Tennessee defense teaching the offense to take a hit
It was supposed to be a "thud" practice, full speed in helmets, pads, and shorts but only up to the point of contact. Hit them, but don't take them to the ground.
Well, perhaps Ed Orgeron (who greets his players with a swim move instead of a hand shake, by the way) has been spiking the Gatorade with Red Bull again, because the defense simply couldn't help themselves:
Freshman running back Bryce Brown got the brunt of it, taking a wicked hit from middle linebacker Herman Lathers first, which caused him to fumble, and suffering two more huge hits from Rico McCoy later. Yes, Brown fumbled twice. Yes, he went down hard. But according to Kiffin, they were the kind of hits that would cause some players to stay on the turf for awhile. Each time, however, Brown bounced back up and hustled back to the huddle, earning the respect of his teammates with each recovery."They really hustled but we shouldn't have been tackling," [Monte] Kiffin said. "You saw some people tackling. That wasn't fair to the offense." The veteran coordinator realized that his players were excited about the first day in limited pads but insisted that was no excuse for their overzealous behavior. "They were very anxious to put the shoulder pads on for the first time. They were very gung-ho," Kiffin said. "But we can't do that. We'll get somebody hurt doing that."
Lane Kiffin, Monte's son and Tennessee's head coach, gathered the defenders at one point to remind them that there was to be no tackling. The warning worked ... for a few minutes. Then the tackling resumed.
Lane may have reminded the defense not to tackle, and Monte may be concerned that his guys are going to hurt someone, but Lane says that ultimately, it's a good thing:
So he needs that because he fumbled it today. If we practiced 80 percent, that would've been the opener (against Western Kentucky) right there, first time that he got hit.
Too true, that. I vaguely remember something from mid-season last year when the team implemented "thud" practices, which must have meant that they were practicing at some level even below that. I don't remember full speed tackling, though, and I wonder how many lessons that the offense could have learned in practice were instead learned in games in the red zone.
The obvious downside to this is risk of injury, so don't be surprised to see some of that. But some believe that the risk of injury is no greater at full speed than it is at something less than full speed. Whatever the case, it appears that we're about to find out.
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I’ve always thought that the greatest injury risk came when you weren’t prepared for hits. When playing 100%, you have a risk of injury due to the sheer force of the impact, but you are generally ready for the hits, even if you don’t always see them coming. But even at half-speed, there’s plenty enough force in a hit to cause injury, but you might not be prepared for it.
I don’t know where the reduction in speed makes up for the lack of preparation, but I’m pretty sure you have to slow things down quite a bit. So to get out of today’s practice relatively clean when the D was basically at full-speed and the offense was thinking ‘standing thud’ may have been a bit fortunate.
And yes, last year we had an episode mid-season where Fulmer instituted full-contact practices during the week and we made a bit of a deal about it.
..searching…
Found it. Wow, you were quite the hit-o-phile. ;-)
Re: I’ve always thought that the greatest injury risk came when you weren’t prepared for hits.
Which is what makes Terry Tate such an effective office linebacker.
Lou Brock loves Lamp.
by birdjam on Aug 7, 2009 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah
I think that that was still just an elevation to “thud” practices, though, and not full speed, full contact. Is that right?
Rocky Top Talk
by Joel Hollingsworth on Aug 7, 2009 10:00 AM EDT up reply actions
Wow.
You’d think that, with all their access, the talking heads wouldn’t rely on generalizations so much.
by David Hooper on Aug 7, 2009 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions
Why do any actual research when generalizations are just so much easier?
Skip Bayless is the face of everything thats wrong with MSM in my opinion. He epitomizes self importance and ignorance. I have a stronger dislike for him than most because he constantly feels the need to characterize Philadelphia fans as this group of animals and he has taken repeated stabs at the University of Tennessee’s academics.
"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."
by Getoffmyvols on Aug 7, 2009 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions
It's becuase
he and Woody Page are always at one another (and becuase he’s lame sauce)
A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.
~Earl Wilson

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