Oregon's 2021 Injury Riddled Football Season:

[Smith72]

A result of Cristobal’s emphasis on Physicality or Bad Luck?

I wish I knew.  My internal ponderings lead me to conclude that there were too many injuries to Oregon football players during 2021 to attribute to bad luck.

 

When reading practice reports from https://goducks.com, it seemed every practice began with one-on-one match ups to develop “Physicality”.  Too many Oregon football players were unavailable to play this season.  The Alamo Bowl at the end saw many starters sidelined and replaced by walk-ons.

 

It is always a fine line for coaches to walk.  My experience as a high school coach was to have one day of the week as a physical practice.  We called it Tough Tuesday.  On other days drills and scrimmages were conducted with less physicality – against bags or thud tempo.

 

I know there are coaches who take this approach.  The NFL limits contact during the week.  They are gifted athletes who know the fundamentals.  Of course there are many coaches who believe that the more physical you are the better your team will be.

 

Common Terms for type of activity during practice:

Full contact – Live game simulations where live action occurs (11-on-11).

Live action – Contact at game speed where players execute full tackles at a competitive pace, taking players to the ground.

Air – Players should run unopposed without bags or any opposition.

Bags – Activity is executed against a bag, shield or pad to allow for a soft-contact surface, with or without the resistance of a teammate or coach standing behind the bag.

Wrap – Drills run at full speed until contact, which is above the waist with the players remaining on their feet.

Thud – Same as a wrap but the tempo is competitive with no pre-determined winner and the players are not tackling to the ground

 

My personal opinion is that bodies that have been stressed to the max with full contact can lead to an injury later in a non-contact drill. I recall that happening to several starters this past year.  If players are demanded to physically push their bodies through contact drills and scrimmages daily something has to give. 

 

Here is a collection of recommendations of football practice activity.

The first one is from the Alabama High School Athletic Association, followed by Texas University Interscholastic League, the Ivy League, and the PAC-12.

 

Here is a study published in May, 2016 by a team of Harvard researchers.

Full-Contact Practice and Injuries in College Football 

These researchers concluded that increased exposure to full-contact practices and scrimmages contributed to an increase in injuries.

 

What do you think? 

Was Oregon the recipient of an inordinate amount of bad luck?

Or did beating up on each other daily to prove how physical you were lead to the large numbers of injuries during the 2021 season?

[Charles Fischer]

I agree with you, and apparently the new S&C from Ole Miss has really won over the players already.  Lanning does not talk about physicality all the time like you-know-who, but I think his defenses were physical enough...

 

It will be very interesting to see how many injuries occur during this next season.

 

                               Wilson Love at Ole Miss

[30Duck]

What got to annoy me the most was that "physicality, toughness" was the only objective, and the only answer when Oregon lost was to "work harder." During the bye week, nothing was worked on, or adjusted. After the first loss to Utah, it did not appear that Oregon worked harder prior to or during the championship game. 

[jrw]

Great post, Smith72. It's totally plausible that too much contact in practice was a cause of some injuries

 

I wonder, too, if "filling the sleeve" came at the expense of flexibility in conditioning.

[Smith72]

Thanks jrw! 

 

You said, "I wonder, too, if "filling the sleeve" came at the expense of flexibility in conditioning".

 

A few years back a new coach at McMinnville high school had his team of players doing massive amounts of pushups.  Several players were hospitalized.  Much concern from parents!

 

It seems that "filling the sleeves" can have serious consequences!

 

Oh how I miss the functional strength coach Jimmy Radcliffe.  He wrote the book on Plyometrics!  Strength is important but flexibility and ability to move quickly is also important.

 

 

[Duck 1972]

I don't believe so. We didn't have anything like last year in the MC coaching career here at OBD.

 

Also the NCAA mandates less physical activity in practices.

 

I just read 3 posts by KT, McKinley and G Moore talking about the practices and how it was iron strengthens iron and how it helped them be better players. And not one mention about how bad MC was. They all have very high praise for him as a coach and person.

 

They were proud of all of everyone building the Ducks back to where they are today. I believe they know more than us fans about what went on with the team and their coaches.