Periodically there are posts and threads which address the elements of the "mental adjustments" and tenacity often needed to succeed in college athletics and baseball. Just my personal view but so many threads and post focus on showcases, travel teams, PG ratings, Headfirst ratings and the factors which get a player exposure and opportunities to be recruited.
Rarely is the aspect of the mental part of college baseball and athletics much of a topic.
While this relates to football, a very unique and successful college football coach and the resurgence of Stanford football, I don't think the the "culture" part about "winning" is unique when players get to the collegiate level. Not every college coach will have the Harbaugh approach, but many successful coaches and baseball programs will have a "culture" for success and it likely will be more demanding and challenging that most experience before they arrive in college. The comment about "everything being set up for competition" and being "dragged off the field before accepting failure" seem particularly compelling!
"Upon arriving at Stanford, it was clear to Harbaugh that the team was in desperate need of a culture change. Things were too lackadaisical. Players were too easily satisfied. He needed to make it known that the previous way of doing things was unacceptable.
At one of the team's first winter workouts after he arrived, Harbaugh intentionally set an impossible-to-reach time for a conditioning drill.
"When we realized it wasn't realistic, there were guys throwing in the towel and just jogging," said Moore, a senior receiver on the 2007 team. "And [Harbaugh] just sat there quietly. When we were done, he calmly called us all over and just lost it."
There wasn't one person on the team, Harbaugh told the players, who was a true competitor. If it were him in their position, he would have needed to be dragged off the field before accepting failure.
"I remember doing pushups in the locker room after a workout and he came in and was like, 'What are those? Those aren't pushups.' He kind of challenged us," said Bradford, another senior receiver. "We said, 'You're talking bad about us, we want to see you do them.' And he jumps down and does like 50 pushups. I thought he was dead at like 35 and watched him not quit and finish those pushups. He was the kind of guy that would finish what he said he would.
"Every drill, everything we did was set up for competition."
It wasn't reserved for the players, either. Harbaugh's competitive nature set the tone for everything that went on within the program. Pickup basketball games between coaches were notoriously physical. Softball games were unusually competitive. None of the assistant coaches wanted to be seen as the weak link.
"The environment was so competitive every day that walking down the hall, you wanted to walk better than the coach next to you," said Oregon coach Willie Taggart, an assistant at Stanford from 2007-09. "Once everyone understood Coach Harbaugh, everyone followed his lead and bought into it."
"It's part of the foundation, the way they've built [the program]," said Bradford, who now resides in Los Angeles. "I look at it like we were going against inertia. We were going in the wrong way for so long that you needed something like that to show this was a place you can come and play the top teams and win. Once people see it can be done, you can build on it. People can really believe."
