My HS had a football coach who was old school. No full practice film sessions. Practices were full pads, full contact every day of the week. Running sprints was a big part of practice. Fumbles, false starts, etc. in practice were punished with sprints or pushups. Late? Run. Talked back? Run. He had losing seasons like 80%+ of his career.
His replacement did film sessions, walkthrough practices, half pads most of the week, days off here and there. He was playing for a section title year 2.
This idea that dogmatic hard work for the sake of hard work is the path to success is a fun concept for children’s books.
And, to be very clear, this story about Hurley has much more to do with the APPEARANCE of hard work. I would bet a large sum of money that most teams facing late snowfall bumped up their practice time. He did nothing special or noteworthy but it’s being covered like he went above and beyond to get his team in the gym.