Gundy has always been about shorter practices, protecting against injuries, and not tacking all the way to the ground, he believes the season is a marathon, not a sprint.
One reason the Florida State game concerned Gundy if many recall is because he said they were going to have to have much more hitting leading up to that game and much harder practices in order to be ready for that level of competition. Gundy stated for such a young team, he was concerned for such a long hard grind from pre-season practices to the end of the year. I believe this is why Gundy was upset about this game, I think he would have felt better about it had it been the 3rd game of the year.
Going in to the CMU game, Gundy talked about being happy with the progress of the team, short and crisp practices and keeping players healthy, even skipped a practice.
I do believe how this team prepared this pre-season may have impacted the play of the OL last night and gives a clue as to the play calling. The easy non-conference schedule allows Gundy to use these games to fine tune the team, and most particularly the OL. I do believe the play calling last night was more partially about developing the OL and getting some good tape to develop from. If you can not get your run game lined out in the non-conference games, then you know how you have to game plan starting at Texas. We will see over these next few games the OL and the run game get a chance for more work and to develop and improve, it is their best opportunity to improve, unless Gundy changes his thinking and really works the OL hard against the 1's in practice and decides to risk injury (knowing he lacks depth in the OL) and also sacrifices his desire to keep fresh legs in to late November.
This is one area in which Gundy's coaching style is unique and for some even controversial, he was one of the first coaches to preach lighter and quicker workouts with an emphasis on less hitting and keeping players fresh and injury free for the long grind of a season. Downside is blocking and tackling needs game reps to develop and improve.
I was not happy with how the team played last night, but I have always felt going all the way back to my college days you do not start to evaluate teams and a pecking order to at least 4 to 5 games in to the season.
I never made a game score prediction on this game because I could see it being tougher than expected for the factors given above (and a team jacked to play for a HC who has given his all back to his team in terms of not letting his cancer battle impact his preparation), or the Cowboys might hit some really big plays early and coast.
We need to see significant improvement from game to game all the way thru the Texas game, if you have some faith in the players and coaches then you believe a good chance exists for that to happen, If you want to form all of your opinions on the first game of the season then obviously you would not expect much improvement. I have seen teams improve over the course of the season and others that have not, I personally think we have the talent and players to improve, and we still have a young team and young QB.
One reason the Florida State game concerned Gundy if many recall is because he said they were going to have to have much more hitting leading up to that game and much harder practices in order to be ready for that level of competition. Gundy stated for such a young team, he was concerned for such a long hard grind from pre-season practices to the end of the year. I believe this is why Gundy was upset about this game, I think he would have felt better about it had it been the 3rd game of the year.
Going in to the CMU game, Gundy talked about being happy with the progress of the team, short and crisp practices and keeping players healthy, even skipped a practice.
I do believe how this team prepared this pre-season may have impacted the play of the OL last night and gives a clue as to the play calling. The easy non-conference schedule allows Gundy to use these games to fine tune the team, and most particularly the OL. I do believe the play calling last night was more partially about developing the OL and getting some good tape to develop from. If you can not get your run game lined out in the non-conference games, then you know how you have to game plan starting at Texas. We will see over these next few games the OL and the run game get a chance for more work and to develop and improve, it is their best opportunity to improve, unless Gundy changes his thinking and really works the OL hard against the 1's in practice and decides to risk injury (knowing he lacks depth in the OL) and also sacrifices his desire to keep fresh legs in to late November.
This is one area in which Gundy's coaching style is unique and for some even controversial, he was one of the first coaches to preach lighter and quicker workouts with an emphasis on less hitting and keeping players fresh and injury free for the long grind of a season. Downside is blocking and tackling needs game reps to develop and improve.
I was not happy with how the team played last night, but I have always felt going all the way back to my college days you do not start to evaluate teams and a pecking order to at least 4 to 5 games in to the season.
I never made a game score prediction on this game because I could see it being tougher than expected for the factors given above (and a team jacked to play for a HC who has given his all back to his team in terms of not letting his cancer battle impact his preparation), or the Cowboys might hit some really big plays early and coast.
We need to see significant improvement from game to game all the way thru the Texas game, if you have some faith in the players and coaches then you believe a good chance exists for that to happen, If you want to form all of your opinions on the first game of the season then obviously you would not expect much improvement. I have seen teams improve over the course of the season and others that have not, I personally think we have the talent and players to improve, and we still have a young team and young QB.
