Georgia isn’t waiting to see if there’s going to be a change in the substitution rules. Mark Richt is embracing the physical reality of defending the HUNH.
The rise in up-tempo offenses prompted a change in the Bulldogs’ summer conditioning plans that have been in place these recent weeks leading into August and the start of preseason practice.
“One of the big things for us is football is now becoming a very high up-tempo game,” UGA coach Mark Richt explained recently. “It used to be 30, 40 seconds between a play. Now it could be as short as 10-to-18 seconds between plays. So you’re exerting and then resting for a short period of time. So now, even in the weight room, we want to go hard, rest a short time, then go ahead. A quicker recovery time. We’re not going to run the longer distances anymore. We’re going to run the shorter distance.”
During previous summers, the Bulldogs have run 200 yards, 300 yards and other long distance drills. But they planned to do away with that this summer.
“We’re going to train these guys all summer long in exactly the way we think that you have to go,” Richt said. “We’re going to go hard and recover — quickly. So that’s a big change in how we’re going to train everybody.”
Will it work? I have no clue. Do I appreciate him being proactive on this front? Hells, yeah.
Get The Picture 
Wind sprints. That’s about as tough as conditioning can get.
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man I hate wind sprints, took me about 5 minutes and I was puking damn near everytime
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How’s this gonna play out when TheEmmert bows to political pressure and bans contact in football?
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GATA! CMR..
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Pruitt influence?
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When he talks, they listen*
*Any use for Messiah, Savior or Yahweh purposes voids limited warranty.
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More evidence that defensively, this year’s game with Clemson will look differently than last year’s game.
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While speed-watching recorded games with my Dish remote, I use the 30 second jump button when the play is whistled dead. I noticed in most SEC games that the jumps almost always landed on or just before the next snap. TAMU & Oregon – much faster. ACC teams (when I cared to watch) except for FSU were laggy as hell. My dime store analysis is that there is about a 30 second plus gap between plays when a team is running the crippled HUNH that the Saban rule allows for. If it’s not choked back, there may be 5 or so seconds less. Is that really going to be a huge factor? I guess cumulatively over the 60 minutes, maybe so.
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That’s a good analysis. I owe you a dime.
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credit cards accepted
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Does it seem like we’re getting on the same page here? I’d sure like to hear from an insider on just how this staff seems to be functioning. Maybe some of the past dysfunction on the field was related to a staff being less than “all in.” Who knows? After all, it was Sun Tzu who said, “He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious.”
(Or was it Coach Hayden Fox of Minnesota State?)
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I believe it was Coach Fox
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Nicely done, DIF.
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For your consideration, an interesting article on the subject:
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1739903-how-to-build-a-bully-inside-the-stanford-football-strength-program
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put me down in the camp of I think our S&C has gotten much better over the last couple of years.
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I agree – the team of 3-5 years ago would have given up on the Plains last year and gotten our butts run out of J-H and all the way back to Columbus. The fact that last year’s team was stronger than Auburn in the last 15-20 minutes of game time when they were down by 20 spoke volumes to me.
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87% reduction in injuries. Note keeping players injury free is important to them. Now look at the injuries UGA has had. At the top in ACLs. How much would an 87% reduction in injuries have helped the Dogs last year. Roster and roster management. Can run up tempo using the entire field. Separation from defenders at LOS and in secondary. Substitution and enough players where there is no significant drop off in play and execution. Probably goes with Pruitts “in essence no depth chart”.
Now how would this filter thru Will Friend’s OL play. He seems to want to keep the same core 5 on the field for the entire 60 minutes of scrimmage and 75-90 plays per game. You can run a lot of plays and not be productive to win. See that often.
But I go back to FSU and Auburn in title game. AU jumps out to a 21 point lead and looks like a run away. But you could see the game was changing for Pruitt’s D while FSU’s O begin to get moving. BOOM AU lost. But we had AU beat and only needed two mature players to make a play on a desperation pass as the clock ran down. Guess that is one of the reasons they are not in the Dog Kennel of Pruitt.
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Ole Steve Spurrier probably read this, and is going, “Ok, I’ll make these guys do something they have not trained for, slow tempo, 30-40 seconds between plays, a lot of run plays to keep the clock moving, long drives, I like my oline and my running backs, think we can out-physical Georgia, we’ll see what happens”.
You hear the happy talk about conditioning every year, last year we starting hearing it, and then had a record number of injuries, so I don’t put any stock in those comments.
Hurry up training with be needed to beat Clemson and Auburn, the rest of the these guys might grind it out.
How many guys you guys think will be suspended for the first 2 games this time, 2 or 4?
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Yes, talk always sounds good. And I hope it all pans out. Sure will come in handy vs Auburn for sure. Not sure about the rest of the teams outside of maybe Clemson. South Carolina and Florida will likely ground and pond it out.
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We need to prepare for 2 teams foremost, Florida and South Carolina, yeah, it would stink to lose to an ACC team, and to an SEC West team, but beat Florida and South Carolina, and even if you lose to Clemson & Auburn, you’re still in the SEC Championship game.
Florida, based on what Roper did at Duke, and what Spurrier did last year, both will try and run 70 offensive plays a game, so that’s the pace Auburn runs, and I guess that’s what you train for.
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that theory didn’t hold up last year. then again, who would’ve guessed we’d lose to vandy..
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Common sense says it will work, and I certainly appreciate the more forward thinking. To what it extent it works, IDK, we’ll see. I suspect there are things we can still do better, and we should study Stanford and a few other teams, college and pro, who are getting great results, IMO. But customizing S&C to the individual has to help a lot.
We were much better last year than 2011, when our OL couldn’t move (several couldn’t move out of their stance) and the defense was gagging in the third quarter of our toughest games. From 2011, we had nowhere to go but up.
I’m no S&C expert, but it’s clear this year’s changes are another step forward, likely a bigger step than we’ve ever taken. I hope we’re doing something different with our OL as well, because we’ve been too sluggish for a long time. Stanford’s OL is as physical as anybody, and they can move.
For all linemen, we’ve just got to get away from being fat just to carry more bulk. That concept has not served us well, on either side of the ball.
~~~
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Every year at this time we start to hear this stuff about every team. Chemistry is great. They are hard working. S&C is improved. Kinda makes me chuckle.
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True. But in this case it really is a change. Our S&C was terrible just a few years ago. You might recall our defense in the second half of the 2012 SECCG. It was better last year, and a lot of new stuff going down now.
~~~
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It’s no laughing matter because this year we’ve got full steel metal lunch pails too
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I’d chuckle too if I were the fan of a semipro team that takes advantage of every crack and crevice in the rule book. Outside of this (your) post… I generally agree with you. You’re a guest of Bluto’s and well thought of by him. (My opinion) Sooooo were you there when Nick and I met on an elevator and talked about the Georgia hat I was wearing and later shot a couple rounds of golf? I’ve watched all the film and anyone with any football savvy can tell…. Dawgs going all the way!
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Bryant Denny you are a great ‘Merican. I tail gated many times at the Quad when my daughter was at Alabama. Best tail gating by far. I wish UGA would adopt the bama model. Hats off to you and yours sir.
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Come have a big cold glass of cool-aid with me.
One of the basic ways to keep a defense fresh is having an offense that can sustain long and slow drives..Get a lead and hold on to the ball…scoring right before the half…getting it back after halftime and scoring again.
Get the hurry-up team behind a couple of scores and they have to play quick-score to catch up..their number of possesions will be limited by the ground game that eats up the clock and the opportunities….This should give the defense free reign to go after the QB.
Georgia will have the running backs to control the flow of the game. Yes,.it will depend to a large degree on the run blocking, but with so many great backs,(and at least a couple that know how to punish would-be tacklers),
the pounding should complete sometime late in the third quarter..
If you’ve got the horses to do it…ball control will beat hurry-up. I think.
.
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please sir, may I have another?
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Come have a big cold glass of cool-aid with me.
One of the basic ways to keep a defense fresh is having an offense that can sustain long and slow drives..Get a lead and hold on to the ball…scoring right before the half…getting it back after halftime and scoring again.
Forgive me but some of that sounded encouraging… like outta my wife’s Cosmopolitan. That was a gift subscription from one of her gal friends. Divorced unfortunately, ya wanna get lucky??
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Whoa… don’t get any ideas, I’ve known her(my bride) since the 8th grade and have two sons together. Her Cosmo galfriend is single and looking. My kids read this blog…Geeze what was I thinking? TGIF!
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One of my frequent Fraudian slips.
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I thought you were going to tell me we signed the Kool-Aid man I was thinking “dang that’ll be a big ‘ol nose guard” !
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Running distances AND speed drills is what is needed. The distance running BUILDS your VO2 base which is the foundation for the short explosive drills. Conditioning. Its all of the above not either or…
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