I remember watching the NCAA Final last season as the University of Alabama completed its back to back championship run.
It was pretty compelling stuff as the young men on both Alabama and Oklahoma State left it all on the course.
One of the most interesting aspects of the match was the fact that the former Head Golf Coach at OK ST. was now coaching at Alabama as an assistant.
Mike McGraw was a legend in college golf and had continued Oklahoma State’s long history of top golf. But college football isn’t the only sport where there is pressure on the coach.
McGraw was unceremoniously cut loose from Oklahoma State after crafting top teams year after year.
That NCAA final was particularly juicy, with Alabama facing off against Oklahoma State, the school that dumped McGraw at the end of the 2012 season despite him leading the Cowboys to six Big 12 titles, being named Big 12 Coach of the Year five times in eight years, winning two national titles (2000 as an assistant, 2006 as head coach), recording 30 tournament wins and recruiting such players as Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan, Charles Howell III, Peter Uihlein and Morgan Hoffmann.
The revenge factor was obvious, but McGraw maintained that the victory at Prairie Dunes was no more satisfying because it came against his former employer. Instead, he fought back tears after saying he was grateful for the opportunity to coach wonderful kids, for the chance to reignite his passion for coaching.
McGraw admits to losing sight of what is truly important and put unbearable pressure on himself.
“The most important thing is to remember that the kid has a beating heart, that he’s got dreams, that he’s a human being,” he said. “I’ve always had that, even at the end at Oklahoma State, but my self-imposed pressure was killing me, eating me up. It’s about finding who they are. If the kids can believe and trust and know that I care about them, then they’ll run through a wall for you.”
McGraw is still trying to figure out who he is as a coach and how he can improve. He understands the competitive world – the winning, the losing, the finishes, the production – and that his livelihood likely depends on his record. But he has also learned, sometimes painfully, during his stops in Stillwater and then Tuscaloosa that he can’t define himself as a coach simply because he won or lost a tournament. He can’t be consumed by the lust for victory.
“That doesn’t matter, as long as the players can use it to get better,” he said. “It’s such a truth in life: When the result becomes more important than the process, you’ve got it all backward. Because these kids, they can sense it. They can look you in the eye and know what you think and how you feel. Now, these kids can tell that I’m truly enjoying it.”
The Baylor Bears won their first match of the season, after going winless last season, and are ranked 5 in the nation.
It looks like McGraw has found a new home.
Click here for Ryan Lavner’s must read article.
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