This question has been floating around the empty expanse that is my head, lately.  I'm guessing other strength coaches think about this.  I can't be the only one?

On Thursday we start our football season.  All of our other Fall sports have already begun their seasons.  I always think about this with everyone, but more with football because I have so much more contact and leeway with them.

This season started back in January.  The majority of the team (everyone except transfers and freshmen) went through winter workouts, spring ball and some stayed here for the summer.  There's nothing I can do to really help the kids who chose to go home for the summer.  They either did their work or they didn't and that's not on me.

But, as we get ready to open the season I wonder if I've done a good job.  I know they're ready physically.  I rarely worry about that.  I worry that they're not ready mentally.

As we go through workouts I always try to manufacture adversity.  Sometimes it's there and sometimes I just try to throw a curve ball to see how they'll respond.

I constantly talk about discipline, details and doing what's necessary to have success (my 3 D's).  There can never be enough discipline.  You can never do things right, enough.  No detail is ever too small.  The 3rd D is dependent on the individual.  Sometimes it's more conditioning, more lifting, more film, eating better, sleeping better...

Truthfully, I'm (any strength coach) is only as powerful as the head sport coach allows.  If it doesn't come from the top it really doesn't matter what I do.  However, that doesn't stop me from trying to impose my will on these kids.

As I think about my job I always come back to the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."  As I look at what a strength coach does I think the phrase (for me, at least) is, "I don't even lead them to the water.  I just show them where it is and try to keep them on the right path as they go looking for it."

Ultimately, we as strength coaches can't hold their hands.  We don't play the games.  We're not in the huddle when things are going badly.  We're not with them when they're in the middle of a 8, 9, 10 play drive.  Why would I want to hold their hands all the way through the off-season?  Instead I try to let them make their mistakes and correct them without much interference.

As a massive control freak this is tough, but I think it's necessary.  As I just said, I won't be out there with them.  I can't rally them.  I can't get them refocused.  They have to take control when the going gets tough and we're getting our butts kicked.

I'm sitting here on a Monday morning hoping I did enough.  Hoping that the lessons I taught, some subtle hints and some in-your-face, were learned or can still be learned once the situation presents itself.

Did I push them hard enough?  Did I give them tools to overcome adversity?  Did I show them?  Inevitably, as coaches we have to overcome adversity, as well.  When I encountered it, how did I respond?  Did I show them an example of doing it myself?  Did I show them examples of mental toughness?

I said this before and believe it to my core - players win or lose games.  The worst call for a situation executed to perfection can be a good call.  Coaches can make bad calls, but if the players execute well they make coaches look good.

We get on the bus Thursday to play an opponent that over matches us on paper.  Physically, they are better.  That's why we're getting paid to go play them.  That doesn't mean we can't win.  It means we have to be dialed in to have a chance.

I'm curious to see how they handle things when we get punched in the face.  Will they fold or will they absorb the blow and keep fighting?  I'll know the answer at the end of the game, regardless of the score.  Hopefully, I did a good job.