The relationship between Moawad and the Alabama coach goes back to when Moawad was a player for the Dolphins and when he worked for Nick Saban.
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TREVOR was always on the fringes. He wasn't a coach, he wasn't a staff member, and he wasn't on campus every day of the season. He was on the sideline for crucial games, on the phone to help coaches with messaging during times of transition, and leading training during the summer. For years, he whispered in the ear of Alabama's Nick Saban, the greatest college football coach of all time, and he wound up doing the same for many of his former assistants.
Moawad did work in the area of mental conditioning, but not everyone bought into it. They believed in what he said about the importance of neutral thinking and how internal dialogue can affect performance. They saw how his lessons helped them. They believed Moawad gave them a winning edge.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart said that the talent level is so close that wins and losses are often measured in inches.
He became known as the difference. If you buy in, he can be the inches.
The more time Smart and others spent with Moawad, the more their relationships evolved. Moawad was authentic and caring. They counted him as a teammate, brother and friend.
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Moawad is one of the most genuine people Jimbo Fisher has ever met. Moawad was there for Fisher when his marriage ended. Fisher said they are very close outside of football.
Fisher said that he was always trying to think of ways to make people better. He was kind. Totally altruistic.
Fisher and others are still trying to comprehend the death of Moawad, who died at the age of 48. Many were shocked by his battle with cancer. Less than a week before he died, Maryland coach Mike Locksley exchanged messages with him. Moawad reached out to Lawrence Frank, the LA Clippers president of basketball operations, despite what he was going through. Moawad asked Locksley to send a picture of his family.
Locksley went quiet for a moment and recalled the conversation. He licked his throat.
He said that he read the text and it got him. That's who he is, man. He put everyone before himself.
Moawad was able to connect with people. His gift as a teacher was making the complex easy to understand. He'd say a four- or five-word phrase that would shift their thinking.
"The best is ahead" is a phrase Locksley finds comforting.
The impact on coaches and players is still there even though he left the world too soon. His presence on the sideline and his voice on the other end of the phone are not present as the season draws to a close.
"One of the things Trevor always tried to emphasize was you should want to be as good as you can be because that's the most important thing to you," said Nick Saban.
It would have been easy to turn him away at the door, he was a guru, well-tanned, overly energetic man who handed out business cards that read " President of Mindset Programs" and co-found the training and performance company Limitless Minds. What did the title mean? College football coaches have improved their B.S. detectors. They're used to sniffing out snake oil salesmen from all the agents and handlers and self-proclaimed experts who hang around the sport. They didn't get that vibe when they sat down with Moawad.
Maybe it was because he had the approval of his boss. The work they did together continued during the formative years of the dynasty at Alabama, even though they were both with the Miami Dolphins. Moawad's message was resonated by something. Something struck a nerve and made coaches such as Smart, Fisher and Miami want to hear more.
Moawad was disarming, cracking jokes about being the son of one of the original contributors to the book series. He worked with athletes such as Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks. He wasn't telling the coaches to be rah-rah. His speeches were not canned. They were practical. He was ok with tough love and self-control in the hyper-masculine world of football. He told athletes to "starve your distraction, feed your focus."
"I can't guarantee you will be happy, but I can guarantee you won't be sad," he'd say.
Moawad was compelling because of its mental side of sports. He said it was interesting to listen to him talk. It was a learning experience, according to Saban.
Moawad pointed out that it's not always best to look for inspiration in external sources, like a loss to a team the previous season or something disrespectful an opponent said in the media. It's why he doesn't talk about revenge.
The most important thing to you is to be as good as you can be, and that's one of the things thatTrevor always tried to emphasize. That's what you want. Which is a simple concept, but not always easy to implement.
He said that they were really good friends. We talked a lot.
Smart, who was the defensive coach for the Alabama team, was skeptical of Moawad at first. Smart hadn't given much thought to the mental side of football before he was a player. Smart said that Moawad's passion forced him to think.
He would watch Moawad work with the team, such as during one exercise in which he'd have two players sit back-to-back and explain to one another a series of shapes. The partner who drew the shape was the winner. The value of being an effective communicator was shown in the exercise, which would come in handy when confronted with a hostile crowd or an intense situation during a game.
Play.
Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC title game and will face Michigan in the playoffs.
Moawad's messages began to sink in for Smart. He wondered if the coaches were getting more out of the lessons than the players.
"He made me think of the game differently than a Neanderthal," Smart said. "He opened it up for me."
Smart said every season is an emotional roller coaster and that Moawad was a steadying influence for him. He was with us when Georgia lost to Alabama in the National Championship Game.
Moawad helped come up with the team slogan after falling short of victory.
The Bulldogs are 32-5. Smart chuckled as he tried to pick out his favorite Moawad saying. He said that when you're green, you grow. You rot when you're ripe.
"I've been through a lot of things with him," Smart said. A great man, a great person who cared for everyone.
Mel Tucker was Smart's defensive coach. When he was hired to be Colorado's head coach, he asked for the resources to bring Moawad in as a consultant.
Tucker doesn't know where he'd be without Moawad. Tucker's first day at Michigan State in February 2020 is the best example of that.
Tucker was hired away from Colorado late in the coaching cycle and was scrambling to hire staff and prepare for spring practice when the world was turned upside down. Everyone on the team was sent home.
Moawad's concept of neutral thinking kicked in for Tucker. Tucker was able to think clearly because he removed the emotion and didn't worry about the unknown.
He said he leaned into that heavily. What can you do? What are the facts? It is not a 'woe is me' or 'This is not fair'. What do you need to do? You should keep searching for the truth and getting new information to guide you. Don't be aggressive with it. I led our organization through that period of time, and that's how I handled it.
Tucker doesn't remember how many times people told him what a terrible situation he stepped into. He was able to build a foundation for a 10-win regular season and a New Year's Six bowl after the Spartans went 2-5 in 2020.
The cover of Tucker's play sheet was dedicated to a favorite phrase of Moawad's that has become something of a team motto: "It takes what it takes."
Mel Tucker paid tribute to the late author and mental coach, who died this week, on his sheet during the game. "It takes what it takes" is one of the program mottos.
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September 18, 2021.
Tucker thinks Moawad was a difference-maker in the win-loss column.
Tucker said that the proof was in the pudding.
Tucker posted a remembrance on social media. He called Moawad a friend but also a teammate, as a lot of coaches and players did that day.
Tucker said that he made him better. Great teammates make the people around them better.
Young athletes as well as coaches were impacted by the work of Moawad.
Georgia will play Michigan in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Eve in Miami, and all eyes will be on the quarterback. All eyes have been on him for a decade.
Daniels was a top prospect in Southern California who decided to enroll early at USC, where he was expected to lift the program out of mediocrity. He transferred to Georgia after suffering a season-ending injury as a sophomore and was expected to take the offense to the next level.
Injuries have hampered his two seasons in Athens, and he was replaced as the starter by Stetson Bennett IV. Daniels did not meet lofty expectations again.
Daniels has attempted 94 passes this season. He may get another chance.
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When Bennett struggled against Alabama in the SEC championship game, the drumbeat calling for him to play grew louder. Bennett, a former walk-on, has maxed out his potential while Daniels, a former top-100 prospect, has the ability to do more in the passing game.
When he told reporters that "both of those guys are evaluated each and every day", he was not trying to shut down the quarterback debate.
If Daniels can lead Georgia past Michigan in the national championship game, he will have a storybook ending. He will have a chance to meet Moawad in the seventh grade.
Moawad gave a presentation to Daniels and the other quarterbacks at a camp run by Jordan Palmer. Moawad talked about having a competitive mindset and Daniels was impressed with how prepared he was.
Moawad told a story about a man who accidentally locked himself in a walk-in refrigerator. The man was trapped inside by himself over the weekend and thought he was going to die from the cold. Moawad told the group that the fridge hadn't been turned on when he died.
Daniels said that it showed how powerful it is when we believe in negative thinking.
Daniels has been through a lot not succumbing to that black hole of doubt. In high school, everything was perfect, but college has been rough.
One minute USC fans were calling him a star. Fans were calling him a piece of garbage when he went 1-2 in his first three games.
He said that he had death threats in his email. You need to have a developed mindset.
Daniels wonders if there are many people out there who failed to reach their potential because they weren't surrounded by the right people. He looks at teammates who are struggling with the transition to college, whether it's dealing with demanding coaches for the first time or the shock of playing in front of 90,000 people who will love you one minute and turn on you the next, and he wants to teach them everything he knows.
He said he was lucky to have been around the right people. I couldn't tell you where I would end up if I didn't have him.
Smart told the team during a meeting that Moawad had passed. He had to collect himself. He called to tell his dad. Daniels said that Moawad was his best friend and he never let on that he was sick.
That's who he was.
"He wanted the conversation to be about you and not about himself, no matter who he was talking to," Daniels said.
Moawad was trying to make players and coaches better.
He went above and beyond when he sent encouragement and video messages to Jimbo Fisher's son when he was in high school. Fisher said that Moawad didn't have to do that, and it showed how much he cared.
Fisher said that he had a great love for life and had a great heart. He wanted to make other people's lives better. Whatever they did, he was very unique in his way of being genuine. He was trying to think of ways to make things better.
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