the ones on their final year of eligibility.

But I'm not going to credit coaches for not throwing in the towel. If that was ever an option for them, even at 1-5, they are in the wrong job.

SilverEagle · December 27, 2021

Well, winning as many games as you can on your schedule, and the weekly preparation required to do that is, in and of itself, pretty much the definition of overcoming adversity. Maybe they are talking about the uncertainty of their health situation because of covid, or some unknown conflict amongst coaching staff......who knows.

NT80 · December 27, 2021

How would NT fans have any clue about internal adversity for the team? We are hardly given any info about anything related to the team. Unless Vito mentions it or a random coaching tweet or a portal notification fans are left out of communication from this staff.

Mike Jackson · December 27, 2021

On 12/26/2021 at 11:41 PM, untjim1995 said:

That after getting manhandled many times against teams with a pulse, falling to 1-6, the adversity they faced to fight to keep Coach Softie Mumbles around so as to keep it fun and enjoyable for the players…if he gets fired, a new coach might just be mean and hard…that’s ADVERSITY!!

On 12/27/2021 at 2:30 PM, NT80 said:

How would NT fans have any clue about internal adversity for the team? We are hardly given any info about anything related to the team. Unless Vito mentions it or a random coaching tweet or a portal notification fans are left out of communication from this staff.

Congrats to those players. In general life as a G5 football student athlete is hard. In addition to having all the regular life challenges we all face academics and football is hard. However I wouldn’t classify any challenge they face particularly unique compared to other teams. Injuries are a part of the game. And in their case the injuries at RB and WR positions they received they had the most depth at. The defense was adequate most of the year and our offense just made them look worse than they actually were imo. There will challenges on and off the field every season. That is why there are no team participation awards at the end the year. Academic excellence and on the field excellence is rewarded. This season wasn’t good and definitely wasn’t excellent. Here is a hardy pat on the back for trying hard. (My Condolences to the family of the signee who never got on campus. I think it was a little bush league to mention his death as adversity to this team.). I hope all the young men grew as better people during this season. And maybe that win streak is emblematic of that. But assuming that is was is disrespectful to every team that had a losing streak to end the season. Many in spite of all the hard work you put in a more talented or better coach team beats you.

Summary: Let these young men who spent a lot time, energy and pain trying to represent our University as best they could have their reflective moments on social media and stop putting it under a microscope. (They get less than 10% of local Alumni to support them. So if they aren’t doing anything negative I just want to thank them.)

Edited December 29, 2021 by Mike Jackson

Wag Tag · December 27, 2021

Convincing a young team at 1-6 they could win out and still go to a bowl game is over coming adversity. To keep grinding under those circumstances is a credit to all. To understand the headline is really not that complicated for most.

Aquila_Viridis · December 28, 2021

Oh ok ... so when you show up unprepared and lousy the first half of the day so you have to perform real well in the afternoon to net out, THAT'S adversity?

UNTLifer · December 28, 2021

4 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

To understand the headline is really not that complicated for most.

What headline?

Pseudo Nym · December 28, 2021

19 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Guess I was reading more into it.

I think the word adversity has a lot of different meanings/applications depending on your circumstance so it's going to generate a lot of different feelings between individuals.

I've chosen to define tough times and circumstances with my teams as "challenges" and use adversity only when talking about events and situations outside of sports (life events). First by 18 years old, most understand that life's not fair. Then they realize first hand life's not fair and at some point they'll stop bitching about this fact, stop making excuses, begin to face challenges head on, be gracious towards others, learn from defeat, get back on their feet and realize the tougher life is, the better you become at it; life doesn't get easier, you just get better at it (heard this somewhere and it stuck).

I'm not nitpicking at any coach that uses this term with their team or any player. A lot have, do and will in references to challenges their team faces, I just think it should be reserved for the most serious circumstances in life.

There's a psychological approach to how we define things..... perspective is important in all aspects of coaching, as are the words and their implications.

To that end, an adverse time would be the death of a teammate unexpectedly, it's a cross-section of life and sports. Looking at what some have mentioned thus far, injuries, loosing streaks, abandonment by fans/supporters, unfair criticism on social media, these things may be challenging to block out and focus on the task at hand but to call this adversity I think would be a stretch (the digital lynching I think is regarding a recruit, but not sure so didn't include it).

I look to the student body as a whole for a comparison, feel free to trade your athletic scholarship, workouts, practice, film session and games with a student working full time or maybe one or two jobs to pay bills, buy food, still carry student-debt, and you both have the same amount of homework, classwork etc. - everyone's got a choice to make, if your situation as a student athlete is too much, there's an alternative, but again, it comes down to perspective.

MeanGreenTexan · December 28, 2021

I also believe there was a vandalism/robbery spree that hit a lot of the players’ cars the night before a game, IIRC.

The way the players circled the wagons at 1-6, saw the remainder of the schedule in front of them, and said, “Let’s win all of these & go bowling!”, is a testament to their character & their ability to overcome “adversity”, “challenges”, “difficulties”, or whatever word you want to use, and achieve their midseason goal.

GrandGreen · December 28, 2021

Every team faces adversity, that is just part of the process. On the surface, I don't know why NT fans think the NT football team had any more issues than an average squad.

Losing games is not adversity, it is the result of your talent, scheduling and preparation.

NT lost the use of a few players due to injuries, but so did every team that plays.