How would you rate our Strength & Conditioning?

56Jacket

56Jacket

Flats Noob
Joined
Sep 15, 2002
Messages
738
I pay close attention to this and I am a little concerned. Our players had their hands on their hips in the 1st half. Our Offensive and Defensive Line is not overly physical and Hasnt been for years. I know we have a highly touted D-Line but I think it was more of a "quick" line than a "stout" line...

Team Speed is pretty good but overall Im not sure we get better every year.

I am not saying this because of this one game. I think we scored a lot on offense and ran well because of our misdirection and unconventional offense. Next year it wont be so new to people and we will have to block better and player tougher up front.

Since we are young, Im sure that plays a part in it but I am going to be anxious to see how much more physical we are next year with the returning starters...

One other thing was CPJ said He wanted to reward the team for the bowl and not treat it like "another spring practice", Im not sure that worked.....

I remember bowl practices as being pretty hard especially at the beginning.... for the starters it tapered off a lot the closer we got to the game
 
Well...I think our strength & conditioning was better this year than in recent past. Jon Dwyer did say after they game that we have to get stronger and faster in the off-season. I mainly see an OL that cannot quite get this offense moving on a consisten basis as a few of them are not ideally suited to smashmouth larger, faster opponents.

What I believe is that our preparation for this bowl game was poor. The "just for fun" approach was left back in the 1950's....you just cannot do that. We are not, and never will be, talented enough to take a SoCal approach to any football game and win it. We have to rely on focus, intensity, heart, and will to make it happen regularly.

I was proud that our defense said "enough is enough" in the second half and kept LSU out of the endzone....despite the fact LSU tried desperately to score. Unfortunately, the offense and the special teams never put together anything.
 
hiveredtech said:
Well...I think our strength & conditioning was better this year than in recent past. Jon Dwyer did say after they game that we have to get stronger and faster in the off-season. I mainly see an OL that cannot quite get this offense moving on a consisten basis as a few of them are not ideally suited to smashmouth larger, faster opponents.

What I believe is that our preparation for this bowl game was poor. The "just for fun" approach was left back in the 1950's....you just cannot do that. We are not, and never will be, talented enough to take a SoCal approach to any football game and win it. We have to rely on focus, intensity, heart, and will to make it happen regularly.

I was proud that our defense said "enough is enough" in the second half and kept LSU out of the endzone....despite the fact LSU tried desperately to score. Unfortunately, the offense and the special teams never put together anything.
Click to expand...

so do you think our bowl approach will be "different" next year?

I am saying I look at our o-line and see big guts and skinny biceps and triceps with NO definition...I see #54 looking fairly slow at the linebacker position, the QB ran by him pretty easy. Our LB's dont look quick enough in passing situations...i saw our linemen getting driven into our own backfield at times this year
 
56Jacket said:
so do you think our bowl approach will be "different" next year?

I am saying I look at our o-line and see big guts and skinny biceps and triceps with NO definition...I see #54 looking fairly slow at the linebacker position, the QB ran by him pretty easy. Our LB's dont look quick enough in passing situations...i saw our linemen getting driven into our own backfield at times this year
Click to expand...

#54 was only playing at 80%. He will have his knee MRI'd again this week and may have a scope procedure done. He is a 4.55 forty guy...and typically tackles at that same level of speed.

What you saw on the OL was the same thing I did. Their DL did not even try to make tackles...they were blocking our guys back into the play side right after the snap like they were the OL! #73 really struggled at his 260 lbs. I think we have to remember that this OL was recruited to pass-block...as you well know a more reactive style. Now...we need them to fire off the ball low and take someone out...and pop back up and motor forward taking more people out. Not only is that a different mindset....it requires a different body type. The incoming freshman class (which will not have impact next year of course) are all rock-hard guys that are 6-3, 285 type gym rats that love to play nasty.

All of that being said...our current OL has fought hard to learn something new. They did not run away like many of their teammates. Dan Voss had his shoulder pop out 4 or 5 times this year and opted to wait until after the season to have surgery. Gilbert is playing hurt at RG. Austin Barrick as a TE one year ago....a running back in fall...and then was forced into playing RT after David Brown went down. We lost All-ACC and line leader Andrew Gardner...yet 6-6 Nick Claytor (Fr-R) fought to figure out how he can get his large body to cut block.

The OL will have be different for this offense to work...and the QB decision-making will have to be accurate.
 
56Jacket said:
I pay close attention to this and I am a little concerned. Our players had their hands on their hips in the 1st half. Our Offensive and Defensive Line is not overly physical and Hasnt been for years. I know we have a highly touted D-Line but I think it was more of a "quick" line than a "stout" line...

Team Speed is pretty good but overall Im not sure we get better every year.


Since we are young, Im sure that plays a part in it but I am going to be anxious to see how much more physical we are next year with the returning starters...
Click to expand...

56,

Like you, I noticed a large discrepency between LSU's player's & ours with respect to strength, size, & speed. I attribute this to several things:

(1) LSU has had several back to back recruiting classes about as good as or better than our amazing 07 class.

(2) GT is suffering from a probation hangover. Not only are we several schollie players short this year, but the missing players were upper classmen (therefore not as big and strong).

(3) With regard to hands on our hips, that's what happens when you repeatedly give the ball back to a team with a massive offensive line (fumbled punt, onsides kick, QB fumble, etc). They wear you down.

Actually I thought the fact we held those guys to 3 pts in the second half was really good given how Les Miles was keeping his foot on the accelerator. Usually that's where you see a team wear down and give up. We did not.

Just my opinion, but I think our S&C program is not the problem. Lack of mature bodies is. CPJ wants to redshirt all tr-fr like Wake does to level the playing field. Will take a year or two before he can start doing that, then will take years before fully realizing the benefits (much like it took Wake awhile before they broke through).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top