Nautural ability is great, but there are a ton of guys with tons of ability who lack work ethic and desire and never realize their potential. On the other hand there are countless examples of guys who did not have THE MOST talent, but became great because they were driven to succeed. I think all the players recruited by top tier programs have talent, the ones that become great are most often the ones with character and heart.
Do you think the most successfull coaches are the ones that recruit based on athletic abilty first or recruit on Charachter first or some combination in between. I guess what my point is on all this is would you take a quality kid with good skills and work ethic over a naturaly gifted athlete that has all the tools but has questionable charachter to the point you question whether he will stay in school. It seems like during Dinardo we chose the latter and it always bit us in the butt. It is a delicate balance sometimes. It is one of the reasons everyone thinks of Miami as thug U because they chose based only on talent sometimes . Seems like a fine line in recruiting but a very important one.
I'd rather have a player with both. It's not an either/or proposition. My point is that a kid with the talent can learn and be coached to play smart, to work hard, and to be ambitious. A kid with heart, work ethic, and desire cannot learn or be coached to be fast, agile, and strong. Champions have it all. That's the player I want.
For that matter, I would perfer all those qualities be there. But the question was which one of those you would choose.
I will have to disagree. Thomas Edison said genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It is similar in sports. If you don't have the mental attitude, whatever natural abilities a person has will go unfulfilled.
I will put you in a coach situation. You are Coach Miles and you have the decision laid before you. One spot left and you have 2 choices . One choice is you have a player with good talent, work ethic, and you know will stay in school. The other choice is a bonafide super star but has some question of whether they will make it in school or some questionable society issues. But no doubt will be exceptional on the football field. Coach's have to make this choice alot in the recruiting process. Not every kid has the total package. They probably go in both directions on recruits .
No, not the natural ability that we are referring to here. The thread is about either athletes with natural ability & no work ethic, or vice versa.
