COLUMBUS — Columbus football head coach Barrin Simpson sees life in 3-D.
Throughout a historic high school, college and professional career, the former All-American linebacker has continuously found ways to motivate himself and his teammates. That skill has translated into a coaching career, with his new job being a program reset with the Falcons.
Simpson spoke as a guest at the weekly Columbus Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday and shared how he plans to use his expertise as a motivator to turn around a team that has no district or state titles in its 32-year history.
“I’m always thinking of ways to motivate myself. I was a motivational speaker for much of my life since I was 19, and that’s when I came up with 3-D: Desire, determination and discipline.”
Simpson hopes to change a culture that he dates back to his days as a player going up against Columbus. He recalled a game with Starkville where the Yellow Jackets led 14-7 at the half against the Falcons, remarking in the locker room about how they didn’t expect such a tough fight, but because they were the harder working team they overcame the talented opposition to win, 40-7.
Simpson noticed the same sort of result when watching the tape from a year ago, noting the talent was there without the ability to finish strong.
“Last year, that was not a 1-10 team,” Simpson said. “I’ve watched every game about five times, and there’s 11 of them, and in every game, they were in it until, like the old Columbus, something went wrong and the other team got them.”
Simpson cited close losses to Houston, Louisville, and Noxubee County as examples of the talent the Falcons had last year. Noxubee County lost in the 3A state championship game and Louisville beat Houston in the North Half championship on its way to a 15-0 4A title-winning season.
Columbus usually has a difficult schedule to navigate, but that just comes with the territory. Most teams in the area that they schedule for non-district games are contenders, and they’re set to play them again this year.
Simpson expressed a desire to build belief with some wins, and particularly now that he has a younger group he’s hoping to turn those close loses into scrappy wins to help reinforce the team’s confidence.
“You have to build the confidence when you have young kids,” he said. “They were an older team last year, but a lot of the big hitters are still here. We have five players with offers and a lot more colleges are talking about them.”
Columbus has always had talent. Simpson knew that as a player and even more so now that he sees the team in practice every day. He and his staff are embracing the task of turning talent into winning on the field, but his standard goes beyond titles. Seeing life in 3-D means more than just football, but it takes that effort in all aspects of life to see the results on the field.
“I call them them the MOB, and that means: Making Outstanding Believable. We believe it at first and then everyone else is going to see when we stand out and we show our desire, determination and discipline.”
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