Jimmy Dykes: The Film Doesn't Lie: Evaluating Your Life One Play at a Time

To every person who reads this book, know that God loves you. He cares for you more than you could know. He is for you, not against you. He can change your heart like he has mine…

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Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves. —Leo Tolstoy

Contents

Foreword by Rece Davis

1. Evaluate Your Film

2. Commitment

3. The Spoken Word

4. Forgiveness

5. Survive the Drought

6. Man, This Place Is Rockin’

7. Toughness

8. Balance

9. Are Your Nonnegotiables Negotiable?

10. Guard Your Heart

11. Partial Obedience Is Not Obedience

Acknowledgments

Praise for Jimmy Dykes: The Film Doesn’t Lie

Foreword by Rece Davis

Jimmy Dykes started work at ESPN shortly after I did in 1995. Though we didn’t meet for a while, his voice on the air created an instant connection. After all, we were fluent in similar dialects and colloquialisms. Beyond the dulcet southern tone, his voice also carries an urgent sincerity. I soon came to know that isn’t Jimmy’s television persona; it’s who he is. Sincere. Urgent. Compassionate.

When he and I would talk at our college basketball preseason seminars or get assigned to call games together, I was always struck by Jimmy’s complete comfort in talking about how he had prayed about a decision or his desire to use his opportunities and platform to glorify God. There were also times during our conversations that he’d say something like, At first, I didn’t want to listen. I resisted, but God showed me.

That’s sort of like watching the film. As broadcasters for ESPN, often we don’t want to watch the film, though it’s more likely digitized video these days, but it’s still the recording of what we’ve done on air. The discipline of re-watching a film will magnify imperfections. It can be uncomfortable. Even the perfectly delivered line or expertly captured moment in a broadcast comes with the potential of making us too proud. But we know better—or at least we should. The stumble, the hurried word, the missed opportunity—it’s coming. It’ll be right there on the film. It always is. It’s the same way with evaluating our lives, too. The temptation is just: don’t watch, don’t do it. Why subject yourself to that type of scrutiny? Because it’s the only way to get better. But you only improve if you’re willing to measure yourself against the proper standard.

Jimmy’s standard is his faith and what God’s written word says. When he and I shared breakfast prior to going to a Duke practice on the morning of February 12, 2019, the conversation turned to living our convictions in a worldly profession. Jimmy shared with me how God was teaching him about key areas in his life like forgiveness, the power of our spoken words, and the importance of obedience in our life.

Obedience is not always the most popular concept in our culture. Yet the Bible teaches us in the book of Ecclesiastes that obedience is the whole duty of man. We talked about the lasting impact of our words, particularly sharp or thoughtless words that can have a lasting impact, especially on those closest to us. I shared with him—probably for the umpteenth time—how I struggle with worry. He listened and said he would pray for me in that area. I knew he would.

There we were in a hotel lobby having a heart-to-heart conversation about a real God and an authentic walk with Him. We had no idea we were just a few hours away from witnessing Duke’s comeback against Louisville—maybe the most memorable comeback of the 2018–19 college basketball season. And as memorable as the game was later that night, to me the witness for God that we shared with each other about our vulnerabilities, our sin, and our need to joyfully share the mercy God has shown us with others had an even greater impact.

For me that often means finding the courage to share my faith with others and not hide behind the idea that maybe this isn’t the right time. It’s like putting off watching the game film or the tape of the show. But the reality is: the areas of failure or imperfection are there. It’s encouraging to have someone who understands, fights the same battles we all do, and is willing to watch your film with you. The time to do it is now, and this book, Jimmy Dykes: The Film Doesn’t Lie, will challenge you, change you, and reveal a God who loves you deeply.

I see Jimmy Dykes live with consistency, courage, compassion, empathy, and humility. He possesses a great awareness of the standard needed to find success. More accurately, how finding success is truly defined by giving our lives to Christ and what that looks like as we are going on our paths on a daily basis. II Corinthians 13:5 encourages us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Jimmy’s walk constantly encourages and challenges me to do that. I trust that you will be similarly inspired. Only by studying the film from the game will we be—in Jimmy’s words—hard to guard.

—Rece Davis joined ESPN in 1995 and was named the host for ESPN College GameDay, the network’s flagship college football program, in February 2015. In addition, he is the prime host of the network’s on-site coverage for both the College Football Playoff and the NCAA men’s Final Four. The host of ESPN’s College GameDay basketball road show, he also calls Thursday night basketball games, following the completion of the football season.

1. Evaluate Your Film

Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.

—Booker T. Washington

Writing this book has changed much of what I thought I knew about the direction of my life. What I truly value has been reorganized and I now see differently. Areas I was blinded to, I can now see. What my heart pursues has been replaced by a new aim—and a different target. The importance of how I treat others and lead my family has grabbed me by the shoulders and shaken my core. Words like forgiveness, obedience, balance, and toughness have a different meaning and effect on my life. I have greater awareness and a deeper understanding for phrases like surviving a drought, knowing God’s voice, and guarding my tongue.

A God I thought I knew met me in the quietness of my heart and revealed to me more clearly who He is. The need I had for Him has gone from conditional to desperate. The complacency in my life toward God has been exposed, and the self-centered mind-set I have carried around my entire life has been weakened and redirected. Needless to say, I did not see this coming. My heart desires a faith that is so tested, so proven, and so authentic that all of hell cannot shake it. I am not there yet, but I am certain of where I am trying to go.

I have learned through the school of hard knocks that the only way lasting change can ever come about is by a constant submission to God. Whatever amount of will, grit, discipline, or toughness I tried to muster up in the past to bring change into my life is now secondary to knowing that only God—and making myself humble before Him—will produce the changes I so desperately need.

I have not won the battle in any area. I am making strides, gaining ground, and taking steps forward, but I have not won. My focus is on improving, and that will remain an ongoing process throughout the rest of my life. Like many of you who have picked up this book, I simply desire to get better at how I live life. Over the past 25 years of my broadcasting career with ESPN, I have seen unlimited examples of teams and individuals with that same goal. They are striving to improve at what they do.

Simply getting better is easy to write and easy to say but is difficult to do. The discipline, determination, and energy that it takes to pull it off is unique, but it’s common ground to those who rise above the norm. Every winning team, high-achieving individual, thriving company, or difference-making organization I have ever been around for any length of time has one thing in common. They are driven by an unquenchable thirst to get better. Winning at what they do is certainly a goal, but it’s not the goal. The goal is to improve at what they do. Winning is a by-product.

The final score is not what drives top level performers. They understand that who wins and who loses is often determined by things they ultimately cannot control. A missed call by an official late in a game, an injury at a key point in the season, or the competition simply being superior are things that cannot be controlled.

There is always another mark to hit or level to obtain if the intention is to simply improve. Wins may certainly come when those new standards are reached, but for high achievers, winning does not change the daily goal and laser focus of who they are and how they work. Possessing a constant awareness of how to improve, finding that answer, and ultimately acting on that answer is what separates average from excellent in all walks of life. A focus on winning can make you complacent. A focus on improvement can make you zealous.

Over the past two-and-a-half decades of covering college and professional sports for ESPN, I have witnessed the high cost of complacency countless times. It is a killer in sports, business, education, relationships, and a pursuit of a life changed by God. Getting lulled into a hazy gray fog that disguises the road as being clear can end in devastating ways. That’s what makes the emphasis on improving different than the emphasis on winning. A focus on winning will conceal your deficiencies and can camouflage the problems. A focus on improvement will expose your faults and magnify your weaknesses.

I want to open your eyes, your thoughts, and your heart to the potential harm a slow fade to complacency can cause to any area of your life. Satisfaction, a false sense of security, and smugness are all dangerous slopes. I have observed countless teams and individuals falling from the mountain of favor to the valley of failure all because they became prideful in how they went about their days, allowing arrogance and ego to take command, and they ultimately lost that unquenchable desire they once had to get better.

Perhaps you are in a season of elevation right now in one of those big chapters of life. Your marriage, children, job, health, daily purpose all are at a high level and rising. Your closeness to God is as intimate as it has ever been, and your walk with Jesus is becoming more authentic and real to you every day. I hope that is the case for you.

Or maybe you are winning in key areas of your life right now more than you are losing, but deep down you know the opponent—whatever that may be—is making a serious run and you now find yourself just trying to hold on to the lead. I realize some people are okay with just being okay. Perhaps it doesn’t concern you that in some crucial areas of your life where you once were winning by 30 or 40 points is now down to a two-point game. But I don’t think that’s who you are. I believe most people are wired to want more, obtain real change, and to live with greater purpose. Simply getting better every day is common ground and an area of agreement for those who are consistently moving forward in their lives and refusing to settle for the common path.

So what does getting better really look like? You cannot give the correct answers if you aren’t asking the correct questions. A pivotal part of pursuing improvement is taking the time to properly evaluate. Every successful team I have ever covered as an analyst for ESPN makes the process of evaluation a regular part of their routine. When it comes to sports, nothing impacts the evaluation process more than film study. Truth is revealed for teams when discerning, skilled, intentional, laser focused eyes break down and study a practice or game film. This type of detailed evaluation process will bring forth an accuracy and veracity about any team or individual. When change and advancement are the goals, few things are more crucial than the process of appraisal. Nothing can impact you more than searching for answers to what the concerns are and what the issues are on the path to simply getting better. If this evaluation process is done correctly, it can be a difficult and painful action. Unfortunately, hard stops most people. But if you want to make progress, you cannot run from hard.

Hall of Fame coaches, world-class athletes, Olympic coaches, flourishing business owners, powerful CEOs, and many other highly successful people are masters at evaluating. Nothing goes unchecked, and nothing gets taken for granted. They are not discouraged by hard. They remain sharp, alert, and hungry for excellence. People who experience growth in life take action as opposed to reacting to life. They do not run from hard and they are comfortable being uncomfortable.

Some of my most enjoyable moments as an analyst for ESPN occur when I am given the opportunity to sit through a film review with a coaching staff and their players. Before this film session occurs, I can tell you that every coach on that staff has watched the entire film multiple times. For a college basketball staff, six to 10 people have put their eyes on a film multiple times, identified the problems, and made adjustments to fix those problems.

A college football coaching staff of 20 to 30 guys will have their eyes on every single play of a four-hour game. Think about that for a moment. We are talking hundreds of hours committed to the evaluation process of a game that only has 60 minutes of actual playing time. That speaks clearly to the importance of evaluations. Individually, those coaches will watch a single play multiple times from different angles in their office late into the night, and as an entire staff, that’s the first thing they do the next morning. Everyone in the room is searching that film with a trained eye, making detailed notes, determining why something is happening, and highlighting what will be discussed with the entire team and individual players. Everything is open for evaluation and critique at this point. It does not matter if the film they are grading was a game that resulted in a win or a loss. The evaluation process does not change. Coaches are searching for ways to get better. Improvement is the goal—plain and simple.

After these film evaluations are completed by the coaching staff, more times than not, an edited version of the game or practice is presented to the players. Some coaches prefer to show these graded film clips in the order they occurred during the game. Others will show the positive plays first and plays that need correcting second. Every head coach has his or her way of doing things, but the goal is the same for all: improvement. LSU football coach Ed Orgeron refers to the team’s film sessions as Tell the Truth Mondays. That is the day of the week set aside for the entire team to watch the previous week’s game film. Truth is revealed, teaching points are made, and strides to improvement begin.

I have noticed over the years that winning teams with great culture, humble pride, and mature discipline watch their game film with a strong purpose. Film study is a respected time during a team’s daily and weekly schedule. There is limited conversation as players and staff enter the film room. From the opening moment in that meeting room, a sense of focus, accountability, and eagerness to learn is felt. In most team film rooms, players are in assigned seats based on position, depth charts, or classification as a student. Cell phones and headphones are not allowed. Notebooks are out, and full attention is given to the film and the coach leading that film session. The room goes to another level of intensity every time the head coach interrupts to make a point or teach a concept. The voice of the leader carries the most weight.

I have learned a great deal about hundreds of teams just by watching them watch film. Caring teams, disciplined teams, confident teams, and ultimately winning teams watch film differently than selfish teams, undisciplined teams, complacent teams, and losing teams. I can say the same thing from observing individual players in terms of how they watch film, respond to correction, and sit through those difficult times of teachable moments. Those individuals, who are soft, selfish, and possess a less coachable mentality, look at feedback as an attack on their feelings and blame others for their downfall. Those with a humble