What you see there is a kind of existential report card that's greeted players at Ole Miss' indoor practice facility every day this offseason, helpfully described by Rebel beat writer Kyle Veazey as "motivational bulls-eye wall art." The unfortunate souls who've fallen outside of its inner realm would probably also describe the board as "art," though in their case it's more of a cruel adaptation of Dante's Inferno: Descent into the "Circle of Untrustables" comes with a hellish "accountability run," held every Friday morning at 5:30 a.m. ?�sometimes, according to coach Houston Nutt, even for guys who are only guilty by association:
"So when we got back [in January] we said that everybody's going to pick a partner," Nutt said. "And if your partner doesn't go to class, you both run. One of you oversleeps? Both of you overslept. And both of you have got to pay a penalty. And so you get so many penalties and you start, you get outside ? you don't want to be outside the blue. What I'm excited about, with 121 right now, I think we've got four names up there."
Four, because of the partner system.
"I see a starter up there [running back Branden Bolden] and it might not necessarily be him," Nutt said. "Could be his teammate. And so, but that's what team is. They don't penalize one guy, they penalize 11. So our whole message is we want committed guys, in a circle of excellence, and here's how you do it to stay there. It's real simple. You do what's right. You don't? There's a penalty, and it's costly. Every morning at 5:30, and you're welcome to come, at 5:30 every Friday, all penalties will be ? you have to pay your penalty."
My second grade teacher employed a similar system for classroom discipline, where everyone started in green on Monday, first-time offenders descended into yellow, then into red, and hit rock bottom in the unspeakable void of black; the kids still in green at the end of the week got some sort of Friday reward, which at least once included a pi�ata. It was effective. So if Nutt finds his wee-hour negative reinforcement isn't quite getting the job done, that would be my advice: Incorporate a pi�ata on the other end.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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