"My dream was to be a leader at Wisconsin," said Gordon. "Now that James
(White) is gone, I have to fill that role."
46
Offensively, there's an absolute, a given: when in
doubt give the ball to Melvin Gordon or Corey Clement. Few teams have such a dynamic returning onetwo punch. "My dream was to be a leader at Wisconsin," Gordon said. "Now that James (White) is
gone, I have to fill that role."
Andersen has great respect for the leadership
process that he has put in place.
"One of the theories behind our leadership committee was to let the younger kids watch the older
kids lead," he said. "There are situations where you
have to make hard decisions. You also make fun decisions and some decisions are just OK to make and
not really bothersome to you.
"But I want those kids in those positions. I'd like
them to speak up. But more importantly I want
them to watch how a leader does it. When it's good
or bad, it's like taking a class, if you will, on how to
be a captain of a football team. That's what we try to
get accomplished.
//
VARSITY January 9, 2014
"I challenged those kids when I met with them at
the end of the regular season. If I had deemed them
as a leader for next year's team, we talked about it
and we addressed it. You can't force leadership. You
can't make leaders but you can sure point them in
the right direction.
"As those rooms change, when they walk back
in there the third week of January, those kids understand it. And when those seniors walk into that
team meeting room, they'll move up two or three
rows and to be in the front. Now it's their team and
they'll take it over."
Another cycle, thus, begins anew with LSU waiting in the on-deck circle for the 2014 opener and
divisional realignment punctuating the retooled Big
Ten landscape.
Change is welcome.
"It's time for everyone to step up," Arneson said.
"I know we're real sick of losing bowl games, that's
for sure."
