Evaluation of Longo

NDPhilly

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I think he meant tackle as in taking the ball carrier to the ground. None of the guys on your list have played much if at all.

Lol whoops.

Isn't this about recruiting? Well theyre freshman and sophomores. Many of them are projects like Farley and Turner that need time to develop.
 

BeauBenken

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I think Longo and the training table have had some really dramatic effects on the players.

Lots of kudos go to Mr. Longo.

My only criticism would be the injury plagues we seem to get every year. That hamstring epidemic was brutal.

I was just about to mention this. Our dieticians are very good at their jobs too.
 

irish1958

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If I remeber reading/hearing right that hamstring injurys are due to some other muscles being underdeveloped. Can't quite remember what one(s).

Imbalance between the "core" muscles and other muscle groups is thought to be responsible for the pulls and more serious injuries to the muscle groups, but especially the hamstrings.
Several studies (but mostly on girls) have demonstrated reduction in injuries if attention is paid to developing strength in the core muscles so that the development is balanced.
 

Black Irish

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If I remeber reading/hearing right that hamstring injurys are due to some other muscles being underdeveloped. Can't quite remember what one(s). Gotta thank Weis for the training table?

Hamstring problems can also be attributed to having overdeveloped quadriceps relative to the hamstrings. This usually happens when guys pound out heavy weight on exercises like squats and leg press without counter-balancing effectively with other, non-quad exercises.
 

IrishLax

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It's a combination of things, but frankly anyone who thinks there hasn't been a HUGE jump in fitness/endurance in this team I don't think is remembering the Weis years well enough. Weis had TONS of ball possession and our defense would still completely run out of gas in the 4th quarter.
 
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koonja

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I agree with the improvement in conditioning for sure. I guess I was more inquiring about when we get a commit with questionable speed, people seem to rest their hat on the 'wait until Longo gets a hold of him' theory, and I was wondering the substance behind that. I know he's only been here 3 years, but we haven't been a 'fast' team, at least not on defense. Our speed is average, imo.
 

Irishman77

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I remember when Kelly and staff first got here he commented how OT Stewart couldn't do a pull up at spring practice. From what I have seen in the short period of time, the biggest difference is from when they committ and get on campus.
 

irishroo

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If you're looking for a specific example of Longo's effectiveness, take a look at Zack Martin. When Kelly was hired, Zack could bench 225 12 times. By the end of spring ball in Longo and Kelly's first year (so essentially after 1 semester in Longo's program), Zack could bench 225 23 times. That's a hell of a transformation in a very short period of time.
 
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koonja

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If you're looking for a specific example of Longo's effectiveness, take a look at Zack Martin. When Kelly was hired, Zack could bench 225 12 times. By the end of spring ball in Longo and Kelly's first year (so essentially after 1 semester in Longo's program), Zack could bench 225 23 times. That's a hell of a transformation in a very short period of time.

With a team of 85 players, single examples like this happen all the time, at every single school. Maybe I asked an impossible question, or maybe I asked it too soon.
 

DSully1995

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With a team of 85 players, single examples like this happen all the time, at every single school. Maybe I asked an impossible question, or maybe I asked it too soon.

Probably too soon, i think a better way would be to see the amount of busts under kelly/longo and under weis/mendoza, isnt an exact answer but it would give more of a clue into the physical developpement

this would take a few more years atleast though for kellys results
 

NDinFL

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Good read, but that doesn't say anything about Longo.

Third paragraph:

"Both FSU and Notre Dame have new head coaches, both cleaned house and brought in new S and C coaches"

That would be referencing Longo.

Mendoza was the guy under Weis, trust me, it's an eye-opening read
 
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koonja

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Third paragraph:

"Both FSU and Notre Dame have new head coaches, both cleaned house and brought in new S and C coaches"

That would be referencing Longo.

Mendoza was the guy under Weis, trust me, it's an eye-opening read

Lol I should have been more clear. That's not exactly an indictment of the great job Longo's done at ND.
 

NDinFL

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Lol I should have been more clear. That's not exactly an indictment of the great job Longo's done at ND.

The point of that was to say that FSU and ND run similar styles of S n C now.

Mendoza ran it a certain way, now Longo runs it a different (better) way.

Edit: also read the last paragraph of that original article I posted. Longo runs the Gayle Hatch program
 
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Old Man Mike

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I have one brother who is an Olympic weight-lifting/weight-training coach as you guys know, and another who played at Cincinnati. Both of them have heard about Longo. They consider Longo as a more rounded S&C coach than guys like Mendoza, who they feel is so old school he is an unhelpful dinosaur. That alone tells you that they consider Longo> Mendoza. As to the quality of Longo himself: both their opinions are that he is someone who emphasizes nutrition and general health as much as he does the actual lifting. They see this as a general positive. They were not as familiar with his whole program, but seem to feel that he was not up-to-date on some of the critical "on-your-feet" explosive development training, when he was back at Cincy, but that he seems to be evolving.

My Olympic Coach brother still wonders whether he spends enough time with Core Strength training, and, who knows, this could relate to the hamstring pulls.

Generally, we are dealing with an incomplete data set to make a lot of conclusions, but the signs, both among the profession and the eye-test of our athletes, seem to point to him as a solid 21st century S&C coach. I see no reason to be negative towards Coach Longo. Many of the players themselves say he's made them more competitive, even while saying that they can't wait to get off "Longo Beach".
 

Redbar

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I have one brother who is an Olympic weight-lifting/weight-training coach as you guys know, and another who played at Cincinnati. Both of them have heard about Longo. They consider Longo as a more rounded S&C coach than guys like Mendoza, who they feel is so old school he is an unhelpful dinosaur. That alone tells you that they consider Longo> Mendoza. As to the quality of Longo himself: both their opinions are that he is someone who emphasizes nutrition and general health as much as he does the actual lifting. They see this as a general positive. They were not as familiar with his whole program, but seem to feel that he was not up-to-date on some of the critical "on-your-feet" explosive development training, when he was back at Cincy, but that he seems to be evolving.

My Olympic Coach brother still wonders whether he spends enough time with Core Strength training, and, who knows, this could relate to the hamstring pulls.

Generally, we are dealing with an incomplete data set to make a lot of conclusions, but the signs, both among the profession and the eye-test of our athletes, seem to point to him as a solid 21st century S&C coach. I see no reason to be negative towards Coach Longo. Many of the players themselves say he's made them more competitive, even while saying that they can't wait to get off "Longo Beach".

Good stuff, thanks!
 

Zbi

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Generally hamstring pulls come from over-development of the quadriceps muscles in relation to the hamstrings. When performing exercises like the squat, if an athlete does not hit proper depth the athlete will be using mostly the quadriceps. If this athlete hits full range of motion the athlete will be more balanced in the activation of both the quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups. In addition, the use of more conventional deadlifts and low-bar squat will also activate the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius). Using balanced weight training program will usually help prevent injuries such as hamstring pulls.
 

Kak7304

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I remember hearing that KLM, Nix, and Ethan Johnson all added 150-200 lbs on their squat max between the time Longo took over and Fall practice started. If they were able to add that much in that short of a time period, their workouts were deficient under Mendoza.

This is more of a nutritional thing, but on D during the last year of Weis/Mendoza, the average player lost 15-20 lbs over the course of the season, with the DL losing a majority of that weight. That's a huge reason we were getting blown off the ball and run over during the latter part of the season, which led to late season collapses.
 

beryirish

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IrishSteelhead

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All I know is I've seen more of the "intelligent, hard-hitting, nasty football team" (that CW referred to at his introduction) recently than during the entire Weis regime.
 

FLDomer

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Looking at this pic it looks like Longo is doing ok with these guys at the very least.

Twitter

(can some one embed this pic)
 

clashmore_mike

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a6f96013-0c73-3ca2.jpg
 

bigedefense

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Well, I don't think I am alone here, but I really feel that mbecka should be the S&C coach
 
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