Sports Story of the Week
NC State vs. Vanderbilt
You never want your football team to make history in a bad way, but that is exactly what NC State Football did this weekend. I apologize in advance to my brother Kyle, an NC State alumni, and all the other fans of NC State who will need to relive this weekends disappointment, but the lessons to be learned are worth it.
The NC State Wolfpack headed into Nashville this weekend to face SEC opponent, Vanderbilt. Most of the talk before the game was about the heat, with field temperatures reaching nearly 150 heat index, the heat was a factor in the game. When the game began, NC State came ready to play. They controlled the game early, jumping out to a 17-0 first-half lead and then continued their momentum through halftime, extending the lead to 24-7 in the third quarter.
Refusing to quit, Vanderbilt fought hard in the fourth quarter, scoring 21 points behind quarterback Jared Curtis. All of that effort seemed to come up short when the Wolfpack appeared to seal the victory on an intercepted pass by NC State from Vanderbilt’s Quarterback at the 1-yard line with just at a minute left in the game. Then, with seconds left on the clock and a 31-28 lead, NC State faced a fourth-down situation. Having a 3 point lead and just seconds to burn off the clock, coming out of their end zone, even a 2 point safety would secure their win. NC State had all but won the game. Notice I said “all but”. NCSU’s Quarterback took the final snap and rolled out of the pocket, needing to kill a couple more seconds or at least take a knee to the ground. Instead, he fought for yards, and was hit by a Vanderbilt player who knocked the ball loose, creating a fumble in Vanderbilts end zone. Vanderbilt jumped on the loose ball for a game winning touchdown with just one second remaining. That gave Vanderbilt its first and only lead of the entire afternoon, and with that lead, a win.
It was heartbreaking. To quote ESPN, “there were 99 of 100 other things the quarterback could have done to win the game and he did the 100th.” But here is the thing, that moment, that play, that error, was not the one that lost them the game, but it was the one that they didn’t have time to recover from. It was quite literally the only thing that could have caused them to lose in the moment.
If you watch the ending, I think there is more shock on the Vanderbilts staff than there is disappointment on the NC State staff. Not one human in that stadium thought that would happen. There were too many other options. But it did.
Head Coach Dave Doeren was asked after the game what he said to his team:
“Stick together. There’s a lot of football left. It’s okay to be mad, sad, and disappointed; just don’t point it at somebody else. Look at yourself. What could you have done? Everyone’s going to talk about the last play, but shit, there was 10 to 20 plays in that game that, if we would have played better on, maybe it doesn’t even come down to that, right? Like, it wouldn’t have come down to that. I mean, how many missed tackles on their quarterback did we have in the fourth quarter? I mean, it’s ridiculous. There are things we could have done way better where it doesn’t come down to that, and that’s the message: “What could you have done to help this game and help the team win?”
This is the leadership gold. When you can be reeling from that momental loss and have the perspective to not jump on the blame.
I am sorry to my brother, my cousin, and my many many wolfpack friends for thier loss. I also have full faith that this TEAM of young men will be better because of what they went through, and then maybe one day, they won’t have to hear what my sister in law and many others say about their beloved team, “State is going to State.”
The 3 Lessons from the Game
1. Evaluate the whole game not just the outcome.
Don’t get me wrong, outcomes matter, and they matter very much. But don’t get so obsessed with the “outcome” that you don’t evaluate the “game” in its entirety. In business and sports, there are good wins and bad wins. Both NC State and Vanderbilt need to evaluate the game in its entirety. That was not a great performance by Vanderbilt- but they won. And it wasn’t as bad as it seemed from NC State- but they lost. As Coach Doeren stated, there were so many moments in that game that put them in the position late in the game for the spotlight to shine and the moment to matter. As a leader, make sure that you aren’t putting undue focus on one thing that might have impacted an outcome whether a failure or a success. It is important to continue to evaluate the contributions, or lack thereof, from the entire team along the whole process.
2. Celebrate the win, but know how you got there.
To quote Vanderbilt Coach Lea, “I can’t put into words what I felt…you get one of those in a lifetime…We cheated the football gods today and got away with it.” He is praising his team. They fought hard. They didn’t give up. They followed their mantra and process “We talk about every blade of grass on defense, and that’s literally every blade of grass,” so that is to be commended, but to also think that the win didn’t involve a bit luck isn’t realistic either.
Whether the luck and success comes from systems, a bit of a head start, or even “who you know”, it is important to acknowledge both the effort you put in and good fortune that might have come your way. Knowing that the win was one that for every other reason “should” have gone the other way, doesn’t take away from the celebration, but it also stays true to the path that got you there.
3. Your response to failure becomes the teams standard.
Coach Doeren couldn’t have been happy. In fact, he stated that “it’s a play that breaks your heart more than anything. I was proud of how our guys played for 59 minutes and 59 seconds” And yet, his words in the locker room were “Stick together.” He stuck true to the core of team. He didn’t deflect or blame, instead, he knew that his energy would be contagious and he chose to redirect the team’s emotions away from the past and have them put energy into the future. In business, how a leader responds to failure shapes the culture more than any thing they say when having success. The team is watching to see if the words and behaviors of their leaders align when it actually matters. Managing the emotional reaction vs. your response is key to strong leadership.
