Notre Dame Hires Loren Landow as Director of Football Performance

[Katzenboyer]

How does a hip injury mean there’s a SC problem?

You morons suck at being coaches/ADs.

At some point, you can't look at these things in a vacuum. With the Broncos and now this season, Landow's teams routinely get injured more than other teams do.

It's a trend at this point.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

The role of the strength coach is completely different in the pros vs college. I’ll await info on the mechanism of injury before I make a comment.

 

[NDPhilly]

Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a year bc of how ND showed up vs A&M. Zero cramps while the home team suffered numerous ones. We also got stronger as the game went on.

If BenMo really ate shit on the steps at a bar, idk how that Loren's fault. Its Bens fault.

 

[NDohio]

Keeler: Does Broncos Country owe Loren Landow an apology? New coach. New staff. Broncos still can’t shake this injury bug.

A month until the regular season, and the Broncos top the NFL, per Spotrac, in salary cap dollars stuck on injured reserve.

www.denverpost.com

Exposing the Real Culprit in Broncos' Sustained Injury Woes

Fans want to know why the Denver Broncos seem to be afflicted more by the injury bug than any other NFL team.

www.si.com

Interesting counter takes on the Broncos injuries.

 

[IrishLax]

Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a year bc of how ND showed up vs A&M. Zero cramps while the home team suffered numerous ones. We also got stronger as the game went on.

If BenMo really ate shit on the steps at a bar, idk how that Loren's fault. Its Bens fault.

Why wasn’t Loren there to catch him? Why didn’t he anticipate the fall? I’m just asking questions.

 

[Giddyup]

Hell bring back that one pony tail dude to run the sc program. Probably had a 1/4 of the injuries. It getting close to comedic this year.

 

[Lucky Mammal]

I think it's fair to have questions considering the amount of injuries this year and with what happened to the Broncos under Landow's watch. It's possible that he's just very, very unlucky. It's also possible that he's not all that great of a S&C coach.

How many injuries were football related injuries, ie...hits by player or to ground, run up on, etc? It's a violent game. We had ACL's with everyone's favorite S&C guy, Ballis. Sh** happens. The whole team looked the same though...no explosion with skill guys. Everyone looked like a lineman.
Anyone on here definitely blaming Landow right now is kidding themselves. Every team in the country has injuries. I'm sure MF will look at program and make changes if necessary.

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

How many injuries were football related injuries, ie...hits by player or to ground, run up on, etc? It's a violent game. We had ACL's with everyone's favorite S&C guy, Ballis. Sh** happens. The whole team looked the same though...no explosion with skill guys. Everyone looked like a lineman.
Anyone on here definitely blaming Landow right now is kidding themselves. Every team in the country has injuries. I'm sure MF will look at program and make changes if necessary.

MF is not quick to change, the only reason Porker is gone is Troy bailed us out.

 

[Lucky Mammal]

MF is not quick to change, the only reason Porker is gone is Troy bailed up out.

and you know what he was going to do in the off-season? Maybe he knew he was a serious candidate for the job and didn't have launch him? People in the industry know more than you.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Why wasn’t Loren there to catch him? Why didn’t he anticipate the fall? I’m just asking questions.

I heard he greased the steps and did the same for Buchner’s injury back in ‘22 as well

 

[Domina Nostra]

I just saw Landow was DMing Jonathan Allen, telling him to skip leg day and concentrate on chest flies . . .

 

[ulukinatme]

Hey, that Balis old school method of doing things must have been working pretty well. Not sure this tech based approach is helping players stay healthy.

 

[Jimmy3Putt]

It's annoying how uninformed, yet opinionated this board is at times.

Fucking idiots with a podium.

 

[Giddyup]

It’s a bottom line business baby!! Thanks a lot Brady Quinn

 

[SeekNDestroy]

It's annoying how uninformed, yet opinionated this board is at times.

Fucking idiots with a podium.

Sometimes it’s like reading Facebook sans political insults.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

It's annoying how uninformed, yet opinionated this board is at times.

Fucking idiots with a podium.

I’d like to thank you for sharing your opinion even if it is wrong.

 

[Bobias]

Not sure what he is focusing on, but you can train for injury prevention. Full RoM eccentrics are the best for building tendon strength and injury prevention.

The guys have looked big, fast, and strong this year, but that doesn't mean anything if they are fragile. Your muscles need to stay attched to the bone to be effective.

Too much strength and not enough conditioning from this S&C staff. "Train your damn hip flexors" is a fitness meme for a very good reason, and this S&C staff failed Mr Morrison on that.

 

[SDIrishFan]

How can people come to conclusions when we have ZERO info on the injury and how it happened?

The only one we know of that you may be able to point to S&C might be Jagusah.

 

[Crazy Balki]

Not sure what he is focusing on, but you can train for injury prevention. Full RoM eccentrics are the best for building tendon strength and injury prevention.

The guys have looked big, fast, and strong this year, but that doesn't mean anything if they are fragile. Your muscles need to stay attched to the bone to be effective.

Too much strength and not enough conditioning from this S&C staff. "Train your damn hip flexors" is a fitness meme for a very good reason, and this S&C staff failed Mr Morrison on that.

That works for soft-tissue injuries.

Doesn't work for having your knee rolled up on or turned awkwardly.

The unfortunately reality is that ND is just really, REALLY unlucky this year.

 

[Katzenboyer]

Sampson has questions on the subject:

From that group, Craig’s injury is the most “it’s football, this happens” example after he got rolled from behind at Purdue. The others deserve a little more introspection from Marcus Freeman and strength coach Loren Landow.

When the knees of Traore and Botelho buckled, it came from making a football move, not because they got rolled or hit. It’s not clear what happened with Jagusah, but it’s the kind of muscle injury that shouldn’t happen during the first days of camp. Morrison’s is even harder to understand, though it’s worth noting that he had a hip injury in high school, too.

Regardless, put together, these injuries are enough to change the outlook on the second half of Notre Dame’s season. It’s not that the Irish can’t win out. They can. But winning in the College Football Playoff? That just got a hell of a lot harder.

 

[rtrn2glory]

I just never have been a firm believer in coincidences. So until proven otherwise the finger is getting pointed at the new guy

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The four game win streak and the flipping of two commits over the weekend meant that the lightning rod had to be planted somewhere, right? There was too much positivity happening so something had to get dug up to complain about.

It's an unfortunate part of football right now and it seems like no level is immune to injuries at the moment.

NFL Injury Status - 2024 Season - ESPN

Visit ESPN for the 2024 NFL season injury status per team, with details on players that are out, day-to-day, or on the injured reserve.

www.espn.com

I think any program at any level needs to be constantly evaluating and self auditing. There isn't anything wrong with that. I am going to reserve judgment on this particular topic for the time being considering this guy was hired less than a year ago and football injuries are happening everywhere. I do still feel that this hire is going to prove to be very important to Marcus Freeman's tenure at Notre Dame. I am not ready nor in a position to judge it right now.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

It's annoying how uninformed, yet opinionated this board is at times.

Fucking idiots with a podium.

I’m still upset at Landow from when he was pitching for the Royals earlier this season and broke Mookie Betts’ hand w/ an inside pitch. Fucker.

 

[StPaul_Irish]

Sampson has questions on the subject:

I have some questions too. Landow was big on absorbing force and change of direction. Lots of explosive stops and starts type stuff. Having done some of this stuff, It puts a lot of stress on joints/ligaments and connective tissue, and I wondered if that had something to due with the knee injuries, and BMo, but who knows?

 

[PANDFAN]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Landow has forgotten more about strength and conditioning than anyone even knows on this board. I get it, it's a message board to discuss but some of these opinions like ANYONE here is even remotely able to "judge" him...Do you know what the regiment is and everything that is being asked of the players? This is the same principle about coaching and recruiting...opinions on things without having ALL of the facts is pissing in the wind

 

[irishjim]

I have some questions too. Landow was big on absorbing force and change of direction. Lots of explosive stops and starts type stuff. Having done some of this stuff, It puts a lot of stress on joints/ligaments and connective tissue, and I wondered if that had something to due with the knee injuries, and BMo, but who knows?

This^ I am curious if any research about this has been done. It is a legimate concern. I understand the philosophy behind training athletes like this but how it pairs with the contact of football remains to be seen. Landow did excellent with Olympic athletes but they are also not under the same physical toll as a football player.

 

[Giddyup]

At the end of day he will be judged on the results. If we keep losing players at an alarming rate it will be hard to sustain a winning program. The on field performance when the guys are healthy have been top notch though.

 

[Irish#1]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Landow has forgotten more about strength and conditioning than anyone even knows on this board. I get it, it's a message board to discuss but some of these opinions like ANYONE here is even remotely able to "judge" him...Do you know what the regiment is and everything that is being asked of the players? This is the same principle about coaching and recruiting...opinions on things without having ALL of the facts is pissing in the wind

It will take 2-3 more years to really know if it's his program and not. One could say that the team has been relatively lucky on the injury bug for a few years and the odds finally caught up with them. I would guess most programs go through the same thing. Just more impactful when you lose so any starters than backups.

 

[stlnd01]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Landow has forgotten more about strength and conditioning than anyone even knows on this board. I get it, it's a message board to discuss but some of these opinions like ANYONE here is even remotely able to "judge" him...Do you know what the regiment is and everything that is being asked of the players? This is the same principle about coaching and recruiting...opinions on things without having ALL of the facts is pissing in the wind

Now that Reaper’s gone, maybe…

 

[Katzenboyer]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Landow has forgotten more about strength and conditioning than anyone even knows on this board. I get it, it's a message board to discuss but some of these opinions like ANYONE here is even remotely able to "judge" him...Do you know what the regiment is and everything that is being asked of the players? This is the same principle about coaching and recruiting...opinions on things without having ALL of the facts is pissing in the wind

I don't think anyone here is saying that we know better, or Landow should be doing certain things certain ways. And if that's how people are interpreting these comments, they're missing the point. Paul Longo knows a lot more about S&C than I do; does that mean it was wrong to question whether or not he could run operations at Notre Dame after 2016?

There are a few things that are crystal clear about this situation that raise questions that are perfectly fair to ask, in my opinion:

1.) Matt Balis was absolutely beloved by the team.

2.) Matt Balis is no longer ND's strength and conditioning coach because Freeman and him didn't see eye to eye, and Freeman wanted to go in a different, more "analytical" direction.

3.) Freeman chose Landow. He owns that hire.

4.) Landow has a documented history of his former teams being injured more frequently after he took over the reins.

Point 4 may just be chalked up to bad luck, we'll have to wait and see. But it's not a good look when the information is out there, it followed Landow to ND, it was available when Freeman made the hire and this team appears to be bitten by the "injury bug" immediately after Landow took over. While I understand correlation does not equal causation, it's at least fair to ask the questions, and these concerns were out there the minute Landow was floated as a potential candidate. See https://www.irishenvy.com/threads/m...ector-of-football-performance.3050924/page-12

No one is above reproach here, not even the credentialed S&C staff. I'm perfectly willing to admit I'm wrong if this turns out to be a fluke, but that doesn't mean it's completely off limits, does it?