Inside Terrace Marshall's Team Meeting to Help Get LSU Football's Season Back on Track
Terrace Marshall told reporters Tuesday he felt moved to be able to call a players only meeting and relay his message to his teammates as the second half of the 2020 season gets started. Not usually a talkative person, Marshall spoke straight from the heart as he knows that because he's a normally quiet, reserved person, when he speaks, his words will resonate with others.
His goal was to motivate the younger players on the roster, the ones who will be taking over the program when he's gone, likely after this final five game stretch.
"I just wanted to remind them that we still got a mission ahead of us and we gotta keep playing and keep growing," Marshall said. "Through all of the hard times with this COVID stuff, we've gotta keep our eyes focused on the prize and that's to finish the season off the best way that we can."
It's a simple message that coach Ed Orgeron hinted would be coming on Monday when he spoke with the media and one that hit home with his teammates. Offensive lineman Ed Ingram and linebacker Jabril Cox were in the meeting and both walked out feeling reenergized.
For Ingram, the meeting accomplished one thing and that was putting all of the players' heads in the right place. Remember, some had been quarantined and hadn't set foot on the practice field in over two weeks.
With an important week of preparation for Arkansas in the days ahead, getting a pulse of where the team was at mentally was an important goal.
"It was really relevant, it's kind of a way to keep our heads in the right place because we've been off for two weeks," Ingram said. "It was a refocusing meeting, just telling everybody we've gotta lock in because we have a game this week and we have a lot to prove."
Getting that message across to the younger players was extremely important and something that Cox noticed more so than anything else. As a fellow leader of the defense who doesn't talk a whole lot, Cox thought the message Marshall gave about playing and finishing out the season the positive way is what the younger players really can take away as the season progresses.
"He gave us a great word in just continuing to thrive and just telling the younger guys that this isn't over, we can still have our record be positive. He brings a fiery edge to us, he doesn't say much but he's a main leader on our team and we all look up to him."
Marshall admits that this season has been tough, especially still so fresh off of that national championship feeling where he felt like the team would run over every opponent in sight. While the hopes of a national championship have been squashed, the goal hasn't changed from the beginning of the season, which is to win out.
"It's definitely challenging with all of this outside stuff going on," Marshall said. "All I can say is we just gotta keep our eyes straight and win the season out."
