ONE Episode 8, “WORK” - Dedicated to JR

Dear Coach Henry,

You don’t know me, but I think I’m in love with you. I didn’t know you until this season’s ONE documentary series, but you quickly got my attention. The way you speak to your players, the way you motivate them, the way you can get right to my heart like you know every feeling inside me. Listening to you speak makes me feel like I can do anything. I wish you could come give the pep talk for my daughter’s rec league soccer games. I wish you could speak to me when my boss is being a jerk, at that moment I need someone to tell me they believe in me. Just point to a brick wall and I will run right through it. I’m a grown man and you made this watery substance appear in my eyes like magic… I think you are a magician… a heart magician.

Love,

A Whole Pack of Emotions

• DFD with the life lessons: “Elite teams handle their business. Every single day ask yourself, am I being elite?”
• I love that he’s embraced the culture at State. This is a school where people do things, design things, build things. When the coach understands the work ethic that embodies the school it makes us connect with him that much more.
• Wait. This guy has been working since he was in the 4th grade?!? Man, I feel lazy. Also, who lets 9 year olds handle battery acid?
• THUNDER DAN!!!!!! Oh man, I am SO happy to see Dantonio Burnette here. No surprise he’s the Director of Football Strength & Conditioning, this was one of the baddest dudes to ever put on a Wolfpack uniform. He helped anchor the defense during the Rivers era. I wish we could’ve gotten some throwback clips here.
• I appreciate them going further outside the coaching circle in this series. This week it’s Joe McKillip, Assistant AD for Football Operations. He wins the Beard of the Week Award. That is a man’s beard. Anyway, holy cow taking a team on the road is a huge operation. This was a great peek behind the curtain of what it takes to move all these guys and make it seem seamless for them. And Joe can “dance” and DJ! This guy is a stud. Did anyone else catch Tuffy on the side of their roadie boxes? Rebranding!
• The emphasis on player development for challenges in life is a classic football coach trope, but this staff really embodies it. They openly admit not everyone will go to the NFL, and even if you do, someday football will end.

GAME TIME:

• Nice shots of Heinz Field. Thankfully no Bane in sight, so the game was able to continue. But man oh man that was an empty stadium. At least the Pack got to enjoy a nice visitor’s locker room, that’s probably nice.
• We haven’t talked about it but I love the block S gloves they wear. We don’t get a chance to see them up close very often.
• Hines really did put the team on his back in the first half. The last two games this guy has come through when we needed him most. And I’ve always loved when the players throw up the wolf.
• Doeren summed it up nicely at halftime. We assumed he gave a huge “Any Given Sunday” style speech, but he kept it simple which is his style. “We’re not tackling, we’re not catching, we’re not finishing. That’s it. Is that us?? We don’t have to be special, we need to be US, and if we’re us, then we ARE special!”
• The camera angle they used for Jay-Sam’s game sealing TD really showed his patience. He waited for the play to develop, then when he saw the opening he turned on the jets.
• Roseboro certainly earned his game ball. And there goes that stuff in my eyes again, what is happening!!