Offensive Lineman Says Hogs Must Stop Being OK With Losing

Braun says he found out Enos was fired from his dad, embarrassed to walk same halls as Arkansas Razorback defense

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Oct 25, 2023 7:02 PM EDT

In this story:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Sunday was a rare day for Arkansas offensive lineman Josh Braun.

He strolled through the aisles of Wal-Mart with his wife, Azucena, something totally normal for most people, but for a Razorback football player in the middle of the season, it was a unique treat. The ultimate goal was to pick out the perfect steaks for the grill and cap off the day with a filling home-cooked meal courtesy of the man of the house.

Then a single text sent all of Braun's carefully mastered plans into disarray. The message was from his dad and it was direct. Dan Enos was no longer Braun's offensive coordinator.

The couple hurried through checkout and scurried to the car where Braun talked to his dad for a few minutes to get more details and discuss what may come of it. Then, the veteran called his fellow linemen and spent the rest of the day talking to them to "make sure they were in the right headspace."

"In this day and age, it's very hard to keep news like that under wraps," Braun said during an interview on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock earlier this week. "I spoke with some of my teammates and the players he was directly in contact with were made aware before the public."

While it was news to Braun since there was no team meeting called by the coaching staff to discuss it with the players, it wasn't unexpected.

"When you're around college football long enough, you can see the signs," Braun said. "You know at some point something is going to happen just because you need a scapegoat. It's just the way football works. In the back of my head, I've been expecting something to happen just because I have been through it before and I have seen the signs."

Braun said overall he supports the move and understands why fans were anxious to see it carried out. Still, he wants those who were so thirsty for action to be taken to remember Enos is still human.

"It's unfortunate," Braun said. "In his time here I got to know him. He's a great guy. At the end of the day he's a human being. He has a family. He has a mortgage. He has to pay the bills. Let's not lose sight of the fact he is a human being. He's another person who has to live life and now he has to move wherever. His life's in turmoil, so I feel for him in that regard. From a team standpoint, I support Coach Pittman and his decisions 100%. I believe he has taken us in the right direction and I hope our on-field product displays that two Saturdays from now."

If Braun straight up saying it was the right move wasn't evidence enough of his support of Pittman making a change, his description of what had happened behind the scenes within the team culture on the offensive side of the ball painted a picture that shows things may have been worse than some fans imagined. At some point, according to Braun, the fir left and it became OK to lose.

"For us to win, we need to play with passion, we need to play with desire and we need to want to win," Braun said. "The dangerous thing with losing is that you realize it's not the end of the world. You lose one game and you're like, 'Aw, this is horrible!' You lose two games and you're like 'Oh, no! Our season!' When you lose five, it doesn't have the same kick and that's the dangerous thing about losing. Winning is hard. It's hard to win. It's a lot easier to lose. Once the facade breaks and you realize it's easy to lose and you start feeling like it's not that big of a deal to lose and it becomes OK for you to lose, that's when your season's is lost. We need to rediscover that it's not OK to lose, We are winners. We need to win. It's hard to win. At the end of the day it's much more rewarding to win than it is to just get home and take a nap because the game ended."

It was the embarrassment that washed over as he and his fellow offensive teammates watched back the film and then had to walk the same halls as the defensive players who had handed them everything on a platter only to do nothing with it that resonated with Braun. It kicked in a level of shame he's not comfortable carrying.

"I think across the board, and I don't think I am out of line in saying, we are all embarrassed," Braun said. "We played with a lack of passion, a lack of desire. It was evident when we watched film that something wasn't right. Whether we weren't mentally in the right mindset going into the game, that ultimately doesn't matter at the end of the day because we did not perform well."

In the end, he felt pity for the defense for having endured such poor performances from their brothers on offense.

"If you hold the opponent to seven points, you should expect to win that game 99.9% of the time," Braun said. "To see them play with the effort they did and for us as an offense not to match that, it's embarrassing. We have to walk the halls with them. They do a good job of not directly blaming us, but you don't have to directly blame us when it's this apparent. That's something we're going to have to deal with because they're doing their job of putting us in a position to win. The only reason we scored three points is because they intercepted it on the 20. For them to put us in situations we should have success in and for us to not uphold our end of the bargain, it's deeply shameful."

Part of changing that mentality is understanding this is now a different era of Razorback football. To find a bit of inspiration, Braun fell back on the words of one of his favorite authors, or at least he thought they were his words.

"It sort of feels like once a coaching change is made mid-season, a whole second season begins," Braun said. "So, we had the pre-bye week season which was abysmal from an offensive standpoint ... I saw something today, it was a quote I wanted to repeat. I forgot to write it down, so I will just paraphrase People misattributed this quote to CS Lewis. I like CS Lewis so when I saw he said this I wanted to go look it up. In my research, I realized CS Lewis never said this. They don't know who said it. It's something along the lines of 'You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start right now and change the end.' We're 2-6. No matter how much we moan and complain about being 2-6, no matter what coaching changes we make, player changes we make, at the end of the day, we're still 2-6. We can't go back and replay Mississippi State. We can't go back and and replay BYU."

He went on to talk about needing to go back and have each player revisit his why and discover what that is if it's changed. However, Braun may not have to spend too much time on it as a Razorback fan may have provided it after the loss to Mississippi State.

"So, as I was leaving the game Saturday, I was walking to my car and as I got to the parking lot this lady Razorback fan got out of her can and walked up to the edge of the parking lot and yelled at us," Braun said. "And she said 'No matter what, we still love y'all.' And, that meant a lot to me as a player because at the end of the day you're 2-6. You're not winning any games for them. They're paying hard-earned money they worked hours and hours for. They drove how ever many hours they drove to get to be at the game. and for us to put that on the field, I understand their frustrations."

Braun fully understands what goes into being a Razorback fan. He said he respects the choice they make to continue supporting the team as the emotional roller coaster is something he decided a long time ago he didn't have the stomach to endure.

"I respect fans incredibly because I am not necessarily a fan of a team I am not on," Braun said. "When I was a kid and I would watch my brothers play, and they would lose, it would ruin his whole weekend. But when I was 14 I realized and I was like 'Why am I doing this to myself?'For them to willingly do that to themselves, put their mood for the weekend in our hands, it's something we're responsible for and it's a great honor to be in that position."

So, with that light bulb turned on, Braun had one final thing he wanted any Razorback fans listening to hear.

"I understand their frustrations," Braun said. "I want to thank them for their continued support throughout this season with all the emotions, the negative emotions because we've been losing so much. I see them, feel them, I hear then. I apologize it hasn't gone better, but at the end of the day, just thank you for your support."