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Mike Gundy: No hitting at spring practice, only practices on field for 5 hrs a week

JimmyBuff

Well-Known Member
Huh? Is this guy the moneyball of college football? Crazy
When Gundy looks back, he sees a young head coach who tried to do things the way that head coaches are supposed to do them. In his first three seasons, Gundy went 18-19 (.486) and became best known for a rant at a news conference.


The more he has trusted his gut, the more that he refused to heed the Coaching 101 textbook of conventional wisdom, the more games the Cowboys have won. Beginning in 2008, Gundy has gone 40-11 (.784). Over that same time, the coach on the other side of the Bedlam rivalry is 41-12 (.773).


Gundy remembered what T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire godfather of Oklahoma State athletics, told him when he got hired: (1) take risks, and (2) be unpredictable. So he began to ask questions. Why did Oklahoma State get to the end of the season with more players in the training room than on the field? Why did certain coaching hires click and others not? Gundy asked questions and he didn't go to the Coaching 101 textbook for his answers.


Take the injury issue. The old-school reaction to not winning enough is to double down, to make a team tougher, to tackle more and hit more. But Gundy saw a team spent physically and emotionally.


"Our guys were losing too much weight during two-a-days," Gundy said. "In August, it's 100 degrees down here and we practice a lot. We said, OK, why is that happening? Obviously, we're on the field too much. So what's the answer? We've got to back off. How much can you back off?"


Strength coach Rob Glass started trying to quantify what had been done because it had always been done. How many steps can a wide receiver run in August and still be fresh in November? How much pounding can an offensive lineman take before his shoulder needs to be reassembled? If the approach sounds familiar, it should. Brad Pitt made a movie about it.


"Like 'Moneyball,' we do a lot of things, put a lot of thought into formulas," Gundy said.
Gundy didn't back off -- he stopped. Two-a-days?



"We started [compiling] all that about three years ago, and we started putting it in effect really this year," he said. "Last spring, spring ball, we did not scrimmage one time and tackle to the ground. This August, we did not scrimmage one time and tackle to the ground. Nothing."


Two-hour practices? Out. The Cowboys are on the practice field five hours a week. Gundy took the risk. He made the unpredictable decision.
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http://espn.go.com/college-football...tate-cowboys-coach-mike-gundy-learns-mistakes
 
Darth Snow said:
no kidding. However, I wonder how the no hitting rule will effect their team toughness down the road as the culture changes.
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IT will be interesting to see how OSU players do in the NFL where practices are much tougher (although I believe their is a limit to have many times a team can be in pads during the week) than college and whether they can handle the work load. Still Gundy's job is to win college football games and he's come up with a plan that limits the amount of hits a player takes to lessen the injury load for his team. I'd like CU to start doing some of this kind of research into their program since we've had numerous injury issues.
 
Agree with you guys, it does explain their D in some ways. Specifically, at least the games ive watched, they arent very physical and cant tackle for ****. Agree with Vamos too, it has changed the game already. I take O numbers these days with a grain of salt. It makes a huge difference, for a receiver going over the middle, not to have to worry about getting his head taken off as much as in years past. Also, a qb is gonna take more chances when they wont even allow u to touch a receiver anymore. Plus the O gets the benefit of the doubt on those calls almost always. Parker Orms does it just right against Utah, ****ing textbook, still gets flagged. Hell even the officials have been affected by the new rules.
 
If the rule changes are effective at moderating the long-term health consequences associated with playing football, I think they are a good thing; a lot of players deal with some pretty terrible issues even after their playing days are long over.
 
With the new rules in the NFL I heard about today on the raidio this is how to get ahead with the recruits comeing out of HS. You won't get your ass kicked in practice, it will sell big time.
 
Well the Ducks used only 2/3 of their practice time they were allotted by the NCAA so it is not all that surprising. The lack of hitting jumped out at me, but practice time is not that surprising.
 
CanadianDuck said:
Well the Ducks used only 2/3 of their practice time they were allotted by the NCAA so it is not all that surprising. The lack of hitting jumped out at me, but practice time is not that surprising.
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Thats exactly why they get beat by physical teams, hitting in practice makes a difference. Football will never change in that way.
 
When Embree made the decision to have extremely physical practices I was concerned. As the season began I think he backed off a bit. Finding the right balance of physicallity vs execution is, thinking about this, one of a coaches most difficult ballancing acts. You just cannot run the players into the ground. Yet, you want to establish a smash mouth mentality. Difficult deal.
 
BuffLuKe said:
Thats exactly why they get beat by physical teams, hitting in practice makes a difference. Football will never change in that way.
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Who the Ducks or OSU? The Ducks tackle in practice, but in that practice they are running at what Chip calls hyper speed. They get more plays calls in then most teams would in 1/3 or 2/3 of the practice time which is why the Ducks are so well conditioned. The reason the Ducks get beat by physical teams is because recruiting big OL/DL is damn near impossible unless the school is in So-Cal or SEC country. Oregon is not exactly known for pumping out first class lineman all that often.
 
CanadianDuck said:
Who the Ducks or OSU? The Ducks tackle in practice, but in that practice they are running at what Chip calls hyper speed. They get more plays calls in then most teams would in 1/3 or 2/3 of the practice time which is why the Ducks are so well conditioned. The reason the Ducks get beat by physical teams is because recruiting big OL/DL is damn near impossible unless the school is in So-Cal or SEC country. Oregon is not exactly known for pumping out first class lineman all that often.
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Their D sucks too really, hyper speed my ass. All good till somebody busts your ass in the mouth. Oregon is finnesse period and yes u can recruit physical linemen on both sides besides the areas mentioned. You guys already have a dirty program so it shouldnt be hard. There is a reason u dont have those guys, look up.
 
BuffLuKe said:
Their D sucks too really, hyper speed my ass. All good till somebody busts your ass in the mouth. Oregon is finnesse period and yes u can recruit physical linemen on both sides besides the areas mentioned. You guys already have a dirty program so it shouldnt be hard. There is a reason u dont have those guys, look up.
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CD's butt is water tight and has teeth!
 
BuffLuKe said:
Their D sucks too really, hyper speed my ass. All good till somebody busts your ass in the mouth. Oregon is finnesse period and yes u can recruit physical linemen on both sides besides the areas mentioned. You guys already have a dirty program so it shouldnt be hard. There is a reason u dont have those guys, look up.
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Seriously I have had better flames thrown at me before about Oregon so you need to step up your game lol. There are a limited amount of big physical lineman on both sides of the ball in recruiting and getting them to come to Oregon is not easy. If it was so easy it would have been done already and I would not be talking about Oregon coming into this Rose Bowl having lost their last 2 BCS games. The main reason Oregon does not have a lot of big uglies is due to career ending injuries and some awful recruiting luck the past few years.

P.S. I love the dirty program talk because if the NCAA had any real power they could probably find dirt on every school. Recruiting can be and is a very dirty process where most coaches skirt the lines of cheating/following the rules every day. I will not defend Oregon for what they may or may not have done until the final verdict is read, but I hope some fans can get past that and actually discuss football.
 
The Walrus said:
Canadian asses don't have teeth. Of this I'm 100% confident.
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Well good to know you have managed to hook up with some fine Canadian ass. I prefer Canadian over American women because the whole slutty routine that most American woman do is slightly annoying.
 
Not trying to flame you, pretty good guy it seems. U think Oregon is clean, lol on that one. You arent gonna get physical guys to play in that system, doesnt matter where they are. Oregon can run with anybody but they get brought back to earth when they play teams that can control the front.
 
BuffLuKe said:
Not trying to flame you, pretty good guy it seems. U think Oregon is clean, lol on that one. You arent gonna get physical guys to play in that system, doesnt matter where they are. Oregon can run with anybody but they get brought back to earth when they play teams that can control the front.
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I thought I pretty much said every NCAA team is dirty. Controlling the front will not beat Oregon alone, but the way to beat them is controlling all the gaps. If a team just dominates the Oregon OL, but the RB's can still get to the outside it does not matter how good the DL plays because the Ducks speed will kill. All a team needs is gap control and not a massive OL.
 
Dude they wont win getting their ass kicked up front, I dont care how much speed they have. Of course they will make plays here and there. Scoreboard is all that matters. They couldnt do jack against Auburn, LSU, etc for a reason. Im aware they have as much speed as anybody but that doesnt do alot when your oline cant matchup with physical dlinemen. Call me old fashioned but it all begins and ends up front, always has always will no matter what gimmick bs u run. Oh and some are dirtier than others lol. Anyhow, should be a fun Rose Bowl to watch.
 
i like Gundy. though, i'd like to see the OSU OOC v. OU's OOC before i give him credit for a % win over Stoops in this time period of "following his muse". OU always seems to play good teams and a cupcake OOC. OSU has got better, but still a lot of cupcakes. lot La-Lafayette types.

edit: Hawkins was also a proponent of the less hitting theory. as was Shanny. Bill Walsh. not sure we are reinventing the wheel here.
 
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The Walrus said:
I refuse to have an opinion on this until Wyoming weighs in.
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Wally, you can guess where I stand on this. I believe that football is football. In the end, its blocking and tackling no matter what kind of package you run. You cannot do either one effectively without practice. Practice is brutal and a there has to be a balance so you have fresh legs for the game. That said, the body can be conditioned to accept and to deliver a great deal of punishment. I am about punishment. We need to get to a point in our program where we can put the young-ones through the meat-grinder and train them to correctly deliver and take punishment. The older players and starters still need to hit but you can do things in-season to save their legs for the games. The meat-squad, young guys and red-shirts should go to war everyday in practice.
 
Wyo Buff said:
Wally, you can guess where I stand on this. I believe that football is football. In the end, its blocking and tackling no matter what kind of package you run. You cannot do either one effectively without practice. Practice is brutal and a there has to be a balance so you have fresh legs for the game. That said, the body can be conditioned to accept and to deliver a great deal of punishment. I am about punishment. We need to get to a point in our program where we can put the young-ones through the meat-grinder and train them to correctly deliver and take punishment. The older players and starters still need to hit but you can do things in-season to save their legs for the games. The meat-squad, young guys and red-shirts shoud go to war everyday in practice.
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That's exactly my opinion too!
 
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