Tyrique Stevenson blog: A defensive players-only meeting, and I know this team's ready for the season

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CB/STAR Tyrique Stevenson will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Stevenson talks about the upcoming game, a defensive players-only meeting and more:

SEASON IS HERE AND I KNOW THAT WE’RE READY

The season is here and I’m excited. When I woke up today, I was just excited, just happy.

Four years of college and this is my last year. It’s just been exciting.

I feel the team is just great. Watching them work in the spring without me (recovering from injury), putting in that work and challenging themselves. Us putting the work in all summer, off-season. It’s just a great feeling because I know that we’re ready. It’s all about us. We aren’t too worried about the outside noise and everything else going on. It’s a great feeling to know this team is ready for this year.

I know we’re ready just by how it feels. How the coaches are keeping the intensity up, how the guys are responding, how the guys are accepting everything and allowing themselves to be pushed and the coaches pushing us. It’s just something you feel, and it’s an amazing feeling.

And the attitude. Even our coaches acknowledge we’re good at adapting. Whenever they put something in front of us, we adapt to it. And we are good with that. Seeing that, seeing everyone’s resilience,  everyone is receptive to being pushed. That’s one thing you can tell to know we’re ready as a team.

Everybody wants to win and everybody is okay with going at extra stuff and doing what we have to do and preparing the best as we can to be able to put ourselves in that `W’ column every time we step out there with another opponent.

That starts with Game 1 in front of the crowd, and it’s going to be a wonderful feeling. I’m not too much worried about it, just tell the freshmen to soak it all in, that I’m excited for them.

HOW THIS YEAR’S TEAM STACKS UP VS. LAST YEAR

Last year’s team was a completely different team than this one. It had different strengths, different things that we did well. So I wouldn’t say this team is better. Just from a mindset thing, I can say the guys that are here this year are a little more prepared to go into the season, prepared mentally to withstand any adversity that’s going to come this year.

And I wouldn’t say that’s because of the training. Everybody who was here last year just doesn’t want that same feeling. It wasn’t on the coaches, was on the whole group, and everybody who came back has just matured and we all understand that we cannot let last year and how it went down go down like that this year.

That year of maturity means a whole lot because once you start maturing, you understand everything that goes on in college. You understand taking care of your body, understand that the coaches have a plan, understand that all these newer pieces, you should do your best to be that piece and make sure the program fits together.

LIVING THE LIFESTYLE “HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING”

Mario Cristobal? The organization he really brought is discipline. Doing the little things right, and how you do anything is how you do everything. So it’s just that sense of you are always who you are. So if you stay the same person and keep the same energy you want to perform at a high level every time you get into something.

The “how you do anything is how you do everything,” that’s really what he brought in. Stick to the basics, stick to the plan, to what got you here. Don’t start switching up and everything, because that’s when stuff starts to go wrong. Stick to the basics. You stay on a steady path, are really locked into what you have to do.

That saying, the first day he brought it up. I was like `He sounds kind of intense, you know?’ That’s really what he stands by. To this day, I’ve seen him almost every day, you hear it every day. By saying it serious, it blows my mind.

I felt like him as a coach made that saying catch on, because he’s the same guy every day, the same coach who comes in and gives you the same intensity he gave you Day 1. He’s not letting up, and he’s going to actually start to go harder because all of us are a family and need each other. His character and how he comes to work every day is impressive.

If you stick to “how you do anything is how you do everything, it becomes a lifestyle. It becomes something you enjoy doing, something you wake up for each day and have fun doing it. It becomes something you live. It’s something you stick to doing. Listening to him and coaches, everyone in the building, I took on his whole new approach to myself. Just do the little things right and keep doing the little things better. Just stick to the basics and get myself in this position and spot in my life where it became a lifestyle.

The same for my teammates. Everyone is buying into the message, buying into the standard that he is holding everyone to. No one is allowing themselves to be short of it.

I CALLED A PLAYERS-ONLY MEETING WITH A COUPLE OF OTHER GUYS

We just had a player-led defensive meeting and we had a one-on-one talk with all the guys. Seeing the guys mature, understand what we need to do as a defense this year from each position group just made me feel better. This defense is so mature, we’re ready for any obstacle, any adversity.

The meeting — me and a couple of other teammates called it. It wasn’t anything too crazy. We just went in there, let each other speak. It was nothing bad, it was how we feel about this upcoming season, some of the goals we put out in front of each other and some of the understanding that we need to do.

It was 10-15 minutes before our actual team meeting. We got everyone in early, got everybody to see the goals and the standard of what we need to do this year as a defense. It was a defense-only meeting called by me, Corey Flagg, others in a group chat. We all just talked about it after practice, put each other in a group chat.

We let everybody know that these coaches aren’t going to hold us to the standard we are going to hold ourselves to, which are high and we are capable of reaching them. That’s what the meeting was about.

For me, I just felt like I needed to make sure everyone has the same understanding. If you are mature enough, old enough to play, you can be in any situation in a game. And if you’re in that situation we all have to have the understanding that we all want the same thing. And if your goals match up with everyone, then everyone around you should eat. Just simple things like that.

We’re taking it one practice at a time, and each practice we’re getting a better understanding of each other as a group. We started to become a well-oiled machine. We’re working on the smaller things, doing the smaller things better.

I’M MORE LOCKED IN THAN LAST YEAR

I feel like everybody took a big jump since last season, including myself. Just allowing the coaches to push us, allowing the coaches to teach us the new defense and allowing the coaches to coach. I felt everybody just took a tremendous jump each day that we came out there.

For me, I just feel like I’m more locked in than last year. Even though I came in last year with my head down, still worked for what I wanted, I feel I still have a lot more in the tank. So I feel I’m just a lot more focused and a lot more into the actual game itself to be able to provide myself for the team. Just more locked in, a mature, older guy for the team.

And there’s always another level. There’s always that extra in the tank. And that’s what I live by every day and have been pushing myself by. Just be available and be the best I can be for this team.

WHY CAN’T WE BE THE NEW FACES OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL?

Honestly, every season means a lot, you know? Being blessed and being able to play this game is a huge blessing that I’m grateful for. But I just want this season to come. I want to earn my respect. Being in college so long, being looked over and having the opportunity to go into the season is great and I’m very excited and very grateful for it.

Every day I tell the guys we’ll be something special. Why can’t it be us? Why can’t we be the team everybody looks up to? Why can’t we be the new faces in college football? There’s nothing stopping us. We have to strive for that. That’s what we’re looking forward to.

It starts Saturday with the first game. We treat every opponent the same – no face, no jersey. They (Bethune) are coming in here and they are going to give us their all. And we’re going to give them our all. Nameless, no face, no jersey and they just happen to be in our way.