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All technique and no hitting makes Johnny a softie.

I am from the school that you hit in practice of course that was a while back. But if you do not learn the proper technique in practice and that includes taking the ball carrier down it does show on Saturdays. It blows my mind how many guys do not try to wrap up ball carriers these days.

The old adage was applicable 50 years ago and is today: You play like you practice!

Honest question: how can you practice "full-speed" if you aren't wrapping up and following through? It doesn't seem possible. Early season results show that we are playing too slow, not wrapping up, not finishing routes and over-throwing receivers. It would seem to me that these are all symptoms of players trying to find the correct pace of play. The cause just seems so obvious.

And yet we still throw a 40 yard bomb on first or second play of the season first drive....

We are now consistently winning 7 or 8 games a year. There was no consistency before JJ. I think JJ is wrong in some aspects of his management of the team, and his offense has been inconsistent for sure, he has exercised very poor judgment at times, and he clearly overestimated the effect his being at SMU would have with respect to attracting players, but the overall picture is that of a team that wins 7/8 games a year rather than the 2 games a year we averaged under Bennett. And we have become an excellent program in terms of developing NFL level talent, something that is trending upwards at present. Consistency is in the eye of the beholder.

Now lets go kick Tech's sandy arses.

Mustangsabu wrote:We are now consistently winning 7 or 8 games a year. There was no consistency before JJ. I think JJ is wrong in some aspects of his management of the team, and his offense has been inconsistent for sure, he has exercised very poor judgment at times, and he clearly overestimated the effect his being at SMU would have with respect to attracting players, but the overall picture is that of a team that wins 7/8 games a year rather than the 2 games a year we averaged under Bennett. And we have become an excellent program in terms of developing NFL level talent, something that is trending upwards at present. Consistency is in the eye of the beholder.

Now lets go kick Tech's sandy arses.

Funny how you guys reach. I am talking about being consistent in how you play during the season. Not starting slow and ending better. We are not going to win championships starting slow. We need to be consistent for the entire year. We are consistently being mediocre and some are satisfied with that but very few SMU grads I know are satisfied with attaining mediocrity. JJ has had less academic restrictions than any coach since the DP so should at least be mediocre but now we need to do better. Let's hope this season is consistently good from start to finish and that could win us a conference championship imo.

SMU is going to be stuck with the AAC's of the world until they start beating the Techs, A&Ms, Baylors and TCUs of college football on a consistent basis. You do not do that by starting off "slow" and finishing strong.

JasonB wrote:They do have contact in practice, they just don't take players to the ground.

With the exception of the tackle at 1:23, the tackling issues in that video, it seems to me, are a result of bad angles taken because you are now playing against better athletes than you are playing against in practice.

As I said before, if you are not taking them to the ground then you are pulling up at the end which would more easily explain why they have bad angles. If we do not have enough depth to let our first team scrimmage against some redshirts after 5 years of recruiting we need a new boss man.

Take Arkansas as an example. They have limited depth, especially on an SEC level. But they have already scheduled 3 scrimmages. They are for 3:00pm, 6:00pm, and 11:20am. Why? Because those are the starting times of their first 3 games and they want the players to be accustom to the playing time. I want a coach that thinks like this rather than one that tears down lights because his players cannot adjust to them.

mrydel wrote:Take Arkansas as an example. They have limited depth, especially on an SEC level. But they have already scheduled 3 scrimmages. They are for 3:00pm, 6:00pm, and 11:20am. Why? Because those are the starting times of their first 3 games and they want the players to be accustom to the playing time. I want a coach that thinks like this rather than one that tears down lights because his players cannot adjust to them.

Very good point as they do need to learn to adjust to game times...and they have to do some scrimmages...you can get hurt walking down stairs. They need to be ready to play at the first damn game.

The real reason for not hitting in practice is fear of concussions which is rife throughout football these days and the source of lawsuits. The Pac-12 announced that it's going to limit full contact practices to two a week, following the NFL's policies.

The focus is on technique is different than just bringing people down and slamming their head to the ground.

Funny. I think we practice catching at full speed in preseason and remember more than a couple of misses early in the season in that aspect of our game.

Rayburn wrote:The real reason for not hitting in practice is fear of concussions which is rife throughout football these days and the source of lawsuits. The Pac-12 announced that it's going to limit full contact practices to two a week, following the NFL's policies.

The focus is on technique is different than just bringing people down and slamming their head to the ground.

I would gladly limit it to once a week. Just do not omit it.

If they want to eliminate concussions at practice and teach proper technique then go full speed with no pads. I have done it. Most anyone that has played the game has played no pad tackle before. Believe me, you learn quickly where to position yourself. And as stupid as that may sound this is one of the thoughts put out there to eliminate concussions. Without helmets the play would be much less violent.

The Baylor replay is very telling about bad tackles and angles. Baylor is vastly superior in talent but no reason to look like total crap and not compete. I hope this yr is a diff story.

mrydel wrote:

Rayburn wrote:I would gladly limit it to once a week. Just do not omit it.

If they want to eliminate concussions at practice and teach proper technique then go full speed with no pads. I have done it. Most anyone that has played the game has played no pad tackle before. Believe me, you learn quickly where to position yourself. And as stupid as that may sound this is one of the thoughts put out there to eliminate concussions. Without helmets the play would be much less violent.

You're exactly right. Practicing proper technique ought to cut down on injuries as well as make the players better prepared.