Just about every college program out there has the old cliché of the 24-hour rule. Whatever the result of the game, you enjoy it/wallow for 24 hours, then you get back to doing what football players do. Practice, get better and prepare for the next game.
Win the biggest game in your program's history? On to the next one.
Lose? Doesn't matter if it was a cataclysmic upset or an organ-ripping, life-shortening, final-second defeat to the most-hated rival -- on to the next one.
LSU, as a program -- and make no mistake, the fans are a part of this -- has got to move on from last weekend's debacle in Oxford. Forget? No. Hell, I'm not even going to bring up forgiveness, because there rarely is any. There will be a time to talk about that game, its impact on the season, the embarrassment, the problems it demonstrated, whatever, when the season's over and we're performing the autopsy.
But for now, we all have to flush this one.
Skip Bertman was known for a lot of sayings, mottos and motivational tactics that seem cheap, even stupid. But they worked. Hell, I've been lucky enough to hear the man himself describe them, thinking to myself "really?...that worked?" One of them, was (and if there's a baseball historian here he might be able to say which year, but I don't remember) placing a non-working toilet in the middle of the Tiger baseball locker room to represent the mantra to his players. Bad things happen. Pick yourself off, dust yourself off, and move on to the next game. And the players bought in, because a season will always have its ups and downs. But you only stay down if you allow yourself to.
Obviously, it's easier said than done for the players involved. But as fans, we can move on to this next cupcake with Furman and then gird our loins for two weeks of Alabama hype. So what if it's not going to be a top-five match-up? You want to beat them any less? I didn't think so.
There's already been talk -- too much of it -- from fans and a few select media members that shall remain nameless, that there's nothing for this team to play for but pride. The video game generation. If you're not winning, just press the reset button, right? So if you can win a title what else is left?
Bunch of bratty, weak-minded, thumb-sucking, diaper-wearing infants that have been so spoiled by the high times that they forgot why we play and watch these games in the first place. Because we love LSU and this is fucking FUN dammit.
I'm not going to pretend I know what's in the minds of these players, but I'm going to give them credit for wanting to win a football game because that's the whole damn point. Not because what it can get you. Not for the next step or the one after that. Because it's a competition and if you don't want to win, why'd you ever even pick up the ball in the first place?
LSU may win out. They may lose another game or two. The division's still a possibility, and the conference from there. But if we're all still thinking about what's already happened for the next few weeks, we won't be thinking about what's happening next. And that's how a team beats you twice. Ole Miss was stupid, sad and depressing. Letting them beat us twice would be even more stupid, sad and depressing.
And football season is too damn fun to be stupid, sad or depressing. I, for one, am not about to rob myself of that enjoyment.
So come with me. And let's flush all this shit just where it belongs.