Before coming into the media room at the football center Tuesday evening, Arkansas players were heavily coached outside by the folks whose job it is to do that.
Nobody heard them, but it’s a good bet they were instructed on key talking points and pretty much stick to the script and they did. Based on that, none of them said they even paid attention to it.
The only one I know that doesn’t is freshman wide receiver Treylon Burks.
“I don’t do any of that, so it’s not a problem for me,” he said. His mother handles his account. “I don’t even get on Twitter.”
There are others that have probably not looked at their accounts this week. I can relate. I don’t look at the tweeter thing at all or Facebook other than to see what family members are up to.
“To be honest, if it’s outside these walls, I haven’t heard it,” senior defensive tackle T.J. Smith said.
Believe it or not, some of the players are actually able to tune it out. That’s a concept that’s difficult for a lot of folks in today’s social media world. It wants affirmation more than information for an awful lot of people these days.
“Y’all are giving me comments and y’all are not waking up at 5:30 in the morning and coming to 6 a.m. workouts,” defensive back Jarques McClellion said. “Why should I listen to what you have to say? I just make sure I listen to my coaches and my teammates and not anyone else that is not in this facility, so I shut out the noise.”
Now that’s about as honest of a statement as you’re going to get. They are capable of tuning out the negativity.
“I appreciate [the fans] at the end of the A&M game when they cheered us when we were going into the locker room,” McClellion said. “At the end of the day, we just need a win, just finish it out.”
Fans are feeling the same way … at least the ones that haven’t thrown in the towel on the coaches and this season.
For some of the players who’ve been around a few years, the frustration they are having may be starting to show a little.
“We’ve been preaching finishing since I’ve been here,” defensive end Gabe Richardson said Tuesday. “It’s hard at times. It really is hard dealing with this, but you can’t quit.”
A lot of folks have.
Senior tight end C.J. O’Grady hammered again that this year is different.
“Like I said before in past interviews, we’re a whole different team this year,” he said. “Last year we would have had people blaming, complaining, talking. Just bad noise.
“This year, everybody, they are still coming together and we’re being the same people, bringing it every day. Right after the game Saturday we came in Sunday and we came to practice and we practiced hard and stayed consistent. Just like today, we did the same thing. We had great energy and everybody was flying around and it was positive energy all around.”
The noted scientific genius Albert Einstein is often credited with saying “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Nobody has it on tape and others have been credited with originating it, too.
But it has stood the test of time pretty well and usually tends to be especially true in football.
“Can’t talk about it, you’ve got to show it,” Richardson said.
Ultimately, that’s what the fans are wanting to see.
