Notes from Saturday's Open Practice

ThePiombino

ThePiombino

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WabashFalcon said:
THE BENCH PRESS HAS NO FREAKING TRANSITION TO THE FOOTBALL FIELD!
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I would disagree with this statement.

Maybe not for a running back, but can you honestly say that it's not important to the guys in the trenches? Technique is definitely just as important, but if you put two guys head-to-head against each other, being of equal technique, stronger guy wins. A lot of what goes on there has to do with displacement at the line, largely due to upper body strength.
 
NDinL.A.

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Normally I agree with you OMM, but the RB situation does scare me. And that's because RBs take a ton of punishment, and it's a position that sees a lot of injuries, especially the knees. And BK wants to use 2 RBs, not just one carrying the bulk.

So now, we have only 2 RBs this spring (presumably), and 3 in the fall. That's not good...at all. Say Cierre goes down. Now we're down to one who has never produced and has a history of fumblitis and can't pick up a blitz to save his life, and a true freshman.

Some have said we can just slide Riddick there, which is true. But now you lose your best returning WR (if Floyd is out for any significant time, which is likely), and you're playing a back-up there. Now you're hurting your depth at a position which has suddenly become very suspect. It hasn't been brought up yet, but the WR's were AWFUL today. I mean, brutally bad. Maybe it was an aberration, but they're missing Floyd big time. You take Riddick and or GAIII from that group, and it hurts them even more.

Now, we're fine if every back stays healthy. A big IF (with apologies to the real BGIF). I'm just saying, it's not "LIES" as one person put it to say that there are some real worries at the RB spot. It's a legitimate concern...
 
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irish1958

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KPENN said:
Not to be a dickhead, but WTF does a bench press have to do with playing runningback?
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? less fumbles?? ?effective stiff arms??? ?better conditioning???? ?less hamstrings??????
(The only valid study on hamstring injury prevention deals with upper body and core conditioning.)
 
BeauBenken

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Ok, so I guess I wouldn't be the first to comment on what I witnessed at a ND practice but since I was at the Coaches' Clinic I saw friday's practice and took some notes and made some predictions of my own.

These are going to be in order of the player's number btw...

1. Ishaq Williams - He looked athletically awesome. The coaches can be heard hollaring his name through practice (in a good way). My prediction is that at this moment he he has a great shot at starting and/or getting more playing time than Lynch. Also heard some news from a guy on campus who knows his stuff that Mike Floyd apparently tried to take Ishaq to an off campus party. Really not what we need there.

2. Deion Walker - Deion was target for many, many passes (often on the sideline). He was getting pretty good seperation and showed some good hands. My prediction is that he will be filling Mike's shoes this season as source tells me Mike will be lucky to return to school let alone the football team.

3. Mike Floyd - Thought I'd put this here because I noticed that on the roster Michael was clearly not on it.

4. Theo Riddick - Theo's speed look great. He caught the ball very well over the middle. He'll be making lots of plays this year.

5. Louis Nix - He was HUGE in comparison to our other players! He's practicing with the 1st string guys so I'm guessing that everyone's predictions will be right and he will be our guy. He also showed some good hustle

6. Luke Massa - You guys may be surprised, but this kid was getting lots of looks in the passing game. He didn't look physically phenomenal in the least, but he always seemed to be open. It was surprisingly impressive.

7. Aaron Lynch - He seems physically read maybe needs a bit more strength but for sure his explosiveness is great. He's been working a lot with Ethan Johnson who has done a great job in helping Aaron. Aaron seems to maybe be a little slow picking it up but otherwise great. Hopefully the early enroll will help.

8. Cierre Wood - Speed looked great. Not too much I saw of him though so I couldn't tell how much he may have improved but he still looks explosive.

9. Tyler Eifert - I don't know how many times (countless) I saw him get cleanly over the top of the D. Wish more balls were thrown to him though. Looks like he'll do the job great.

10. Kona Schwenke - He is BIG now. He added 60 or so pounds and it looks great on him. The coaches like him alot too. He has a good shot at lots of PT. He also loves hitting the bag on their sack drills like its some play thing.
 
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ESPN just had a segment on Urban at ND as well as a segment on ND's 3v3 drill with interviews from Manti and Dayne. Sounds like Urban was at ND as part of a spring football tour for ESPN, although I'm sure he wanted to visit as well.
 
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NDIrishlover3

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Old Man Mike said:
NDIRISH: you may be correct, but in many places in Texas they are dumping any emphasis on bench pressing as being WAY overrated as to athletic skills and even the best power producing exercises.

My brother, the head weightlifting coach of Team Houston and an Olympic national coach hardly has his athletes [even the non-olympic lifters] pay any attention to benching at all. He has gone so far as saying that it is a waste of time if it is taking away from more productive weight-training.

Benching is so thoroughly ensconced in everyone's ideas about training that it is tough to get it out of there. Cam McDaniel IS a Gymrat as his training films show---we had one earlier on this blog. And everyone referred to him that way.

There are many things that you can train on rather than the bench, and develop huge athletic gains. To the people who are on the front edge of weight training, in fact, almost any serious "on your feet" and "in athletic position" work is better.
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I agree with everything you say here but the reason why the low bench concerns me is because I see the bench press as a marker of one's upper body strength. The low bench press could mean he does not have strong shoulders, chest, back, or triceps since they all contribute to the bench press. However, since you say that many strength coaches in Texas rarely have their players bench makes it a very realistic possibility that the low bench is due to having bad benching form from not doing it often
 
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NDIrishlover3

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BeauBenken said:
5. Louis Nix - He was HUGE in comparison to our other players! He's practicing with the 1st string guys so I'm guessing that everyone's predictions will be right and he will be our guy. He also showed some good hustle.
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I may be wrong here but isnt Cwyner injured? In that case Nix would be the only other one left to work with the starters. He might be the starter anyway but at this point I don't think you can really make an assumption that Nix will be the starter come fall as Cwyner has not even had a chance to compete yet
 
Ironman8

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NDIrishlover3 said:
I may be wrong here but isnt Cwyner injured? In that case Nix would be the only other one left to work with the starters. He might be the starter anyway but at this point I don't think you can really make an assumption that Nix will be the starter come fall as Cwyner has not even had a chance to compete yet
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Hafis Williams has actually been the one to benefit most from Cwyner being out. He has seen the vast majority of #1 NG reps, and has played really well so far, catching a lot of people's eye.

In any event, it comes back to the main theme of the front seven now, and the reason for optimism: we have quality depth now at all these positions that has been sorely lacking for some time now. Next man in.
 
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NDIrishlover3

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Ironman8 said:
Hafis Williams has actually been the one to benefit most from Cwyner being out. He has seen the vast majority of #1 NG reps, and has played really well so far, catching a lot of people's eye.

In any event, it comes back to the main theme of the front seven now, and the reason for optimism: we have quality depth now at all these positions that has been sorely lacking for some time now. Next man in.
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Oh I didn't even know that about Williams but it is great to hear since, as you said, it displays our quality depth at the front seven
 
BeauBenken

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Yes, Stockton and Cwynar were both out due to injury on Friday.

And I didn't pay much attention to Hafis, should have.

And to comment on the bench press discussion going on...Paul Longo himself said that the bench is extremely overrated.
 
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Sherm Sticky

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NDinL.A. said:
Normally I agree with you OMM, but the RB situation does scare me. And that's because RBs take a ton of punishment, and it's a position that sees a lot of injuries, especially the knees. And BK wants to use 2 RBs, not just one carrying the bulk.

So now, we have only 2 RBs this spring (presumably), and 3 in the fall. That's not good...at all. Say Cierre goes down. Now we're down to one who has never produced and has a history of fumblitis and can't pick up a blitz to save his life, and a true freshman.

Some have said we can just slide Riddick there, which is true. But now you lose your best returning WR (if Floyd is out for any significant time, which is likely), and you're playing a back-up there. Now you're hurting your depth at a position which has suddenly become very suspect. It hasn't been brought up yet, but the WR's were AWFUL today. I mean, brutally bad. Maybe it was an aberration, but they're missing Floyd big time. You take Riddick and or GAIII from that group, and it hurts them even more.

Now, we're fine if every back stays healthy. A big IF (with apologies to the real BGIF). I'm just saying, it's not "LIES" as one person put it to say that there are some real worries at the RB spot. It's a legitimate concern...
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Reading this all I can think of is: Savon Huggins you could have been at least the second back in. PT was def there for you...
 
jakerbluegold

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Who's looking forward to the team coming out of the tunnel jacked up instead of flat?

These boys are nasty and I'm loving it!
 
irishtrain

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NDFANnSouthWest said:
Urban has always loved ND.....dont be suprised someday he is a assitant coach under BK. Yes I said it.....
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Assitant coach -wow- I dont know about that one but the man in that picture will more than likely be the coach that follows Kelly. Kelly will do great things at Notre Dame but Urban Meyer IMO will be the coach that follows.
 
phork

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Err Kelly is going to be here for a long long long fellas. Meyer lost his chance, twice.
 
IrishMoore1

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Plus Meyer has heart problems, remember? How do we know h;es not going to suddenly quit when the program hits a bump in the road?
 
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ND101

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This Meyer talk is silly and is a topic that would be talked about on a espn board.
 
phork

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IMO When Tressel gets canned, Meyer will step right in.
 
Riddickulous

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phork said:
Err Kelly is going to be here for a long long long fellas. Meyer lost his chance, twice.
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Knute Rockne had the longest tenure of any Fighting Irish head coach with 13 years, prematurely ending with his death in a plane crash in 1931.

Even if Kelly is successful, national championship successful, he'll probably be here at Notre Dame for 10-12 years, tops. 15 if he's lucky.

Irish coaches have a history of retiring early...very early. Frank Leahy, he of the four national championships, retired at 46. Ara Parseghian, he of the two national championships, retired at 51. Both coaches lasted 11 years.

The job's damn stressful and the expectations are high. Even the best Irish coaches only last 10 years or so. Leahy was a couple of years away from dying at age 46, due to the health problems the stress of the job was causing him, and this was in an age without the tremendous media scrutiny of modern day CFB.
 
Freeman Ara

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Riddickulous said:
Knute Rockne had the longest tenure of any Fighting Irish head coach with 13 years, prematurely ending with his death in a plane crash in 1931.

Even if Kelly is successful, national championship successful, he'll probably be here at Notre Dame for 10-12 years, tops. 15 if he's lucky.

Irish coaches have a history of retiring early...very early. Frank Leahy, he of the four national championships, retired at 46. Ara Parseghian, he of the two national championships, retired at 51. Both coaches lasted 11 years.

The job's damn stressful and the expectations are high. Even the best Irish coaches only last 10 years or so. Leahy was a couple of years away from dying at age 46, due to the health problems the stress of the job was causing him, and this was in an age without the tremendous media scrutiny of modern day CFB.
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So then we would be replacing one coach that retired at 58-59 because of the stress of the job just to replace him with another 55-56 year old coach with a heart condition?

I'd much rather a coach like Diaco stay 2 more years win a national title, getting a head coaching job for experience at a mid-level program, then comeback when Kelly leaves. Not that I have thought about the future or anything...
 
Riddickulous

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NDBCSChamps said:
So then we would be replacing one coach that retired at 58-59 because of the stress of the job just to replace him with another 55-56 year old coach with a heart condition?

I'd much rather a coach like Diaco stay 2 more years win a national title, getting a head coaching job for experience at a mid-level program, then comeback when Kelly leaves. Not that I have thought about the future or anything...
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I never said that Meyer would be Kelly's replacement.
 
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