Things to keep in mind during the highs and lows of Aggie football season

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – There will be a lot of cheers and sometimes tears and jeers during the college football season.

We are passionate about the game, aren’t we?

This week ahead of the Aggie football season opener Saturday, we spoke with someone who knows the Aggie team well: Mikado Hinson, the Director of Football Player Development at Texas A&M.

Each season starts with high expectations for teams across the country, including the Aggies. Hinson says that’s a good thing.

“You want high expectations. That’s why we’re in the business. That’s why they came to Texas A&M. That’s why we compete in the SEC. You want high expectations. You find someone who wants low expectations, you’ll fight them every day, you know? So we got into this for this. It’s exciting for everyone. I know the city is buzzing. College football is about to start going and we’re equally as excited to finally actually go against someone else other than each other in practice every day.”

No matter who they support, fans love the excitement when their team is winning. But it can be challenging and frustrating when the team is losing.

Hinson was asked how we can manage those expectations for these young athletes when things aren’t going well.

“I would say just try to put yourself in the shoes of that student-athlete. They’re practicing hard every single day. They’re going over film. They’re in meetings. They’re doing all those things to prepare, to put the best product on the field every Saturday,” said Hinson. “I would say to the fan, just learn to give a little grace. Every ball that’s dropped, it’s not done on purpose…we’re humans and being a human being, we make mistakes.”

“I know people get frustrated, but what I want people to really consider, if they can, is just think of how frustrating the young person is,” he said. “They have pressure to perform. But we also, we say it a lot, that pressure is a privilege. We signed up for it, like I said. We also understand we have the greatest fans in the world and we do appreciate that. We value them, but we really cherish our student-athletes because they, every single day, they’re going to class, they’re doing all of the things on top of being a high-performing student-athlete. So I would just encourage everyone, as I encourage myself every game, show them some grace. Show them some love because they’re trying their best for sure.”

No matter the sport, there are good and bad games for even the most talented athletes.

“I’ve always been told that it’s a short walk from the penthouse to the outhouse and it’s a short walk from outhouse to the penthouse. So I encourage our guys to daily, fight for the middle,” said Hinson. “Fight for the middle because it’s never as good as it seems. It’s never as bad as it seems. You fight for the middle because one day people will tell you you’re the best ever, then the next day they’ll tell you you’re the worst ever. Neither are true. Fight for that middle. Knowing who you are and why you do what you do.”

“We always encourage the guys be critical, self critical but not self-condemning. Don’t condemn yourself,” he said. “Grace gives you another chance. So you may have fumbled. You’re going to get the ball again, and it’s not what happened. It’s what happens next. And so learning to persevere through failure, persevere through disappointment and things like that. I think we all can learn a lesson from that about perseverance through adversity. That’s what it’s about.”

Hinson says he’s really excited about the upcoming season because of the leadership and team culture he is seeing.

“Super excited. I’m really excited about the leadership on the team,” he said. “I think that when a team governs itself from inside out, meaning the coaches just echo what is being said from team leadership, you put yourself in a really good position. I’ve really been pleasantly surprised, excited and just really fired up about the leadership that’s going on with team. You don’t need a team full of leaders. You need a few strong leaders and we have that. So it’s been fun watching those guys lead.”

“When you see a seamless unit, a seamless team not divided in three parts, you know that there’s an opportunity to do something great together. Now, at the end of the day they have to go out and perform and the scoreboard can hopefully reflect that. But my feeling going into this is that I’m super excited because of the young men that we have,” he said.