After reading all the news and updates from various sites reguarding fall camp, it occurred to me that Miles and Co. have tweaked the way they address live tackling. The first camp under Miles was criticized by many on this site, including myself to some degree, about the amount of injuries--severe injuries--that were taking place. While it must be said that quite often, injuries can and will happen--this is football. Sometimes Lady Luck will smile on you, and even the most physically run fall camps will conclude without anything more than a few bruised knees and sore ankles. There's no doubt that the team had more than your average bumps and bruses 2 years ago--even last season than compared to this year. I don't recall ever reading Miles running a "thud" scrimmage--where you make the hit, but stay on your feet--until this season. Perhaps he did run those types of practices in the past, but I don't remember it being reported as much. Whether I'm correct in my assumption or not, my feeling on the perceived reduced practice of live-tackling this year might be attributed to the coaching staff being new to the players, wanted/needed to see what each player was capable of doing before they felt they could adequately gauge their player's abilities. Now, with Miles' 3rd season set to begin, it appears that he and the coaching staff know enough about the players' abilities that they don't need to risk injury by holding live tackling. Again, I have no specific reason or information that led me to that conclusion, but it's just an observation that I've made over the course of the last few weeks. Reguardless of whether it's just false or not for me to believe that practices have been less physical this year, it's certainly a nice feeling to see the team head into a regular season "game week" with few devastating injuries (other than Snyder's unfortunate knee injury). Thoughts?
Personally, I believe that it is smart not to subject our offense to the beating that can be delivered by our defense! That's why they did it...because our defense is so lethal...they feared for the offensive guys safety.:thumb:
Hard to say without being at practices from each season, but less injuries is always a good thing. If "thud" tackling gets the team ready and helps stay injury free great. I think everyone knew there would be some adjustments by Miles in his transition to the SEC as he got to know the conference and level of play. He has done really well so far and has shown the ability to learn and adapt which should help him get even better.
i've heard that the staff is more conservative this year holding out guys like flynn and putt when they've probably could've gone. that's fine by me, it's a long season.
Nick's teams practised "thud" most of the time because Nick could recycle the plays more quickly and get in more plays in a session and to reduce practice injuries. But it has been noted that Nick's teams, especially the linemen, got off to slow starts in the first couple of games every season and let themselves be pushed around by cupcake out-of-conference opponents before shaping up into some damn good teams. Les came in with a "you play like you practice" attitude and full block and tackle practices were conducted. And we took more practice injuries, but there was none of the opening-game maliase and linemen were hitting hard on drive one. Les is now running both thud and full-speed tackle drills. Injuries have been light, yet intensity is sufficient to cause several old-time practice fights. Perhaps Les has now found the right balance. I like a coach that keeps learning and adapting.
yes. it is good to see that Miles is open to change. I like that our fanbase is (almost) entirely behind him now. There are still a few off the bandwagon but at least not everyone acts like he is an idiot all the time now and acknowledges that he knows what he's doing. now if we could only get the rest of the country in on the secret that'd be great....
One change I'm seeing is that players who have minor injuries are being held out of practice quite a bit. I don't mind this at all with a veteran, but with a young player who needs reps and instruction, I don't see how it helps much.
I did not read of any young players being held out. I believe all true freshmen who may contribute to this team's success this year have participated in drills and scrimmages. Anybody held out was for a good reason.
