If you watch enough super macho 1980s action flicks, you’ll inevitably come across one where the main bad guy has the protagonist trapped at gunpoint, or some other kind of powerful projectile throwing weapon, and all he has to do is pull the trigger and blow the good guy away.

So, in a last ditch effort, the good guy taunts the bad guy by saying stuff like only pussies kill their opponents at a stand off distance with a gun and that real men finish off their opponents in the brutal ecstasy of some kind of hand to hand combat and then asks what kind of man he truly is.

Because it’s a movie, where the bad guys are a bunch of thin skinned idiots, they inevitably fall for this whole “He’s right. have to kill him the right way or I’m a total pussy” bullshit, and engage in a hand to hand duel where they meet a swift and extremely violent fate. 

This is a perfect metaphor for what happened to Ryan Day on Saturday. He had a vastly superior team and could have used a variety of tactics on offense to give them an excellent chance of winning the game. But, because of the cumulative effects of being taunted for years about his toughness, Day decided that the only true way to beat TTUN was smashing the ball down their throats and, in his mind, anything less that would be a hollow victory.

The only problem is that the UM defensive line was their biggest strength and, by being suckered into this whole “gotta win the most macho way possible” gambit, Day played right into their hands and allowed them to win in the only way they could have. 

I often think that the whole mental aspect of coaching is overplayed to cover up what is simply bad decision making on the field. But in Day’s case I think it’s absolutely valid. Dude’s got some serious mental blocks to the point where puts vanquishing his own demons ahead of the what’s the best to walk off the field victorious.