Spring Practice Pressers 2023

@UndoneI think work ethic is something that's been kind of an ongoing problem, well beyond just Frost. Bo and his staffs seemed to have some organizational problems too. And while I'm not sure if Riley himself had work ethic problems, he was a huge failure at instilling a strong ethic in his players.

 
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Toe said:
@UndoneI think work ethic is something that's been kind of an ongoing problem, well beyond just Frost. Bo and his staffs seemed to have some organizational problems too. And while I'm not sure if Riley himself had work ethic problems, he was a huge failure at instilling a strong ethic in his players.
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Definitely agree on "organizational problems" by Bo. As far as how his teams took the field and executed, well, they were one hell of a galaxy apart from Frost's teams IMO. I tend to think that reflects on Bo's practices & camps having been pretty focused on the specific things that take a true freshman and mold him into a pretty good football player. Bo's staff had some decent position coaches on it.

And it possibly was the #1 issue with Riley, for sure. I remember that Charlie McBride went on record about what he saw in Riley's practices and the lack of work ethic, discipline, and just all of the stuff that the coaches weren't making the team do blew his mind.

 
Undone said:
This is the low hanging fruit and what most people hope was really the problem. Because people view this as easy to change. Frost thought it was easy, most everyone thought it would be easy for him, but his team looked disorganized & scattered under his leadership even at the start of year 5.

As to your other point, I tend to think that pretty much everything is in fact on the coaches. Because no matter how hard you're working, or what tactics you use to get through to the people you're coaching, technically you could always work harder or try a different route.

I think Rhule will bring a stronger work ethic than Frost. But I also think Frost's soft work ethic has probably been pretty overblown. As I've said many times, I think his coaches just weren't very good at actually coaching football. No way to actually know if Rhule's guys are any better right now in March, IMO. It's an easy assumption to make because of how awesome he is with the words he uses in pressers though, no doubt.
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I don’t disagree with you.  I think the perspective depends on what you’re expecting for an outcome.

You looking for a Natty, conference champ or bowl eligible team.

The fact that they’ve lost 274 games by one score can’t be ignored.  They are not far from bowl eligible.

 
I have no idea what yall are talking about for the 1,000th time.   :violin

What I took from the pressers is that Rhule and staff had a winter conditioning plan, but also, a Spring practice plan and goal to get the team ready for Summer & Fall. 

I also noticed that the little captain guy (Tight End Feedoni??) mentioned that the previous coaches played guys they loved because they loved them - and not because they were amazing players.  To me that speaks volumes.  He also said (paraphrasing) that there are football players on the team (busting their a$$ off) getting noticed now.

 
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admo said:
I have no idea what yall are talking about for the 1,000th time.   :violin

What I took from the pressers is that Rhule and staff had a winter conditioning plan, but also, a Spring practice plan and goal to get the team ready for Summer & Fall. 

I also noticed that the little captain guy (Tight End Feedoni??) mentioned that the previous coaches played guys they loved because they loved them - and not because they were amazing players.  To me that speaks volumes.  He also said (paraphrasing) that there are football players on the team (busting their a$$ off) getting noticed now.
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sometimes a new coach breathes fresh air into guys who were close but didn’t get over the hump and next thing you know they make huge strides

 
admo said:
I have no idea what yall are talking about
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Gorillahawk said:
sometimes a new coach breathes fresh air into guys who were close but didn’t get over the hump and next thing you know they make huge strides
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Totally, and I agree... It's really good for the whole team and I am completely onboard with it 

 
Mavric said:
Not good for the "Who cares how they practice?  Play the best athletes." crowd.
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I'm fortunate my coach knew me and saw me in games.   I was average to probably below average in practice. I could barely run a lap without gasping for air, finished dead last in sprints, doing drills, there was nothing about me that stood out.   Come the game, no one could run past me, I was able to chase everyone down.   We would play 2-3 games on Saturdays, and was typically in the top 2-3 people playing in terms of skills.  I would play every minute and at the end of third game still be playing like it was the first ten minutes of the first game and then still go home and play pick up games with my friends.  I was the poster boy for a gamer.   I tried, I gave my absolute best effort in every practice, but I had a different gear and mindset in games that I couldn't access during practice, and I have always wondered why that was.

 
Mavric said:
Not good for the "Who cares how they practice?  Play the best athletes." crowd.
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Maybe I'm nitpicking. But there aren't a ton of posts right now and it's the offseason.    :moreinteresting

Let's say we're talking about running backs. And you've got one player that's clearly faster, has a better ability to find holes, and is even statistically better in terms of yards per carry across a good sample size of live game action.

Then according to the coaches, he doesn't have as good of a week in practice as another back who is slower, doesn't find holes as well, and has a significantly lower YPC average. The coach plays this guy over the other guy who is objectively better...and this player crashes & burns that Saturday.

I mean, we could do this all day long. Frost was actually pretty good at roster management in terms of getting his best guys in there, but he could have been better. The example above maybe seems a bit exaggerated but it absolutely does happen with this program from time to time.

But, this is the rub: Are the coaches actually good at using the limited practice time available to get the most out of a player and get him ready for Saturday(s)? I think that's really the conversation.

 
Undone said:
Maybe I'm nitpicking. But there aren't a ton of posts right now and it's the offseason.    :moreinteresting

Let's say we're talking about running backs. And you've got one player that's clearly faster, has a better ability to find holes, and is even statistically better in terms of yards per carry across a good sample size of live game action.

Then according to the coaches, he doesn't have as good of a week in practice as another back who is slower, doesn't find holes as well, and has a significantly lower YPC average. The coach plays this guy over the other guy who is objectively better...and this player crashes & burns that Saturday.

I mean, we could do this all day long. Frost was actually pretty good at roster management in terms of getting his best guys in there, but he could have been better. The example above maybe seems a bit exaggerated but it absolutely does happen with this program from time to time.

But, this is the rub: Are the coaches actually good at using the limited practice time available to get the most out of a player and get him ready for Saturday(s)? I think that's really the conversation.
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The point is the guys who are actually paid millions of dollars to coach say - basically to a man - that you have to practice well to play well. 
 

It’s only the armchair quarterbacks who insist they know more than they really do - and have never actually seen the practices they say shouldn’t matter as much - that try to argue anything different. 

 
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Mavric said:
...that you have to practice well to play well.
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I agree with this concept. The harder/better you practice, the better athlete you'll become. And then it translates to live game time.

Frost was big on not playing a guy that week if he "didn't practice well," and that's great. In yet by my eyeball test, at least 50% of the time on Saturdays we looked like a team that really hadn't been practicing competently, focusing competently, or refining skill sets at all. So like, something hadn't been adding up despite the fact that Frost was big on playing guys "that practiced well."

And I think it was that Frost & his coaches just sucked at coaching college football and also maybe weren't good motivators.

 
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