Day Eight - Competition Monday
by John Berkowitz on Apr 13, 2009 8:42 PM PDT
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PrintIt was "Competition Monday" and "Tell the Truth Monday. The coaches spent time with the players going over Saturday's scrimmage and coined it as a mid term test. The Huskies worked on pressure situations today such as overtime and starting the offense buried deep in their own territory.
The weather wasn't great and the players would have preferred the comforts of the Dempsey but Sark was having none of that.
To start things off Allen Carroll, Bradly Roussel and Terrance Dailey weren't at practice today. All missed practice because of academic problems. D'Andre Goodwin has been shut down till Friday because of his hamstring. He pulled it again today. Luther Leonard got his feet wet at WR and also practiced returning punts.
Justin Glenn had a good practice running with the one's and Kavario Middleton had his best practice of the spring which is good to see. David Freeman had a 55 yard reception from Fouch where he did most of the work catching the short dump off and taking it long.
Teo Nesheim and Duncan both dropped RB's for losses today. Curtis Shaw is back and had a nice 30 yard run. Demetrius Bronson had another good day and broke one from the 8 that would have gone the distance if the coaches hadn't blown the play dead.
The QB's had a so-so day throwing the ball coupled by the receivers doing a so-so job catching the ball. The accuracy still isn't where it needs to be but they are making progress. The weather didn't help matters but that is football outdoors in Seattle. A lot of the problems simply are related to thinking not reacting as they get comfortable with a new offense.
Skyler Fancher was carried off with what looks to be a knee injury. He was taken for X-Rays and we find out about his status in the morning. Sark says it doesn't look good so we will see what happens.
Erik Folk was 3-4 in the FG department making a 20, 24 and 32 yarder. He missed early from 27.
Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times
"I wanted to wake them up,'' he said. "I think they had the big scrimmage Saturday, I think it's natural to come out on a Monday, they are back in full pads, it was raining when we first came out, they were maybe feeling a little sorry for themselves. We need to be not only a physically tough football team but a mentally tough football team and these elements of today's practice are something that we don't need to just be comfortable in them but we need to use them to our advantage. And we will, and I think they understood that and they really responded well. I thought our team period was one of the best ones we've had so far this spring. Our guys were inspired. They were into it. They were competing. We went over 40 plays there and went really hard.''
"I think he's starting to surprise himself a little bit," Sarkisian said of Bronson. "He keeps playing hard. He's learning a lot of the game, but he knows how to run the football, that's for sure. I'm very impressed with his mental toughness
"I think (the receivers) are a little young. The quarterbacks … are young to the system. I don't know if it's always the inconsistency in the route-running, but the timing of the quarterback as well," Sarkisian said. "We're trying to get the two things to mesh."
1. Players of the Day: On Offense Kavario Middleton and on Defense Daniel Te'o-Nesheim.
2. Play of the Day: Demitrius Bronson, 92 yard TD run.
3. Coach of the Day: GA Mike Anderson "Hard work and persistence will eventually reap its benefit’"
4. Thought of the Day: Only worry about what you can control, everything else is just a distraction.
5. Team Competition Winner: Offense
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Sounds good to me.
Anybody going to be at practice today??
Have they had any serious injuries yet?
That’s the biggest indication of whether the off-season conditioning was effective or not.
Get that strength up to protect those knees and shoulders.
We Shouldn't Have many Serious Injuries
Serious injuries occur more often when a player or a team are not locked into what’s going on or out of shape. Why do you suppose we had so many injuries over the last four years? Our teams were young and not locked into what’s going on and we were out of shape.
Ever notice why USC with all the competition and full speed stuff in practice isn’t riddled with the injury bug? Right there is evidence to support my argument. When a player or a team is going full speed, locked into what the hell is going on, and are in great football condition you will have a better chance of staying away from nagging injuries.
Coaches who do not practice contact and don’t go full speed are flat out clueless. You have to learn how to play the game full speed and when you don’t practice contact and full speed, kids get into a game and are not engaged with the speed of the game and are more prone to injury.
Freak accidents are a different subject. But nagging injuries can be minimized by knowing the job, knowing how fast to play, and being in great football shape. With Sark and Holt getting our team into great football condition it also minimizes the necessity of quality depth.
All I saw was purple
It's all about conditioning
I agree, the better conditioned, the more flexible, the fewer injuries.
Speed has nothing to do with injuries. Whether you practice a play at 50%, 80% or 100% of game speed doesn’t matter, you won’t have more injuries because you practice at 80%. If you fail to properly warm up, odds of an injury go through the roof. That being said, you play how practice, all the reps in the world won’t help if you don’t practice the same way you want to play. The only way to prepare for a game is to practice at 100%.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
Minor Correction
Do I dare? Lear may jump down my a$$ for this but I have to.
Agree with the 50%, 80%, or 100% thing, but only as a practice progressionary tool. Yet if your team practices more often at 50% or 80% for the majority of ALL practices then surely in the team’s head, they will enter a game playing at 50% or 80% and if that happens? All I can say is “OH BROTHER!”
The point is if you enter a game learning to play at 80%, compared to the opponent entering the game playing at 100%, then surely we will be prone to more injuries. Why? Because we are late getting out of our stance, we are late getting our eyes up, we are late getting into the inside “V” of the opposition- thus we are late in getting any substantial leverage. We are late in our QB drops- which will expose us to taking one directly on the chin…
What it comes down to is this. If you practice for the majority of the time in practice at 80%, you will learn to play the game slower, while the opposition has learned to play it at 100% and when this happens, we find our bodies out of position to obsorb contact coming at us at 100% effort. Rather we’ve conditioned our bodies and mind to obsorb that contact at a mere 80%. Right there is when legs get broke and arms get bent backwards.
Practicing with contact and at fullspeed means learning to play at 100%. When the whistle blows the play is over. Believe me Sark and Holt have a quick whistle, our team is not getting driven into the turf on a regular basis in practice. It’s all-out at full speed and STOP on the whistle stuff.
All I saw was purple
That's exactly what I said
The second half of my paragraph said the only way to practice is at 100%.
“That being said, you play how practice, all the reps in the world won’t help if you don’t practice the same way you want to play. The only way to prepare for a game is to practice at 100%.”
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
The faster you practice the faster you play in games and the more you reduce injuries.
Practicing or playing at 50% / 80% can create awkward movements and reactions and that is when injuries tend to mount.
Injuries can happen at anytime but the rule is you get less going at full speed.
by John Berkowitz on Apr 13, 2009 5:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Good Points
I am in total agreement with you Crazi…How can you learn and play the game at a competitive level without getting down and dirty so to speak. You have to have experience to improve and/or know what to work on.
Absolutely
“Coaches who do not practice contact and don’t go full speed are flat out clueless. You have to learn how to play the game full speed”
You are correct kind sir, practice fast to play fast. You are also conditioning your body and mind to get game like repetitions of the same quality. Can you think of any better training?
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Goodwin
According to Bob C’s blog, D’Andre Goodwin is no longer wearing a red jersey and back practicing with the first unit. Don’t know about everyone else, but I think this is GREAT news. I was worried he might miss the rest of spring.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
Speed kills
When we opened at Oregon last year, it was like a green blur. If we could have required the ducks to go at 80% maybe we would have fared better.
Exactly
Last year’s Oregon game was dreadful from the opening kickoff. Oregon came out at 100% effort and we came out at 75% effort. The speed of the Ducks put us in shell shock and the roar of the opposing crowd trippled our ineffectiveness. I put the blame directly on the TW staff and not on youth. Why? Because using “youth” as an excuse is a cop out and it’s easy to put the blame there. Yet if a coaching staff is going to play freshmen and sophomores across the board like the TW staff, then it is their responsibility to make sure that youth can handle the situation. Clearly we weren’t nearly ready for what transpired at Autzen, nor the rest of the season.
I believe our coaches were planning to use youth last season as a way to save their jobs and if it is true then to me that is completely and totally unethical in regards to coaching. Using kids who are not ready is dangerous business. I use to have a lot of respect for TW, but he put our kids in harms way last season. One kid who was not even close to being ready was Chris Polk and he got injured. Luckily for TW it wasn’t severe.
All I saw was purple
That's why...
…it’s still amazing to me that boise state went in there and dominated them. They couldn’t run the ball on the ducks but they killed them through the air. Their defense shut down the ducks option attack. The ducks didn’t do anything until they put in their qb who could actually throw the ball. They did come back but boise took care of business offensively (finally) and put them away.
To me it shows you that if you have a disciplined defense, you can stop the option. One guy mentioned that the ducks had 227 yards on the ground. So what? That’s all they did for 3 quarters is run the ball. The thing is on the critical downs, they were stopped.
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Good to hear
I’m glad Middleton is feeling better and that he is getting more comfortable. I really looking forward to watching the TE’s this year, having two up and coming playmakers should really help Jake and the offense.
How about the young guys: It’s exciting to see young guys like Bronson and Glenn stepping up, hopefully this coaching staff can years the four years to turn these guys into all conference players or better.
Hopefully Goodwin can bounce back quick, the WR position is lacking without him.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
Yeah if anyone...
…should have changed their bodies it’s Middleton. He looked really soft last season but I know it’s not about looks, it’s about performance. I don’t care if a guy has a gut on him or not, as long as he plays hard, fast football. I remember the TE the Vikings had, I think his name was Wiggins, the guy looked pudgy but he was a consistent playmaker for them.
Washington Husky Football-1991 National Champions
Elisara on Defense
He had a safety along with DTN. Condotta thinks Thompson is going to have a breakout year. The defense looks like a strength of this team right now.
by doubledeucedawg on Apr 13, 2009 9:20 PM PDT reply actions
I hope so.
I thought that the LBs and D-Line were really making progress at the end of last year despite the lopsided scoreboards. Its encouraging to see that momentum get accelerated through conditioning, coaching and enthusiasm.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Attrition from Bob C's Blog
Looks like you were right John. Who would that leave as maybe getting the axe? Looks like Rousell is getting himself out of Dodge with academics.
Goodwin
Needs to shut it down for the rest of Spring practices. Goodwin fits the role as a player who could probably skip the rest of practices and still be just as ready to play in the Fall. Same with DTN.
Tearing and re-tearing a hamstring is going to hurt him in the long run. That injury is going to take at least a month to heal, if he is fully resting. If he’s constantly re-injuring it, it’ll never heal.
I was a bit worried
But when I listened to Coach Sark’s interview, he said that it was just “tight”, not torn or pulled or otherwise “injured”. So hopefully it’s not a big deal, but yeah, it’s a hamstring thing and they should be extra careful with him. We all know he’s good. Sounds like Kearse and Aguilar are getting some good reps while he’s resting up. Plenty of changes for guys like Boyles to grab some extra work, too. No hurry, Flea!
Locker and Goodwin need time together to work on timing. D’Andre is the go to guy. The more they play together the better it will be.
by John Berkowitz on Apr 14, 2009 11:31 AM PDT up reply actions
True, but they'll have all summer/fall to run routes
I expect they’ll be fine in the long run and (potentially) damaging his hamstring now could delay some of that development later. The coaches know what he can do; Jake knows what he can do. For a few days, at least, the practice reps can go to guys who still need to shake their way into or out of the rotation. Gives the coaches more film to evaluate between now and fall camp.
Injuries
Other than some of the key playmakers, probably the one place where they can’t afford to lose depth is on the O-line. If Skyler Fancher’s leg turns out to be a big deal and Allan Carroll doesn’t hurry up and get his academic stuff in order, then there might be some serious shortages at tackle especially. That’s no good.
Goodwin's hamstring
Most people think that this staff is doing everything right. Now someone has a hammy problem, and the coaches all turned stupid. I think the coaches, with advise from the trainers and medical staff, will handle this problem properly.
New coaches need to coach the players to find out what they have. When Chuck Knox came to town, Steve Largent said he had to prove his abilities to the new staff. Sark won’t put injured players out there, but he does want to see the guys in action.
I think they're handling it fine
He hurt it, then it felt good so they let him play. It “tightened up” on him Monday so they decided to hold him out until at least Friday to play it safe. As we all know, hamstring injuries can linger or keep coming back, so I think they’re playing it a little bit on the safe side.
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