Composition of a physical football team

#27
#27
As a youngster I read this quote from Jerry Kramer's best selling book, Run to Daylight, about the Green Bay Packers he attributed to Vince Lombardi. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." True then true today. If you cannot get the right kind if players or enough of them on the field to remain less fatigued than your opponent, you are destined to lose to that opponent.
 
#28
#28
gisman said:
The reason that I added 2015, was because it was the most physical team since Kiffin probably. Not difficult competition. Just wondering why that team didn't get run over by Alabama. I would say Derick Barnett and Jalen Hurd are a big part of the reason.

Much of this topic is driven by our lack of physicality. Like NJVOLS said - it is hard to believe those teams were more talented than Tennessee.
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2015 was certainly physical. S&C was excellent before we fired the coach.
 
#29
#29
S&C is the biggest part. You're either strong or you're not. No faking strength. You can't "will" yourself to bench press any more than you are physically capable of.
 
#30
#30
bbeacham said:
Derrick Henry was actually tossing guys aside with one arm. I would love to see Tennessee get three or four Derrick Henry clones. Henry is specifically what Pruitt is talking about, when he's talking about "power football". Our players play too soft. Rather than knocking a player on his ass, Tennessee just simply moved out of his way. If a lineman cannot bench at least 425 pounds or better and squat at least 700 pounds, we will struggle to compete in the SEC. We have had RBs, that could bench 400+pounds. Wanting to play and give your all for Tennessee makes a huge difference too.
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Dude, Henry is just a physical freak. You don't develop that. You recruit that.
 
#33
#33
OneVolNation said:
Fast-twitch muscle fibers are good to develop.

Did y'all see Derrick Henry manhandle everyone who tried to tackle him on that 99 yard touchdown and pretty much the same on the other 3 of his 4 touchdowns last night?
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Had my tv on and watching. He has the wheels,burner and heck of a stiff arm.
I was tickled to be watching. B0A4446C-EA3B-44C1-99A6-FE8D35F2146F.gif
 
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#34
#34
Derrick Henry spent most of his career at Bama and in the NFL being a big ol' powder puff. He's big, he's fast for his size, but he was never a very physical guy at the point of attackl, frtequently critisized for going down after the first hit. Perhaps the light bulb came on for him recently or somebody got to him. One game doth not maketh a career.
 
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#35
#35
Remy said:
Derrick Henry spent most of his career at Bama and in the NFL being a big ol' powder puff. He's big, he's fast for his size, but he was never a very physical guy at the point of attackl, frtequently critisized for going down after the first hit. Perhaps the light bulb came on for him recently or somebody got to him. One game doth not maketh a career.
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He's been very average before Thursday night.
 
#36
#36
My opinion-- it's a mentality. I mean, obviously you need skilled players and depth. But, given two teams of similar talent, the nod goes to the team with a winning mentality. The NFL is so much different from college for several reasons, but one is that, in general, no lead is safe in the NFL. This year, when we got down by 14+ points, you could see it in the players. They felt like the lead was insurmountable (some of them). NFL players don't play that way. They go out and do their best to win every play, every down.

So ya, you need guys who are big, strong, fast... all in great shape. But they have to play hard every snap until the game is over. I truly believe that's what Pruitt means when he says, "we need 11 guys doing it the right way every play."
 
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#38
#38
BigOrangeMojo said:
The 2015 team wouldn't qualify. They struggled to maintain leads late and got bullied by Arky in the trenches...
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Not sure what maintaining leads has to do with physical. It was lack of depth and stamina.

Bullied by Arky? So a physical team can never be pushed by another physical team?? I'd say the way they handled many other teams, including Bama, is more evidence than a single game we lost by 4 points.
 
#39
#39
gisman said:
There is something to this. Look at Florida from 2006 to 2007. They took a huge step up in physicality in one year with a lot of the same players. Auburn 2003 to 2004. Alabama from 2007 to 2008. Big steps up for all of those teams. It wasn't all talent.
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oh absolutely. Those Nebraska teams were pumping it. We just bought the narrative that they were "corn-fed" Nebraska farmer boys. Nope. I would say that most teams through the 80's and 90's had that stuff going on.
 
#40
#40
How could I forget about Miami 2002. Their players made ours look small, slow and weak. That was one year removed from maybe our best team in 2001.
 
#41
#41
If they 1) get the OL's mind right with regards to assignments and basic fundamentals. And 2) increase their weight room performance by 50lbs, if not max weight than max reps with a certain percentage of their max, along with conditioning.. you can't have too much of being able to outlast the opponent..
they'll be beating all the Punching Judy's instead of being the Punching Judy.
 
#42
#42
Remy said:
Derrick Henry spent most of his career at Bama and in the NFL being a big ol' powder puff. He's big, he's fast for his size, but he was never a very physical guy at the point of attackl, frtequently critisized for going down after the first hit. Perhaps the light bulb came on for him recently or somebody got to him. One game doth not maketh a career.
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LoudOrange said:
He's been very average before Thursday night.
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Anything before the performance Thursday night wasn't the point and had no place. The topic is the composition of a physical football team and the point I made was how physical Henry played in the game I referenced, specifically. There is no counterargument to it.
The most striking feature of that performance was how he repeatedly made the first man who tried to tackle him miss using his tough physicality to do so. In fact, he made 3 of them miss on multiple carries and it was to the point that the other team's defense played as if they wanted no part of him. If you got something else other than the physical play from that and somehow thought it was a good idea to rail against it, then you dropped the ball.
 
#43
#43
gisman said:
How could I forget about Miami 2002. Their players made ours look small, slow and weak. That was one year removed from maybe our best team in 2001.
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That 2002 Canes team was arguably the most talented team in college football history.
 
#44
#44
ftsandersvol said:
Coaching is about skill development, technique and strategy. Physicality to me is all mental. You have to want your opponent to pay dearly for deciding to step out on the same field as you. It is an odd, but satisfying, feeling to watch someone's will methodically get crushed.
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"Physicality to me is all mental."

Your not from this planet are you?
 
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