Are the 0-6 Giants Falling Apart?

The 2010 Superbowl champions are now 0-6 and New York has already hit the desperation button on them. People can’t decide what the problem is:

Is it the players, the organization, or the head coach?

Head Coach Tom Coughlin has certainly not been part of the solution this year. But is he to blame for the disastrous start the Giants have had? I don’t think so.

Coughlin has led the New York Giants to the playoffs and two Super Bowl wins in the last seven years. That is quite the result that every team in the NFL would want their head coach to have. So it is really the coaches fault?

After the Giants played their best game of the season, and yet came up to lose late Thursday night, Coughlin said, “You go back to work. You have to put everything you can into preparation and try and go win a game, just like you’d do under any other normal circumstance. We’re all sick of the losing, but we put ourselves in this position. So we keep striving to improve in the areas we need which we can be better.”

Yes, by now the locker room of the New York Giants is frustrated–we would all be.

But by no means have they given up on their coach just yet. NY Daily News’ Ralph Vacchiano, agrees by saying “The locker room is very disappointed. The guys are frustrated, very frustrated naturally. But they will stay together. #NYG”

“We’re always confident, and that hasn’t changed and it won’t change,” Giants guard Kevin Boothe said. “This stinks, but we have a lot of proud guys in here that have won championships. That’s the culture of this organization and of this team, to never give up.”

Wide receiver Victor Cruz has come out and said that with these losses the guys just aren’t excited about the game anymore and that Coughlin has gone out of his comfort zone and tried to be more energetic on the field.

Cruz also talked about how the vibes in the locker room have begun to fall apart. It is almost like the Giant players are embarrassed of being Giants players. They used to do things like go out for team dinners and that they have been replaced by silence as the men leave the locker room.

In New York, their are a lot of fingers that are being pointed around when a team is not being successful. But no finger–not even Cruz’s–is

pointing at Coach Coughlin, who Cruz said is the “epitome” of Giants football.

Even with the 0-6 start, the Giants still have a chance to make the playoffs. This year the NFC East is the worst division in the NFL with the Cowboys and Eagles tied for first at 2-3 and the Redskins in third at 1-4.

The Giants, who won both Super bowls as a wild card have always seem to have had their backs on the wall and have come out swinging. But have they been pushed back too far? Can the Giants find a way to regroup and win?

By no means do I believe that the Giants are going to be like past years teams who know it is over and decide to give up. Coughlin will make sure that they play hard until the end, no matter the outcome. You’d better believe that the players are going to be backing him up every step of the way, they know it matters to Coughlin so it matters to them.

With Coughlin still leading the team, I do believe there is still hope. But they will need to turn it around fast.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.