On a more serious note from that Lorenzo Carter interview, you have to wonder what the coaches are telling the kids in Athens if they’re this blunt about it with the ones who haven’t stepped on campus yet:
What expectations do UGA’s coaches have for you this season? “They tell me I need to be ready to play. I need to get into shape. I think that’s a big problem up there right now, trying to get the players in shape so they can play fast for a long period of time. That’s what they let me know: That I’ve got to be ready to play fast.”
For once, it seems we’ll have a way to measure the summer happy talk. If we hear the players reacting positively to the way offseason conditioning comes off, their bodies won’t be able to lie about it.
Here’s to a chiseled August.
Get The Picture 
best part of the interview…..no “ME”…..”I love Georgia. I can’t wait to go up there and do big things. I’ve got to try to bring a national championship to Georgia. That’s the goal. And that’s going to happen.”
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The Ramsey pool video (if we have one, I probably just jinxed it) will be interesting this year. Let’s just say, in past years, the bodies have been less than impressive for a big-time football team, IMHO, compared to our biggest competitors.
Overall, and I say again, overall, I think we’ve been soft for some years now, and that is mostly conditioning. It’s hard to recall opponents where we were in better shape. It’s hard to tell without being there. But that’s what it’s looked like on film and what glimpses we get from media.
And we know that has been our reputation around the League. Various coaches around the League, both HC’s and Asst’s have said that, privately, for some time. Urban Meyer made a point of saying it in public.
It’s probably been more on defense, maybe considerably more, but part of that is inherent to the defense anyway. The whole country saw it in our two recent SECCG appearances, as both LSU and Alabama wore us completely out in the second half of those games.
So this is not really news to anybody here, that maybe we haven’t been the best conditioned bunch around.
Anyway, I think this is what Pruitt is responding to. I believe it is one element of that old cancerous culture that was never really addressed. At least with any real success. So it’s going to be interesting this summer, indeed.
Conditioning is something that you have the potential to control. That we’re serious about getting a handle on it is even more good news, IMO. And more reason to believe we are finally getting a handle on some things that have hurt us in recent years.
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I didn’t really see many conditioning problems last year. More than once, we used long drives to end games without handing the ball back over. Our defense did look tired from time to time, but we also had a DC who refused to substitute. So I don’t know if we can put the blame on the players for getting tired after playing 80 snaps in a game with no break.
I don’t know that the new focus on endurance over mass is as much a reaction to last year’s conditioning as it is a recognition of the HUNH offenses we’re more and more likely to face in the future.
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Great observation. I also thought conditioning was much better last year. Just not at the level it needs to be, which speaks quite clearly as to where it was before 2013.
And Grantham’s style always factored in, as part of the equation.
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I think it’s both. Auburn was obviously in considerably better shape than we were last year, and we were in better shape last year than previous years. But HUNH, at the current pace allowed, places demands on everybody’s conditioning, not just ours. So it’s real.
And the reaction probably isn’t just to last year, but previous years also. Our most embarrassing moments, condition-wise and otherwise, have come against slow teams.
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Clemson, Tennessee, Missouri, and Nebraska were in much better shape than we were, too.
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I agree. Great point.
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I wonder how Alabama keeps it’s star defensive players in such good shape?
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Fat+Alabama+football+players+&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=fat+alabama+football+players+&sc=0-16&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=D0B91156CBFA7E920352372D55CC75FFF1BE7983&selectedIndex=20
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That is exactly the message I wish they would tell incoming recruits every year, regardless of what they feel about the players currently on campus. In today’s environment coaches may only have these athletes on campus for three years, why waste a month or two of their first season? Many of these players are not ready physically for the next level, but don’t realize it yet because nothing in HS prepares them for the size of the next step, especially in the trenches. I thought we were loaded, and deep, at RB last season but we needed two true freshmen to step up by early October. Come ready to make your mark young men, opportunity may be a play away….at any time.
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