Longhorn Player’s Lounge Chemistryness

An interesting article about the Texas Player’s Lounge and how it has transformed from an abandoned 19th century English estate parlor to the center of the new Texas culture.

The idea of "chemistry" as the ultimate arbiter of winnerness wears me out, but it is true that late Mack Brown era teams had devolved into silos, there was no unifying team culture and that atmosphere of alienation in combination with, and a result of, an AWOL coaching staff, helped lead to the smooth decline we’ve all come to know and live.

Unity of purpose - often confused for chemistry - trumps all.

I thought the key point of the article was this one:

When players want to be in the football building, it means they want to be around football. That sounds simplistic to the point of idiocy. Until it's missing.

Brown’s decline was characterized by too many players who played football because they were expected to, Strong’s guys play football because they need to.