All American Mardy Gilyard

I’m still giddy over the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (UC) victory over the University of Pittsburgh Panthers yesterday. Don’t worry, this is not going to be a post about sports, it’s about what it takes to make a great success. Creating a winning major college football program at UC, while not some earth stopping innovation, is surely a story about creating a culture of excellence — and all innovators can learn from that.

Let me take you back to the early 60’s for a moment. I was a young lad living near the UC campus in Cincinnati. I attended a few football games with my father and brother, and usually, UC got trounced. Sometimes they would eek out a narrow victory over cross town rival Xavier, or Marshall and people would go nuts. It was fun. People actually got dressed up in fancy clothes. Men smoked cigars and a greenish haze would hang over the stands at Nippert Stadium. Everyone stood up and sang the Star Spangled Banner and they hoped for the best from Cincinnati’s flagship school.

Everybody in Cincinnati dreamed back then of having a real major college football program (okay, not everybody, some dared not dream that big) to compete with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame. It makes some sense — Cincy is a hotbed of great high school football. Big name schools, like the ones I mentioned, have raided talent from Cincinnati for years. The dream of emerging from mediocrity would take many years to fulfill, but it has happened. UC finished this season 12-0, Big East champions, and will be in the top 4 in the nation on Monday. It’s a major accomplishment for a school in the 25th sized market in the USA.

Innovation, like major college football success, takes time. It’s not about silver bullets.  It’s not about a 3 month initiative. It’s about setting a goal and doing everything necessary to get there even if it takes a lifetime. Innovation efforts always have very dark moments. When you are over budget, have lost support, or encountered an unexpected obstacle, it’s easy to give up.  Everybody will encourage you to do so. That’s exactly when real innovators dig in deeper, put on their helmets, and work harder, work smarter, work more creatively. Persistence, patience, and perseverance are as important to innovation as brilliance. Call it the three P’s of Innovation.

UC never gave up on football even when it would have been politically correct to do so. Xavier University, caving to pressure to become more academically focused, dropped football entirely in the 70’s. Several generations of UC boosters, coaches, and players would not give up.  They understood that it wasn’t just about football. It was about respect for the school that would carry over to every department, every college, from engineering to music to business. They “stayed the course” and contributed money, effort, and encouragement. During the 70’s when I was at UC (I am an alum, College Conservatory of Music, 1975) many campaigned to have the program disbanded. Games were poorly attended, the teams were mediocre to terrible (with the notable exception of the Greg Cook years). UC persevered, and gradually, the teams got better.  They changed conferences a couple times to get better teams on their schedule.  Coaches came and went (UC was viewed as a stepping stone to a “real program” — I think that’s changed now). They scheduled football powers, knowing they would get whupped. They landed in the Big East a few years ago and everybody anticipated some sound butt whippings.

A couple years ago UC beat Rutgers and everybody thought it was a fluke.  No, it wasn’t a fluke, it was excellence emerging after a long and difficult gestation. Coach Brian Kelly was the final touch the program needed to go to the level it is now.  His creative specialty seems to be finding talent everybody else overlooks.  One of those overlooked talents is Mardy Gilyard, who was the key player for UC in yesterday’s big win. Gilyard himself is an amazing story of perseverance.  He lost his scholarship and ended up homeless — living in a car for months. He decided he would get back. He worked four jobs, studied, got his grades back up, returned to the team, and became a star. He’s an All American now and will be a top draft pick in the NFL.  Maybe he and Kelly are examples of the fourth “P” — people.