So our topic for tonight is competition.
All right, so looking at this from an English language perspective, if we tell you to go out there and attack the competition, who are we talking about? Especially in reference to tomorrow night, who are we talking about?
It had absolutely nothing to do with another opponent. In fact, competition was within. Competition was a daily reminder to get up and remember you've got to better yourself. Because there are other people out there that are working to play and be harder and work harder than you. So just keep this in mind. Because I know we have competition tomorrow. But I want you to focus in on what you've already been through.
What you've already gone through since January. So here it is. There are no lights in the off-season. There are no roaring crowds. There's also no Friday fireworks. It's long days in January and February and March and April and May after school. Months away from ever taking the field.
It's iron bars. It's sweat-soaked shirts. It's a soreness that doesn't quit. How many remember that soreness? Week in and week out. You've been lifting heavy. You've been running tired.
Practicing when your legs say no and your brain even says no and wants you to stop. Every drop of sweat. Every ache in your back. Every sprint that you finish. And your lungs are burning. It mattered. It mattered.
And the reason it mattered is because this is where you separated yourselves. You are on the cusp of playing your first game collectively as the 2025 team. But let me tell you something. Our biggest competition is not going to be the team that we play tomorrow or any team on our schedule for that matter. The greatest opponent that you are going to face is within each of you. That is your greatest competition. The voice that says, skip that rep.
Stay out an extra play during scout, the whisper that says, hey, you know what, you've done enough today, kind of coast to the end. The doubt that creeps in when it gets hard, and it will get hard. That is your adversary. Not another team, not some other opponent, not someone, but you. You have made it this far. We all know we've made it this far. We know that there are people who walk these halls that didn't make it this far.
Didn't quit. Look at the ones who were here early and stayed late. Who lifted with purpose this offseason? Who practiced with passion? Who showed up when showing up was nothing more than just having more heart than the guys that didn't want to do it? It's because football isn't just a game that is played on a field. It is one of the only sports that is played with your mind, your gut, and your soul because it challenges you at every single turn.
You've already put in the work. This hard part is behind you already. Now all you have to do is unleash it. That's all you have to do. Play with everything that you've already built in the shadows from January. Play to win the war within, not the war across the line of scrimmage. Test your boundaries tomorrow night.
Test how far you think you are capable of going by going even further. Tell the man in that mirror, that is you, that you have not yet reached your best, your highest potential. By doing this, you will win in the mirror and you will also win on the field of battle. Compete. Tomorrow, your job is to compete and it is to be better than you were today and to outwork that person who was in the mirror this morning.