By Michael Rand, Star Tribune
Tom Sweeney, Star Tribune
J Robinson loves quotations. He loves them so much that he has some of his favorites taped to the desk in his office, while others are scribbled on notes stuck to his computer. They are like little pieces of him, scattered everywhere. Robinson, the Gophers wrestling coach, believes strongly in a lot of things. But if any quotation defines him more than all others, it is the one he repeated early in a conversation this week: “Good is the enemy of great. “He believes success is a choice; indeed, he believes everything in life is a choice. His choice has been to take a program nobody thought could be a winner and turn it into one of the best in the country. He talked about that and other things with the Star Tribune.
Q When you came here in 1986, there had been some past individual success with the wrestling program, but it was by no means elite. I’m sure this answer could be a book, and not a paragraph, but what are some of the fundamentals you believe made Gophers wrestling an elite program?
A You condense it down, and there is a great quote that goes something like, “Everyone wants great success without great effort. “You need three things. Vision: You have to know where you’re going to go. That pretty much dictates everything else you want to do. If you want to climb Mount Everest as opposed to Mount Shasta, a 14,000-footer in California, those are two completely different paths. You define what you want to be, and that in turn defines what you want to do. Then you need a plan. Most people don’t have a plan. And the last thing you need is leadership, which requires the courage to implement the plan. That’s very hard because most people are afraid to make the hard calls. People say they will, but in the world of political correctness, people buckle under.
Q But it’s one thing to have a philosophy. How do you translate words and ideas to victories?
A What makes the horse who won worth $100 million and another who finished second nothing? He doesn’t beat him by 14 lengths, he wins by a nose. But he wins by a nose every time. To get that 2 percent every time might require an extra 40 hours of work a week. The last 2 percent is the hardest, and that’s the one that separates it all out. That’s where you go from good to great. But that’s where it requires more effort. That’s what you’re here to do as a coach. That’s what you’re here to instill in people.
Q You say 40 extra hours. Do you literally work 80 hours a week?
A I got here at 6:30 this morning, so that will be at least 12 hours today. It’s not just me. It’s Marty Morgan. It’s Joe Russell. It’s Brandon Eggum. There’s another great quote: “Sometimes your best isn’t good enough. Sometimes you have to do what’s required. “You can always do more.
Q You believe that?
A Yeah. Life is very simple. Most people know what to do to be successful. You can go to a high school right now and ask any kid what it takes to get an “A, “and they know exactly what they have to do. But sometimes they choose not to do it. Life is all about choices. I don’t want to spend five years on a one-year problem. It doesn’t mean I won’t have problems in five years, but I don’t want to have the same problem. … We get to choose everything. It all comes down to choice, but the beauty of it is, God gives us the power to choose.
Q So you really think being a successful wrestling coach, or having any sort of successful team, is no more than a choice?
A I don’t process what people tell me. I process what people do. Everyone wants to believe what everyone else says, but I don’t. What you do is where you really are. It’s very simple. Life is simple. But it’s hard to be successful. Most people know what it takes to be great, but they choose not to. When we came here in 1986, nobody believed we could win, but you can. You can do anything anywhere. There’s a formula for success. It’s not about facilities or anything like that. Those are things that we focus on when we get distracted.
Q The U just hired a new football coach. Can the football team be successful here?
A I don’t really want to get into football. But what about this: John Anderson wins in baseball, and look how bad his facility is. What does that tell you about John Anderson? He’s a winner.
Q Switching gears a little, in the past 10 years you’ve won two NCAA titles, finished second four times and third twice. This year’s team seems to have a great shot at winning it all again. Did you find it harder to get to the top initially or to stay there?
A The object is to get to the top and stay there, so that when all the stars line up, they’ll go your way once in a while. You’re always close. You’re always there. So if someone else stumbles, or you have your day like we did in 2001, it goes your way. It’s harder to do it every year. Just like us this year.
Q Do you feel like your thought process leads you to recruit differently than other coaches?
A What you do is, you find out what you want in a recruit. Some coaches look at statistics. For us, we look at that, but we also look more at, does the kid love wrestling? Does he want to be great? Putting heart and intensity in people? That’s hard to do. If you can find those things first, you can teach the other things. We want the guy who’s driven to be good with great effort.
Q Have you always taken this sort of philosophical approach to coaching and life, or are these things that have evolved over the years?
A I think everybody is a project in motion. You find things and as you get older, you put a philosophy together. … We live in a world trying to make us different than who we are. You get some core values. Discipline, sacrifice, dedication and hard work. … People have it backwards. They talk about wanting to be happy, but life is all about finding your purpose. If you find your purpose, you will be happy in life. When you have a reason to get up, you will always be happy.
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