It didn’t take long to start talking up strength and conditioning.
“We’re not doing mat drills,” Richt said. “Some people say, ‘Why aren’t you doing mat drills?’ Well, you can ask the boys why we’re not doing mat drills, because they’re getting a taste of that just about every day with ‘Coach T’ and his strength staff. It’s already paying off.”
Richt mentioned that two members of the 2011 signing class who enrolled this semester, wide receiver Chris Conley and quarterback Christian LeMay, already have gained seven and 10 pounds, respectively, through their work in the strength program.
Granted, that’s not as sunny-eyed as the stuff we used to hear out of Van Halanger, but honestly, I wish the coaches would just keep this to themselves at least until we could see the improvement with our own eyes. Although I have to admit I like hearing the players griping about the new regimen.
Get The Picture 
I’m with you. Just tell everyone involved to shut the heck up. If you are going to tweet anything, just send a picture of your arms or something. Proof of hard work will be seen in October. A parrot can talk.
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This is like talking to a pitcher in the middle of a no hitter or otherwise saying how great a player is playing in the middle of a game. Don’t do it. Speak with your actions and knock on some wood.
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I like it. And I hate it. I simply can’t understand why this wasn’t happening all along, and the fact that it wasn’t keeps me from fully trusting anything I hear coming out of Athens.
Thanks, but I’ll take a wait and see approach until at least 8 pm on October 29.
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Agreed.. but I get why he’s doing it. He’s trying to show the attitude has changed.
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It seems we’re all in agreement. He can’t show in February that the attitude is changed. That can only be shown in the fall. So he shouldn’t try to do so until then.
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Maybe they gained the weight the old fashioned way for freshmen…
Have a good day,
BD
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I drank harder than most, but even I couldn’t manage to put on ten pounds in just the first month I was in Athens, BD.
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Better football through chemistry!
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or muscle in one month without, of course, some help from one of the many “pharmacists” in town…
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You mean got pregnant? That’s only the freshmen girls, though.
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Reason #5643 I’m glad I’m not a head coach of a major college football program: If you answer the questions of the press as honestly and positively as you can (ala Richt), it’s happy talk; if you refuse to answer the questions of the press (ala Saban), you’re the devil.
Seriously, though, I understand why everyone wishes he just wouldn’t say anything, but that’s really not an option for him.
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Agreed, “no comment” is not really an option. So not saying anything ends up sounding like “we’re just working hard to get butter.”
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Butter is always a good incentive to work harder…;)
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I assume the original question was about whether we’re doing mat drills this Spring. He could have just said no and that we’re doing a new program this year. If we wanted, he could go into a few specifics as to what the new program entails. It’s when he starts saying how the new program is “paying off” is where the eye rolling starts. We’ve heard it all before every off-season how this or that is improving.
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I agree with you, but you have to admit it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. At least he doesn’t spontaneously tweet “Workin harder, gettin stronger” nonsense like some other coaches do.
Heh. It’s too bad Twitter was around in Goff’s day.
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wasn’t
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If the players are bitching, the new program is probably working. I was a fan of mat drills (mostly because it wasn’t me doing them), but any type of strength program will grow stale after a while. Maybe Coach T noticed that they had hit the point of diminishing returns with mat drills and is going in a different direction.
Hopefully the S&C staff is cribbing ideas from programs with historically strong S&C ; i.e Nebraska or Alabama.
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The Mat Drills, from footage I’ve seen, would be great for mental toughness/cardio, but do next to nothing for actual physical strength. It’s mostly “hey, if we survived running around at 5am in February, we can survive the 4th quarter” which is all well and good if you still hit the weights regularly. Not so good if you skip the weights to go eat at Blind Pig instead.
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I like that the new program MAY work, and I like that he is willing to change it up. I agree if he just says, “new program” it sounds like same old.
If he says “its working” then we wait and see…(we do that anyway)…
I am like orlando dawg above. get back with me after we leave knoxville, and about 8pm in jacksonville on oct 29th… if im smiling, then you know it worked.
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I like the fact that Ray Drew knows who Herschel is, but someone please tell him there will be only one in our lifetimes.
I’m actually pleased with Crowell’s comparison to Robert Edwards. That would be a home run for sure.
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Keep in mind, Herschel pre-dates Ray Drew’s lifetime by a decade. This year’s class was born in 1992-93.
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Man, that makes me feel old.
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I’m kinda like everybody else, we have heard this stuff for years it is time to put up or shut up!!
I still love what Coach T said “we aren’t training for the Olympics anymore we are getting ready for football”
I know im going off subject but let me ask everyone this, is anyone else tired of our coacches talking about SEC championships why in the world do we never hear them talk about NC??? set ur goals higher
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I think it’s because all UGA can really control is the road to the SEC championship game. Win all our games we play for SEC championship, win that and the Dawgs have gone as far as they can go with what they can control.
Playing for an NC is winning, luck and politics. It’s the ultimate accomplishment, but I agree it’s not a proper goal in the sense they are setting goals. When you’re lifting weights, your goal is not to beat Florida, win the SEC or win an NC–your goal is to get the dang bar up.
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I am pretty sure that the last 5 SEC Champions have been the National Champions. Pretty easy to see why the coaches would want to concentrate on winning the one that they can control.
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+100
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What they said.
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I for one am glad the mat drills are gone. Too much hype about not much exercise. It was surppose to be a team building exercise more than a S&C thing anyway. You can’t build a team in two weeks in Febuary, you have to build it constantly. I said it before and I repeat if you want to build the ultimate team look to the military. If the Military Academys could recruit the size atheletes they need they would be unbeatable. The teams are discipled and they perform as a team.
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One thing I had started to wonder about for mat drills was the deal where they made the guys run into a wall and if it wasn’t full speed enough they had to do it again. That’s ok in theory to make you tough, but in reality you’re going to ease up at the last second and relax to take the blow.
That’s how we’ve tackled too many times.
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I really don’t care as much if our backup/third string/redshirting QB gets stronger. I’d like to see the o-line and d-line do it. 🙂
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I am not really qualified to talk about the S&C program in today’s football. In my day S & C was running wind sprints in balmy South Ga. In August. When you got tired of wind sprints you got to run laps around the field. I was blessed with a smart mouth and a hot temper so I had the pleasure of doing penalty laps. Oh joy joy! So I blindsided the QB in his orange no contact vest, is that a reason to try to kill me? Oh, no water during practice, water causes cramps you know. Then they gave us salt tablets, just in case we weren’t dehydrated enough. I guess our S & C was merely trying to survive until October.
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Salt tablets are greatafter you’ve finished a work out. Not so useful otherwise.
Water’ll only cause cramps if you take in too much too fast…but you’d have to take in a LOT of water in half an hour or so to be at risk.
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“Oh, no water during practice, water causes cramps you know.”
My HS coach did the same thing, and we couldn’t take our helmets off. Also from South Georgia. If I ever see that miserable son of a bitch again, I’m going to punch him right in the balls.
That kind of old school bullshit will kill a kid. God, even my Army drill sergeants made sure we got plenty of water, and they were psychopaths.
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The “no water” thing was a universal belief among coaches in the ’60s and ’70s. They thought it would toughen you up. I actually saw my HS HC jump one of the assistants for giving water to the players. I think it took some guys dying in order to change to that mindset in coaches of that era. I know you are a not supposed to say this but my HS coach was a complete moron even though he won a lot of games. I haven’t seen him since I graduated from HS but if I saw him on the street now I just might take a swing at him. (Of course, he was a tough bastard and even now would probably kick my ass.)
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I never hated my HS HC, in fact I loved the guy. I thought he was the greatest coach ever. Recently I googled him and guess what, he had a losing lifetime record! I did hate the defensive coach. I ran into him about ten years ago and said hello and found him to be the same arrogant bastard he always was.
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Personally I hope that Crowell turns out to be a Robert Edwards type. A Garrison Hearst type would be even better. Either will do.
Back in my day we did take salt tablets but no water during practice. It’s a wonder it did not kill all of us.
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In the mid eighties we got water twice a practice. However the no helmuts off during two a days in August drove me nuts. I think I cooked my brain. That would explain much of our behavior on weekends.
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I find it hilarious that anyone would attribute weight gain to the “strength program” – it’s all about diet. The weight training determines how body weight will be configured, not how much of it there is.
But on the larger point, the S&C happy talk is done by every coach at every level of football – except possibly the pros. Annoying as it admittedly is . . . .
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