March 17, 2010
By Skip Myslenski
NUSports.com Special Contributor
"Lone Survivor" is the name of the book and it recounts the harrowing saga of Marcus Luttrell, a member of SEAL Team 10 back on June 28, 2005. It was in Afghanistan then and, on this morning, it set off to capture a high-ranking Taliban leader. But soon it came under an attack so fierce that only Luttrell survived, and only after he walked and crawled seven miles to safety. "Coach Fitz (Pat Fitzgerald) gave it to me on Monday and I was done with it Saturday, all 400 pages," 'Cat quarterback Don Persa recently recalled. "It's about his trials and tribulations, how he survives when all his buddies die, the valor they showed in their dying moments. That kind of goes back to pushing yourself past anything you ever thought you could do.
"Reading about those guys, reading about what they went through, that really puts my life to shame. If they can do that, I can run a conditioning workout, I can go through a weight workout. It's nothing. That really had a big impact on me."
* * * * *
"The Time Is Now" is the name of a song by the Irish/English pop duo Moloko and in it the pair croons, "Give up yourself unto the moment/Let's make this moment last." The moment is now in front of Dan Persa, who after three years of waiting is expected to take over as the 'Cat choreographer come fall.
"I don't think I've seen anything different. I've just seen him emerge," Fitzgerald says when asked if he has noticed a change in his quarterback as he prepares for his star turn. "Danny has been the same way every year (in the way) he approached things. I think initially, like any young man, he wanted to come in and compete to play, but it just didn't happen for him. It wasn't for the lack of anything he did. It just didn't happen for him. But he has been a tireless worker. You think last year, Iron Cat, our off-season strength, speed (competition). Dan won it. That's pretty rare for a quarterback. He's a worker bee. Dan, attitude wise, he goes to work everyday. He shows up ready to go everyday. I think the best aspect of Dan, he's always been a consummate team player. No, it hasn't been the role he wanted. But he's always been positive. And now it's his turn."
Is he approaching that turn with a sense of urgency, Persa himself will be asked.
"Definitely, definitely. I've been here for three years. I've only got two left. It goes really fast and you never know when it could be over. I could be out there running around and tear my ACL, break my leg, and never be able to play again. I think our whole team's like that, thinking that today or any day could be our last day. You never know. You never know what things are going to happen. That's one of the things we're stressing."
But you've been waiting so long.
"Yeah. Yeah."
And it's your turn now and you want to grasp it.
"Definitely. I want to make the best of this opportunity, so I'm doing everything I can. I'm taking it to the max."
Is the sense of anticipation palpable?
"Aaaah. I'm excited, but I'm just trying to stay in the moment, just stay in each day, each workout, each throwing workout. I'm just trying to stay in the moment and not get ahead of myself, worry about different stuff like that. It's good to be excited. But the more you anticipate, you forget about the stuff right in front of you, the stuff you have to do today."
How did you learn to do that?
"Coach Fitz instills that in me. That really struck home with me just because the more you focus on the parts of each workout each day, if you give your best each day, you're going to get a pretty good product down the road. And you can only control what's going on right now."
Still, is it hard not to think ahead?
"Yeah. I think about it sometimes, but I try not to. Like I said, if you get ahead of yourself, you're going to miss spring ball, not have a good spring, or not have a good workout tomorrow."
But late at night, lying in bed, do you think about it?
"I just want to be the best I can. That's my biggest focus right now. I'm just trying to push myself to the wall everyday, in everything I do. Just maximize every opportunity in the weight room, throwing, everything."
* * * * *
"The Waiting" is a song written by Tom Petty and in it he declares it "The hardest part." That is fact Dan Persa, who landed in Evanston as a heralded recruit, knows full well.
"The normal frustration of being an all-state player kind-of-guy and not being that guy the next year is a pretty difficult pill to swallow, pretty humbling. I think that was a tough process for him to go through," Fitzgerald says when asked about that. "He's never watched. That's why we got him involved (on special teams) two years ago when C.J. (Bacher) and Mike (Kafka) were in that neck-to-neck race and he still had a little work to do. We put him out in the kicking game. He's that dynamic of an athlete, we put him out there."
How hard was the waiting, Persa himself will be asked.
"It was a different experience going from the top of the totem pole, from pretty much the highest you can go in a state, to the bottom and just waiting. It was really hard. I struggled with it every day my freshman year. It is a very humbling experience. All through high school, I started four years. I never sat behind anybody and waited. So it was a tough experience at first. But once I learned I could learn a lot from C.J. and Mike, it helped me in my development. It was tough for me at first. But now it's better."
Did that make it harder, not ever having waited before?
"Without a doubt. I never knew what that felt like."
What were your expectations when you came?
"Just playing somehow. I didn't know. Two years ago, I played on special teams and last year I got to play quarterback. But it was just tough for me sitting out a whole year as a redshirt and just not doing anything. It was just a tough experience, as it is for every redshirt freshman."
Since you're all all-stars.
"Yeah. That's what we talk about all the time. It's a whole different environment. Your world's turned upside down and of course you want to play. No one wants to sit on the bench. It's in our blood to want to help the team on the field."
* * * * *
"Patience is the greatest virtue of all" Cato The Elder declared long ago and this too is a fact Dan Persa knows full well.
"I've seen him be a little more patient," Fitzgerald says when asked what his quarterback has learned while waiting. "You say go through the wall, he goes right through the wall. There's no slow. There's one speed with him. But I think he's learned to be a little more patient and allow things, not be satisfied, but to allow things to work themselves out. He's so driven and so focused, I think that's one area where I've really seen him grow."
"I think I learned a lot about myself and having patience," Persa himself will say when asked the same question.
You say a lot. What else?
"Just to overcome some obstacles. My freshman year, that fall and winter were pretty tough for me. Being a little homesick. Being in a new environment. Just knowing I could overcome those obstacles and still perform at a high level."
Do you feel stronger now?
"I think so, mentally, yeah. And I appreciate this opportunity a lot more."
* * * * *
"Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical," Yogi Berra once said and this is one more fact Dan Persa now knows full well.
"That's one of the things I really wanted to emphasize in this off season," he will say when asked if he is doing more film work now than he did in the past. "Last season, I think I was more worried about the physical aspect ... (but) especially the quarterback position, the mental aspect is just as important as the physical aspect. The people who are strongest mentally usually win at the quarterback position and I think before I was putting more emphasis on physical conditioning and strength. Now I'm trying to get a better balance because it's such a large part of the game. It can help you so much."
What are you looking for when you watch film?
"Right now what we're worried about is ourselves. We're worried about last season, the things we can improve on from last season. We're watching mostly game film and looking for little things we can correct to make our team better and our job easier."
What have you learned?
"A lot of stuff from little things like fundamentals, drops, where I start in the pocket, going through my reads a little quicker. I think that's the biggest thing I've picked up on. Just looking off different defenders and not staring down where I'm going to go. It's a bunch of little things, but they're all very, very important."
Are you meeting with Baz (former 'Cat quarterback Brett Basanez) like Mike did a year ago?
"We get together once-a-week. He's a great resource. He's like another coach for us. He helps me with my fundamentals. He expects a lot out of us, which is good ... He talks about preparing mentally and physically all the time. I always ask him, 'What did you do? What are some of the things I can do better?' He watches us go through workouts and gives us feedback, which is always good."
What kind of feedback?
"I think I've heard everything. But the different stresses that he's putting on watching film and getting with the guys and interacting with the guys and making sure the receivers and the running backs and offensive line are watching film with you. I knew that helped. But he's stressing the importance of just knowing what everyone else is thinking in every situation."
Is this something you didn't do before?
"It's not like I didn't concentrate on the mental before. I'm just putting a lot more stress on it than I did. I realized I had to take it to another level, another level of understanding, another level of knowing what the coaches expect by what play they called, not just running the play blind."
Why now?
"Just the experience from last season when I got a chance to play. I kind of, I would rely on my legs a little more than I should have. And I think, especially going into the Iowa game after (taking over for the injured Kafka in) the Penn State game, I was prepared (for Penn State), but I wasn't as prepared as I was for the Iowa game. I studied a lot more for the Iowa game and I think that definitely helped. I could see how my performance was better, I thought, in the Iowa game than it was in the Penn State game. That gave me empirical evidence that knowing your opponent and everything that can possibly happen can affect the game a lot more than you think."
"I think everybody has to learn that," Fitzgerald says when told of his quarterback's new emphasis on the mental. "I think some guys are in the NFL and they still haven't learned that because they're so talented, they're so talented they can just show up and play. Good for them. But for the quarterback it's nearly impossible to do that. Impossible."
* * * * *
"If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder," Magic Johnson once said. Around the 'Cat football offices, it is said Dan Persa is the most competitive player on the team.
"Arguably. Yeah, without a doubt," Fitzgerald says when asked about this. "You look at the Winning Edge, the six workouts? They (the team Persa leads) went undefeated. The Razzle Dazzle Tournament. They won it. The three-point shooting contest. They won it. That's all you need to know. That's all you need to know. He's the leader of that team. That's all you need to know."
"I just don't like to lose. Maybe that factors into me having successful teams growing up," Persa himself will say. "We never lost much and when we did, I wasn't too happy about it. I was really hard on myself because I wanted to win so bad."
Where'd that come from?
"I'd say from my mom and my dad. They always instilled that being a leader and winning is very important in all aspects of your life. Not only sports, but academics and when you're hanging out with your friends, doing the right stuff. I don't know. They always stressed trying to do your best. If you win, you win. If your best wasn't good enough, it wasn't good enough. But most of the time, when you do your best, good things happen."
You like that playing video games?
"I don't really play video games."
Cards?
"Yeah, I play cards."
What I'm asking is, does that attitude cut across your life?
"I think so, yeah. If we're playing pool. Cards are a little different because it's more luck. But if we're playing pool, ping pong, stuff like that, you like to win, especially when it's against friends. You don't want your friends holding stuff above your head, saying they can beat you in different stuff."
I've known people who're so competitive they won't let a game end until they're ahead. You like that?
"Sometimes. I'm a pretty sore loser. I get pretty upset when I lose."
* * * * *
"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing," the self-help pioneer Dale Carnegie ("How To Win Friends and Influence People") once said.
Is he having fun now, Dan Persa is finally asked.
"Yeah. I think it's always been fun. But it's real fun now."
In the sense that you can almost taste what you wanted for so long?
"Yeah. Yeah. I think that goes into it. But it's always been fun for me."