KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Each day is made of a series of events, and each event will result in an outcome. How you influence that outcome depends on your response to the event.
This equation – event plus response equals outcome – was one of the messages of Bob Davies, head football coach of the University of New Mexico, during his visit to Kirtland July 8 to speak to Airmen and other base workers.
“Events happen every day,” Davie said. “Some are mundane. Some are more important. Some are more stressful. The outcome, depending on how stressful, important, complex or controversial that event is, can stay with you for the rest of your life. The only thing you control is the response. You control it 100 percent of the time.”
He said he works to equip his players to have an “above the line response,” or a positive way of reacting to difficult or challenging events.
“You really better have the skills to stop and ask yourself, ‘What do I want the outcome to be?’” Davie said. “Don’t just react to the event, but have a plan, think of the outcome you desire and step up. Do you have the discipline, the intelligence, the ability to be able to do that? Your response is most critical when the event is difficult. That’s the hardest time to have the best response. That’s when it’s most critical.”
He said examples of below the line responses are being impulsive, falling into old habits, loss of focus and self sabotage. He said people can improve on avoiding below the line responses.
Davie said he was honored to be at Kirtland and thanked the military members for their service. He said there were some similarities between the military and a football team.
“Whether it’s football or military, we’re asking people to do uncommon things,” he said. “It just is not natural. Not everybody can do it. It takes discipline. It takes mental toughness. It takes unselfishness. All those things that aren’t just common characteristics that everyone has.
Prior to taking the job as head coach at UNM, the Lobos were 3-37 and ranked last among all Division I teams. Davie said the program was in chaos, with 25 players ineligible academically and fewer scholarship players on the roster than any other schools.
He said the main problems the program had, according to his players, were lack of discipline, division among teammates and a variance in how players were treated. He said in order to fix these problems, he had to change the culture.
“We needed to change the culture from A to Z,” Davie said. “Culture is not a fancy slogan or clever motto. Culture is the way you work every day and what you believe every day. Changing culture is hard. Making people accountable is hard. If you’re going to change culture, you’re going to make some enemies and not everyone is going to like you. That’s a piece of being a leader.”
The coach said leadership is about having a vision and building upon bedrock principles that never change.
“A leader has a clear, distinct and absolute vision and he’s able to articulate that vision,” he said. “I start with the bedrock principles that never change. Principles that are solid under all that dust and mud and stuff that goes away. Ours was very simple: out work, out hit, out discipline. That will never change.”
Davie touched on several other topics, including conflict resolution and the power of the unit.
The coach added that he is a fan of the Air Force, except for one Saturday in the fall when his team faces the Air Force Academy.