Disclaimer: I've never written a Fan Post for BC before (or anywhere else, I'm clean, I swear!), but nobis reached the part of me that is an attention whore when he instituted his promotion of Fan Posts policy. Also, I need a scrote tag for reasons that I am not ready to discuss... maybe when we get to know each other better.
Disclaimer 2: I'm a long time BC lurker (clamoring just as hard for another Clipper Cooper piece as the other BC OG's) with a somewhat limited understanding of the game that is my part-time obsession (the other: One Direction fanfic - I'm a Harry-Taylor Swift shipper). An offensive gap, to me, is when my favorite store has run out of Myanmar-made cargo shorts at bargain-basement prices; fuckers need to keep that shit in stock.
With these disclaimers in mind, I want to open a discussion about the Psychology of losing and how this team has/needs to overcome it. During the first half of our game against UTEP (and the transition into the third quarter), I caught myself plummeting into a morass of pessimism despite the fact that the game was not too far gone. After setting down my beer... okay beers (I'm an over-achiever), I thought about why I was feeling this way and realized that I was having a reaction from the past several years that taught me to be pessimistic and to expect the team to fall apart. This is in stark contrast to the glorious VY days, during which I expected a win even when the team wasn't performing well. Now, I treat hardship as a sign of collapse and worry. I'm heartened by our ability to come back against UTEP and win the game as we should, but I worry about what might happen if we fall behind against a team like Cal, which beat us in traumatic fashion last year. Is it possible for a losing mindset to set in again? Has this team evolved beyond that to a better confidence level due to: a better quarterback situation? a more definite offensive identity? better team chemistry? a mix of all of these and more?
Do your job BC readers. Weigh in on this and make me feel better.
And Scipio - write another Clipper Cooper piece for God's sake.
