What can the coaching staff do...

...to remedy the turnovers and penalties? The players know full well that they're not supposed to do either of them, and they obviously don't want to. They don't have to be taught that they are bad. But what, specifically, could be done to cure the problem?

 

The staff needs to keep working real hard with them and get it ingrained mentally into the players psyche. They work on ball security for the first 15 minutes or so of every practice, last week they upped it. Miles said he is open to suggestions.

 

Grab head. Remove from ass.

 

stop putting them on the bench when they make a mistake, this ruins their confidence and makes them nervous, the next time they touch the ball they usually fumble again.

 

The advocate has some quotes from Bobby Hebert and Miles said basically the same thing in his post game interview.

Advocate Article

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Saban had refs at his practices. I'm not sure if he had them during the season, but he had them at practices during fall camp. This prevents players from getting lazy in practice as well as to teach players what they can and can't do. Miles only used refs during the scrimmages ... he should consider having them there all the time.

Punishment, such as extra conditioning, should also be used. Players hate extra conditioning.

The one concern that I have is that we'll talk about the penalties and turnovers so much that it may negatively affect the players and make them play more tentatively. They'll be in trouble if they starting thinking "don't screw up" right before the ball is snapped.

 

I've speculated in other threads that the culprit may be the strength and conditioning of the team.

I know it sounds ridiculous to even question the fitness of a Tommy Moffit-trained bunch, but using the process of elimination suggests this may be the cause:

Experience-? A large number of turnovers are being made by people who have 2 or more years of experience in either this offense, gametime experience, or both. People who weren't fumbling or tossing INTs with such regularity in the past are doing so now.

Why? The offense is largely unchanged, so that's not an exuse. Yes, the caliber of competition so far has been respectable...but no small number of turnovers have been, to use a tennis term, unforced errors.


Coaching-? Not likely. Les Miles had his OSU Cowboys at the very top of the giveaway/takeaway ratio in the nation last season. Plus, there were telltale signs that the coaches have, indeed, been "coaching up" ball security.

Joe Addai, for example, must have covered up that ball with both arms whenever anyone got within 5 yards of him all day long against Florida. That's the kind of fine technique that is instilled in a player through intense coaching.

So, what's left? I suggest fatigue, something no less a coach than Vince Lombardi once said, "makes cowards of us all". We all know that fatigue was cited by many as being a factor for the 2nd half collapse against Tennessee, an excuse that I for one accept due to the lack of gameplay (i.e., lack of game experience = less than ideal shape during games). What's the excuse now, some 5 games into the deal and with a couple of "normal" gameweeks under the belt?

Are these guys just not in the kind of shape that they normally are come mid-October? Are hits from defenders that resulted in nothing more than a tackle in the past causing the ball to squirt loose? Is JR--he of the svelte 260 plus who had to fairly rapidly lose 15 pounds in August--making some of his questionable decisions on where to go with the ball due to being, well, tired? Is the "best WR corps in America" working hard to overcome a bushel of passes dropped earlier in the season that were due to, say, being winded?

I mean, how on earth does a Florida offense that was bashed senseless all day long turn the ball over zero---zero!---times, yet an LSU offense in control of the game mostly throughout fumbled the ball everytime someone sitting in the student section sneezed too forcefully?

Just a thought.

 

Maybe if Mora would have benched Heberts sorry behind everytime he threw a pick he would have learned not to do it again, cause he sure didn't get better by leaving him in there!!!

 

Or...you could leave them in there and let them continue to make the same mistake??