- Joined
- Nov 3, 2011
- Messages
- 7,073
Can't believe it is here. I'm sure most of you all feel the same way.
Be safe this weekend and the next couple days South Florida, being out here in Colorado isn't fun watching a storm go down away from home.
Having said that....
I won't speculate our win-loss record. I go into every season thinking 14-0 until proven otherwise.
I also won't speculate on who should be playing where.
I will speculate on a couple things that I think are very unheralded going into the season.
Conditioning, Strength and Culture:
Mental weakness is the downfall of many people. I believe that Golden has his finger firmly pressed on this button. Lucane made a FANTASTIC post regarding the transfer of Vernon Davis several days ago. It's really, really easy to quit in life. Immensely easy. I view that transfer as a complete success for this program. Competition by its very nature weeds out the weak minded. To paraphase Lu "Once we establish this at every position we'll be a much better team." Short, spot on, and couldn't have said it better.
Now for the part that isn't quantifiable.
We went into last season with something around under 10% of the team completing the conditioning test. Think about that....
UNDER 10%? Baffling for a collegiate program to be that out of shape. This year I believe everyone on the team passed it? Exhaustion leads to mental mistakes. I think we'll see significantly less this year especially at the end of games.
Strength Training
For the better part of a decade we've been pushed around while being told "well our guys are training for speed". Whatever the F that means.
Last year we had 11 guys bench 225 over 20 times and 0 bench it over 30. This year we have a 42 benching over 225 and 11 over 30. Amazing offseason for this program. I'm immensely impressed. Sure there have been Swasey debates ad nausem. Frankly Swasey walks to the beat of the head coaches drum. He did his job this offseason. The team is starting to resemble the physique of an SEC team and it showed in the spring game. I haven't been able to attend any practices since then but I've been told we "look big, mean, and fast" by several people.
We're young. Who cares. I said 14-0. Ya sure that probably won't happen, but if we START the season 2-0 it's going to be a very special year and wake up the ignorant pundits out there.
Last year a portion of our team wasn't influenced by the culture change Golden wanted to implement. Frankly I'm glad the guys who left did. A significant portion of the cancer on this team was removed. We went 6-6 and looked horrendous at times but we were in every single game. I can't remember a time that happened since 2003.
Biggest thing I'm looking forward to?
Special Teams, specifically the coverage units who were drastically improved last year and will be even better this year in my humble opinion.
We're going to see what other "potential" future teams of our storied past displayed, VIOLENCE and the bedrock of great teams to come......our Freshmens.
As a side note Duke Johnson is going to really fun to watch.
-Tim
Be safe this weekend and the next couple days South Florida, being out here in Colorado isn't fun watching a storm go down away from home.
Having said that....
I won't speculate our win-loss record. I go into every season thinking 14-0 until proven otherwise.
I also won't speculate on who should be playing where.
I will speculate on a couple things that I think are very unheralded going into the season.
Conditioning, Strength and Culture:
Mental weakness is the downfall of many people. I believe that Golden has his finger firmly pressed on this button. Lucane made a FANTASTIC post regarding the transfer of Vernon Davis several days ago. It's really, really easy to quit in life. Immensely easy. I view that transfer as a complete success for this program. Competition by its very nature weeds out the weak minded. To paraphase Lu "Once we establish this at every position we'll be a much better team." Short, spot on, and couldn't have said it better.
Now for the part that isn't quantifiable.
We went into last season with something around under 10% of the team completing the conditioning test. Think about that....
UNDER 10%? Baffling for a collegiate program to be that out of shape. This year I believe everyone on the team passed it? Exhaustion leads to mental mistakes. I think we'll see significantly less this year especially at the end of games.
Strength Training
For the better part of a decade we've been pushed around while being told "well our guys are training for speed". Whatever the F that means.
Last year we had 11 guys bench 225 over 20 times and 0 bench it over 30. This year we have a 42 benching over 225 and 11 over 30. Amazing offseason for this program. I'm immensely impressed. Sure there have been Swasey debates ad nausem. Frankly Swasey walks to the beat of the head coaches drum. He did his job this offseason. The team is starting to resemble the physique of an SEC team and it showed in the spring game. I haven't been able to attend any practices since then but I've been told we "look big, mean, and fast" by several people.
We're young. Who cares. I said 14-0. Ya sure that probably won't happen, but if we START the season 2-0 it's going to be a very special year and wake up the ignorant pundits out there.
Last year a portion of our team wasn't influenced by the culture change Golden wanted to implement. Frankly I'm glad the guys who left did. A significant portion of the cancer on this team was removed. We went 6-6 and looked horrendous at times but we were in every single game. I can't remember a time that happened since 2003.
Biggest thing I'm looking forward to?
Special Teams, specifically the coverage units who were drastically improved last year and will be even better this year in my humble opinion.
We're going to see what other "potential" future teams of our storied past displayed, VIOLENCE and the bedrock of great teams to come......our Freshmens.
As a side note Duke Johnson is going to really fun to watch.
-Tim
Last edited:
