Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Mailbag question: Missing 15 bowl practices along with what will UM do

Posted at 12:00pm -- 12/15/2009

Mailbag question: Missing 15 bowl practices along with what will UM do

Guys, Thanks for the great blog and for taking my occasional questions.

Now that we are once again missing fifteen practices and a bowl game, how will the young quarterback's get a chance to improve? How much can they workout during the off-season? Can they use the football facility? Will there be 7 on 7 drills? Can coaches be anywhere around. There is not a lot of senior leadership around. How much can they realistically accomplish what will be needed to improve?

Don

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Thanks for the question and keep them coming.

Losing the fifteen bowl practices again is a huge loss (total of thirty practices in two years). This negative is huge for such a young team, the coaches will not have the opportunity to see what the younger players, who do not see much time in the offense because they are usually spending a lot of time helping on scout/demo teams and running the opponents offense/defense, can do to contribute the next season. No way to sugarcoat this one, there is nothing good the results from the lack of opportunity other teams receive as a reward for making a bowl game.

What the players can do is spending time on big-time film work and strength and conditioning time. Getting the body in top shape is a big benefit and this is a time for highly individualized attention. Do not overlook the importance of film room work. It is a major prep tool that is often overlooked. This is where the young players can watch game film, along with practice film, to see what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. This is a great teaching moment that some players are not so fond of, but the ones that put the time in usually sees benefits from the reflection and perceptual concept building that can decrease preventable mistakes on the field.

We believe the coaches are allowed to be around for one-on-one sessions during a certain period of time, but this involvement is limited by an hourly amount. At the current time we are not ready to cite exact rules and conditions, simply because there is a chance for error. Hundreds of pages of guidelines come into play regarding situations discussed above.

Most of the time the expectation is for the players to be doing a lot of this off-season work on their own (which is indeed strongly suggested by the coaches), along with spending time with the strength and conditioning coaches.

This will be another long off-season and will be a tough winter, knowing that UM will not be having bowl practices, a bowl game, etc. Remember that there are 34 bowl games, which means 68 teams out of 120 teams are doing bowl practices and getting the associated extra advantages. The bowl games are a great reward for the players since this experience provides a little fun and a good memory wherever they go, along with usually getting some type of "goody bag" which I believe must not be valued at more than $500.00.

Written by GBMW Staff

Go Blue -- Wear Maize!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Missing 30 practices the past two seasons sure has hurt this young team just to see what the younger players can do in your system.

Unknown said...

Maybe by missing 30 practice sessions will provide the impetus for the young players to correct all the mistakes that plagued the team this year. I do not believe that fans and alumni will tolerate another losing season and no bowl appearance.

Anonymous said...

Good stuff guys. I have really liked what you have done lately.

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