In his classic sports book Instant Replay, Hall of Fame Green Bay Packers guard Jerry Kramer gave an insider's look at how NFL pros get ready to play.
"In order to play pro football, you've got to have a bit of hate in your heart, hate for your opponent," Kramer wrote.
With that in mind, we take you back to South Florida's game Thursday against Memphis. It was an entertaining but eventually deflating game as the Bulls fell behind by three touchdowns after one quarter. The Bulls put on a spirited battle and took the lead in the fourth quarter, only to surrender two late touchdows 52-41.
Obviously, that result perturbed Hartline. But it went deeper than just the score.
"The mentality, I have felt, it's probably been my most disappointing piece. Like, in my opinion, when I saw the amount of smiling on the field after the loss, like, I'm not used to that. Smiling in pictures and, like, throwing up signs and stuff, like, that's just loser mentality. I don't understand that, you know? I remember, like, crying, broken mad, almost in fistfights after a game. You put so much work into itd," Hartline said after the game.
"We smile here, we lock hands, and we're all (like) I'm good. So, we gotta figure it out, we gotta have a whole change of mentality, if we really want to develop in the level we want to be as people, and as a team. That's very apparent."
Catch the quote: "A whole change of mentality."
The Bulls are 6-4 this season and all four losses occurred late in the game when the Bulls couldn't make an important play. Would a few extra logs on the fire during the week buildup to the game have made the difference?
You can argue that, and I think I will.
Football at USF's level requires exacting attention to detail by the participants. Pass routes have to be executed with exact precision. The same goes for blocking by the offensive linemen.
On defense, players have to be in the right position -- not a step or two to either side -- on every down. Emotion can get lost in the details of executing any given play.
To be clear, I'm NOT advocating the Bulls start a fight with their opponents after a loss. It's a thin line between egriguously bad sportsman and playing the game with all the emotion it demands.
This is not to remotely suggest all USF players were guilty of shaking off the loss with smiles, hugs, and handshakes. Quarterback Luke Kromenhoek clearly put every ounce of energy he had into trying to win.
Defensive end Michael Williams, a graduate student, definitely wasn't smiling.
"Everybody on our side of the ball, defense, feels, like (this is) 100% on us. Like, we feel like no team should, no offense should be putting up 41 points and losing a game. That's true for how we feel on defense. All the leaders on defense are truly torn up about it," he said.
"A lot of us don't have any more time left. And me personally, I'll say this right now. I came back for my fifth year because I had never beat Memphis. Uh, I really, this game meant a lot to me. I really wanted to win, uh, and it just, it didn't happen. So, like Luke said, this one stinks quite a bit, and I don't really know when his feeling's gonna go, but this team definitely has a lot of picking up to do, and there can't be any slack for the rest of the season."
This has never been about pointing a finger at any individual player. It's more about a mindset that what they're about to do matters a lot and when it doesn't work out, that should hurt -- a lot.
USF is at Florida Atlantic Saturday on ESPNU, and you can bet the Owls have this one circled. They've heard how the Bulls don't consider them a rival like UCF was. They've endured solid beatings from the Bulls the last two years. They disintegrated UTSA 60-29 a couple of weeks ago.
They would love to do that, and more, to the Bulls.
What can USF do to prevent that?
It starts, now, with hating what a beating like that might feel.
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