That would beOriginally Posted by dr funk 13
the helmet and pants are not known.
i'm hoping for green bottoms, white lids
Oregon-Boise State: Ducks revved up and ready [h4]Posted by John Hunt, The Oregonian August 30, 2009 11:55AM[/h4]
Oregon strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe remembers, as a high school basketball coach, watching coach Bobby Knight's practices at Indiana. The pace was frenetic, and if the ball went out of bounds, a team manager would fire another one in to keep things moving.
"They didn't do any extra conditioning - they didn't need it,'' said Radcliffe, who is in charge of getting Oregon's football players in good enough shape to make it through practice. "That's how our practices have become over the past couple of years.''
As Thursday night's season opener between the 16th-ranked Ducks and No. 14 Boise State fast approaches, college football's quickest team is getting quicker.
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One of Chip Kelly's biggest points of emphasis since taking over as coach has been the pace of practice - the quicker the better. Last season, the Ducks squeezed the most plays into their possession time of any team in the nation, almost three per minute, outpacing Houston (2.9), Oklahoma (2.7), Missouri (2.7) and Tulsa (2.7).
That, it seems, isn't fast enough. This fall, everything, right down to the piped-in music, has been designed to yield more reps (although Phil Collins was heard over the speakers last week). The faster the Ducks practice, Kelly believes, the more experience they get and the more fatigued and on their heels the opponents will get.
"We want to have the fastest practice in the nation,'' quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said.
Practice has become a football circuit-training workout, with no extra conditioning anymore. Kelly said the tempo not only an effective bit of strategy - especially in a season opener where both teams come in with fresh legs and it's harder to wear down an opponent - but the pace is also becoming a necessity.
"We don't have time, especially with the new NCAA rules and time constraints of how long you can be on the field,'' Kelly said. "We can't just dedicate time to the conditioning aspect of things.
"I think the way we practice and the pace we practice at kind of forces that within the practice so after practice, we don't have to keep guys out running gassers and sprints and things like that.''
Radcliffe said he has long been a believer in the go fast/rest quickly approach to practice. The difference he sees is that players, with all the attention given to no-huddle, up-tempo teams, are beginning to embrace the idea.
"The biggest thing for me is that the kids understand it better than ever,'' Radcliffe said. "They've always understood, OK, I need to get in shape for fall camp or for the season, but now they really understand it. It's not just what we do in double days and things like that, but just how we practice.
"Now, the kids appreciate it even more not only by the way we practice but the way we play the game. It's an up-tempo, high-paced kind of deal.''
It's almost a rite of fall for football coaches to talk about how their players are in such good shape, but for the Ducks, the difference has been pretty apparent as the players are handling the increased tempo.
"I'm way faster, way stronger, quicker and heavier,'' backup quarterback Darron Thomas said.
Linebacker Spencer Paysinger, who couldn't help but laugh when he saw his weight listed at 216 pounds on the Ducks roster, has cut his 40-time from 4.62 to 4.57 - despite gaining 18 pounds.
"I stepped on the scale and it read 234, so I said, 'finally, they're going to change my weight (on the roster),' but the roster came out and it said 216,'' Paysinger said. "(Opponents) see 6-3, 216, and figure they can push me around, but I'm 20 pounds bigger than that.''
Paysinger said the added speed has come from working on proper form, toe flexing, knee angles, etc. Fellow linebacker Casey Matthews has put on considerable bulk, too - from 220 to 235 - and also appears faster this fall.
For Masoli, the leader of the revved-up Oregon offense, the game is slowing down, and that's a combination sure to please Kelly.
"I think my head is a little clearer and the game a little slower,'' Masoli said, comparing this fall to last.
Masoli has had to deal with inexperience and injury at the receiver position, and that has slowed the pace down just a touch this month. He also had to learn a new set of hand signals, mainly because of the transfer of receiver Aaron Pflugrad within the Pacific-10 Conference, to Arizona State.
Last season, the Ducks ranked dead last among the 119 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in time of possession, keeping the ball barely 25 of 60 minutes. Some of that was due to their quick-strike ability, some due to their mediocre third-down conversion rate. And some of it was due to simply moving fast.
"We want to be the fastest team in the nation,'' said LaMichael James, the very fast running back who will spell LeGarrette Blount when not lining up in the slot. "If we play fast, we can beat anyone.''
Tight end Ed Dickson, the team's lone 400-pound bench press man, said the pace can't help but pay off during the game.
"We train so hard in practice, so the game should be a little easier,'' Dickson said.
Nobody is promising an easy game Thursday night, but all those reps do figure to pay off at some point. And besides, football is more fun if you don't have to run gassers.
"It's just kind of a beautiful thing,'' Radcliffe said. "I'm a conditioning coach, so I'm kind of into conditioning, but I've known all along that if you practice the way that you play, then extra conditioning is not necessary.''
Originally Posted by 541 Exile 562
Where'd you find that picture, dr funk?
Honestly, I have no idea why people think this "design" is ugly. And I'll admit it, the diamond plating was ugly, the jersey before that with
the weird rounded shapes down the side, ugly. But this :
. . looks sharp to me.
Who your boy? I go to BSU, if you trying to pregame before the game holla at me and let me know.
You can't be serious.
