When a football player storms the field, their mentality is keeping their head in the game, and performing at their best for the fans, the team, and themselves. After a loss against the Utes, the Cougars' mentality tackled their confidence while playing on Utah's home turf. Riley Nelson says that being on their home field has an advantage.
“It’s just familiar. You're familiar with the play clock, the field and the air...it’s not a huge deal to me, but it is nice know that it is your home,' said Nelson.
Having a home field advantage is described as a psychological advantage that the home team has over the visiting team. Riley Nelson goes on to say that this may have explained the nine false starts during the duel game.
He said, “Just the fact that my center can’t hear me… my running backs can’t hear my checks and calls that makes it tough.”
The advantage of being on the Utes territory wasn’t the biggest thing that took a toll on their confidence; these athletes may be fit enough to throw a pass, but many fumble their own thoughts right back into the end zone.
“We do so much physical but I don’t feel like we ever put enough emphasis on the mental side hence I see so many people performing and think they can always do better if they had some more mental training,” said Craig Manning, the sports psychologist.
Manning also says that in order to clear the mental block, athletes need to know how to accept failure. Preston Hadley knows that failure helps a team grow stronger.
Hadley says, “I don’t think there were too many guys on the team that had any doubt that we were going to lose...it is unfortunate but…we just gotta keep our heads up and keep battling.”
Although the Utah game was an upset for the team, they have no problem picking up the ball and getting ready for the next big win.