I hear ya! That show was flawless! It should be like that today. Brotherhood regardless if you pledged or not. You have to love the craft and work hard during practices even though you have to go the class the next morning. NO Excuses Baby!
Oh no, there shouldn't be excuses. We use to have a saying with about 8 minutes before halftime:
Start thinking about the show;
Pick up your feet, drive and blow.
Start thinking about the show,
Cause if you mess/f*** up
You want march no more.
It was true and was merely a reminder. Example: In 1985, there was a heck of a Freshman trombone (I'm pretty sure he was in Squad 1 with the Band Captain). The show was on BET and we were probably doing the STAR drill. I say that, because while in the Circles and while rotating the Circles, this Freshman trombone (driving and blowing his a** off) whipped turned 4 steps too fast (that's down front near the 50 yard line. He had the presence of mind to simply whip right back and whip back again when he was suppose to do it, to continue the show. With Doc being down front, he noticed the whip (since we use to really push poppin' the whips so that the caps would pop and the plums would flash). But, he wasn't looking right at it and didn't see exactly who it was. Usually either upper-classmen or a Reserve who wants to get on the field would rat you out. But, this guy was tight and the bones didn't want him off the field (they wanted to handle that one on their own in sectionals). So, the rest of us complied and wouldn't tell Doc who it was because our bandroom footage was had them just out of view where they couldn't see what squad or position he was in. Yet, with it being on TV, BET had it clear, and Doc was able to run it down by Tuesday or Wednesday from someone who taped the game. That kid never saw the field again, though it appeared by Bayou Classic he may make it back. But, he didn't.
The other reason was due to how critical our student body was to us. I recall comments like: "Ya'll mess up Saturday. Part of the 3rd line on the backside was dragging behind after ya'll came out of the Pin-Wheels". I'm like, heck naw. Guess what, when we saw the film on Monday, we may have seen 2 or 3 crabs a half step shy of the line or over the line due not adjusting the steps from the Pin-Wheel. I'm like darn! That's too observant for just ordinary fans. "Ya'll are slippin'" "Ya'll aren't kickin' it like last year (or another specific year that was a favorite of theirs)". It was for this reason, that we loved to travel, since the critiques were far fewer. But, when we could give the Jags what they wanted, man, the love expressed was crazy! So, it balanced out.
Between the tough critiques on campus and our desire to never disappoint and ole' schooler who dropped in on us and due to our opponents, there never room for excuses. As you can see from the clips, the pressure that we placed on each other and ourselves paid high dividends.
Peace...