Padless practices not the reason Cougs didn't win league title, Bronco says
A reader the other day said he heard that BYU's football went the entire season without practicing in full pads, and wondered if that was true or not. He said if it was true, it didn't work because the Cougars seemed to have more injuries in 2008 than in past seasons.
As a former athletic trainer, the reader said he was "amazed" as the philosophy because he says if a player gets accustomed to not playing with the extra weight it can slow them down in games and potentially cause injuries.
Yes, the Cougars last practiced in full pads in fall camp, and did not work out in full pads at any of the practices I attended. Remember, two practices a week are usually closed to the media, but players and coaches alike have said they never donned complete pads those days, either.
As far as injuries are concerned, I talked to BYU trainer Kevin Morris toward the latter part of the season, and he seemed to think the Cougars had suffered fewer injuries this year than in past years. And the major injuries came in games: Vic So'oto's broken foot against Washington, Michael Reed's knee injury against Wyoming, Scott Johnson's double groin tear against Colorado State, Dennis Pitta's knee injury against Air Force.
Perhaps the biggest practice injury was Kellen Fowler's dislocated elbow before the Utah game.
As luck would have it, BYU's "practice model" -- as coach Bronco Mendenhall calls it -- is one of the topics we discussed last week in our one-on-one sit down interview.
Here is what the coach said about the no-contact (padless) practices:
"It is interesting because this particular year I thought we had a very good football team coming back, but I didn't think we were extremely deep. And so I made a choice early on -- and certainly it could be argued because we didn't win a conference championship -- but I kind of weighed the health of our team, versus what we might give up, through the contact element of it.
"In retrospect, looking back, would that have changed had we won a conference championship or not? I don't think so. But on each given year I will make that assessment on what I think that given team needs, and I will probably make mistakes in the future, as well as I have in the past. But in my opinion, I don't think that influenced us not winning the conference championship and I think possibly it gave us our best chance to be as fast and as healthy as we could have been. Really there were not many losses of continuity throughout the year, other than those that could not have been prevented."
As a former athletic trainer, the reader said he was "amazed" as the philosophy because he says if a player gets accustomed to not playing with the extra weight it can slow them down in games and potentially cause injuries.
Yes, the Cougars last practiced in full pads in fall camp, and did not work out in full pads at any of the practices I attended. Remember, two practices a week are usually closed to the media, but players and coaches alike have said they never donned complete pads those days, either.
As far as injuries are concerned, I talked to BYU trainer Kevin Morris toward the latter part of the season, and he seemed to think the Cougars had suffered fewer injuries this year than in past years. And the major injuries came in games: Vic So'oto's broken foot against Washington, Michael Reed's knee injury against Wyoming, Scott Johnson's double groin tear against Colorado State, Dennis Pitta's knee injury against Air Force.
Perhaps the biggest practice injury was Kellen Fowler's dislocated elbow before the Utah game.
As luck would have it, BYU's "practice model" -- as coach Bronco Mendenhall calls it -- is one of the topics we discussed last week in our one-on-one sit down interview.
Here is what the coach said about the no-contact (padless) practices:
"It is interesting because this particular year I thought we had a very good football team coming back, but I didn't think we were extremely deep. And so I made a choice early on -- and certainly it could be argued because we didn't win a conference championship -- but I kind of weighed the health of our team, versus what we might give up, through the contact element of it.
"In retrospect, looking back, would that have changed had we won a conference championship or not? I don't think so. But on each given year I will make that assessment on what I think that given team needs, and I will probably make mistakes in the future, as well as I have in the past. But in my opinion, I don't think that influenced us not winning the conference championship and I think possibly it gave us our best chance to be as fast and as healthy as we could have been. Really there were not many losses of continuity throughout the year, other than those that could not have been prevented."
9:31 AM
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2 Comments:
Bronco really doesn't like to admit when he was wrong.
oh bull... he routinely and freely admits when he was wrong, and his career is full of such instances-- most memorably the switch away from his baby, the 3-3-5 defense because of personnel issues.
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