With Billy Schrauth being the latest casualty, and all of the injuries that
ND had last year, if I'm MF, I'd be taking long hard look at S&C coach he hired in '24, Loren Landow. The guy's resume is impressive (25 yrs exp. mostly in the NFL); however, it appears his programs so far, haven't been too successful in regard to players staying healthy.....
Replies to: With Billy Schrauth being the latest casualty, and all of the injuries that
Those injuries have nothing to do with conditioning.
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I can think of more interesting ways to claim that a hand injury and a hip injury are connected.
Fake news should at least be exciting.
"Put your hands on your hips...and kinda let your backbone slip..."
The injuries that occurred were freak injuries
I wouldn't put the blame on Coach Landow. He has our guys very much physically fit and relatively healthy.
We are now in year 3 of his program, and I don't see any rash of injuries that could be attributed to his program.
The only S&C guy who I would say harmed ND's players was Paul Longo.
Part of the Longo fiasco was because of less than ideal methods (injuries in 2014 and 2016 were rampant), and the other part was because Longo was basically MIA during that 2014-2016 time period, due to health reasons of his own. During the times he actually did come to the office, I would guess that he wasn't thinking clearly.
He was relying on his less experienced assistants to carry out the S&C program, and those guys inexperience, combined with his methods, resulted in a lot of players going down with injuries.
If anything, that was one of the black marks that scared away the other two St. Brown brothers from coming to Notre Dame.
It's football, injuries happen. Can't think of but 1 or 2 injuries that you can maybe pin on poor
conditioning or training. Hamstrings, calf tears, etc.....
The rest (most of them) have been "football happens" injuries. Can't prevent those no matter who you are.
And they haven't even played Navy yet.
Middies take the heat but injuries happen at any time against any opponent. It sucks. I feel for our guys who work so hard and this happens.
Navy's dirty cut blocking got castrated
The revision to the cut blocking rules took away a lot of their cheap tactics.
You can't do cut blocking outside of the tackle box. Navy was very adept at diving at defenders' knees and ankles outside of the tackle box when the said defender was doing lateral pursuit.
Also, if you're not a lineman, then you can't cut block someone from the side. This takes away the blindside chop block. I call it a chop block, since the first Navy blocker would grab on, and hold the defender up high, while a second non-lineman blocker would dive at the defender's knees or ankles from the side, making it almost impossible to see at times, much less avoid.
Technically this wasn't chop blocking, since the high blocker would release a split second before the second blocker made an impact. This is what all but crippled Joe Schmidt in 2014, ended Eric Jones' career in 1991, left Bryant Young hobbled in 1991 against Tennessee and Penn State, and also hobbled Chris Zorch in 1990 for the Tennessee and Penn State games.
At least from the front, a defender can use some footwork to avoid the worst of the chop block part, since he can see the cheap shot being taken.
Now that it's illegal to do the above, Navy has had to resort to more conventional blocking, or God forbid, using clean cut blocking (where you aim your shoulder at the defender's hip or upper thigh).