Greetings from comfortably cool Minnesota. I ducked out for a little vacation the rest of this week with a visit back home, hoping to recharge before the unofficial start to the football craze that begins with this month's SEC media days. That picture is of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox for those who wondering. Bunyan is a lumberjack legend from the north who I believe, after 150 years of appeals, was also recently sworn in as Minnesota's junior senator. (Note: I might be wrong on that last part).
It must have been a while since I've flown anywhere, because the airlines seem to have advanced like crazy since I last stepped on a plane (which, to be honest, was only last December). AirTran had a few technological upgrades that made the flight a little bit quicker. They have XM Radio jacks in every seat, which is a nice touch. I think everyone should experience taking off in a plane to "Runaway" by Bon Jovi. It amps things up a little. There was also Wi-Fi on the plane, which I thought would be great. In fact, I was going to blog something from several miles in the air, but the fine folks at AirTran saw fit to charge $9.99 to use the wireless Internet for the duration of the 2 hour, 12 minute flight. Ten bucks? This is not some space-age technology. For an airline that already charged me $15 for my first checked bag, I figured they might be able to cut me some slack with something that's readily available everywhere a Panera Bread is near. Not so. So cheers to AirTran for the XM. Jeers for the ridiculously priced Wi-Fi.
ANYWAY, you don't come to this blog for pictures of mythological lumberjacks or petty observations about our nation's airlines. You hopefully come for the Auburn coverage. A few reporters had a chance to talk to running back Ben Tate last week. In fact, I wrote a story about it for Thursday's newspaper that can be found by clicking here.Now, Tate is supremely confident in his abilities. Some would call it being cocky. I'd agree, but it's not in an obnoxious way. I like it when athletes speak truthfully about what they think they are capable of and what they expect of themselves and the team. And Tate generally doesn't pull any punches. In fact, I wonder if this is the reason tight end Tommy Trott and not Tate will represent Auburn's offense at the SEC media days. Because I can't really think of any other reason. Regardless, it's refreshing to hear someone not give a watered-down, PC answer to some of our questions.
There was a bunch of leftover stuff from nearly 18 minutes with Tate, so I figured I'd throw it up here on the blog as some B-sides. Enjoy.
- Tate appears to have a much larger role in setting up the offense between snaps, which I found an odd responsibility for a running back. But that's how Gus Malzahn's system works apparently. "I have to know fronts," Tate said. "That’s different and it also helps you out. I also have to make protection calls. I have to tell the linemen what to do. If I mess up on a call, it’s always going to be on me. It’s not really going to be a lineman’s fault. Most of the time, if I mess up we’re going to be on the same page together, so we’re all messing up together, so most of the time it still gets picked up – it just might not get picked up the right way."
- Malzahn's offense, as you know, likes to move fast, meaning Tate has maybe five seconds to make his call. Or at least finalize his call. "You have to have it rolling off your tongue as soon as you see it," he said. "I would say it’s probably about five seconds. But within those five seconds I might have made five calls because I was wrong on the first four. " Like I said, the man is honest, even when he's taking a dig at himself.
- From the sounds of it, strength and conditioning coach Kevin Yoxall, aka "Yox," has put the Tigers through a brutal summer conditioning program. Here's Tate's description of a medium day, one that's not too difficult: "I would say we come out and do maybe two 150s, eight halves, go to the weight room, power cleans, sit-ups, chain pushups. I would say a typical workout is about two hours or 2½ hours."
- After three years with Yox, Tate knows which days are the hard ones. On Mondays, "he's going to run you," Tate said. "(He'll) just tell you to go until you throw up." Fridays, with the weekend looming, are always bad. "Most of the time on Fridays," Tate said, "if we haven’t done real heavy legs yet we have to push the sled, come and do like heavy back squats then come back out and do something crazy like carry a 45-pound plate all across the field while lunge-walking or push the boards up the hill or push the boards while pulling a sled."
- Tate thinks Yox has worked Auburn's players a little harder this year than in past years. He's also changed some of the workouts, doing more agility drills and plyometrics, "things that's trying to make us a little faster," Tate said.
- He had an interesting take on former offensive coordinator Tony Franklin: "He’s a good man. I liked him as a coach. I honestly did because he was the kind of coach – he kept it real. I don’t want you to lie to me and say, ‘Everything’s OK. You’re playing OK,’ but then behind the scenes say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how this guy’s doing. Let’s see how this guy’s going to do.’ If I’m not getting the job done, just let me know. Don’t tell me one thing and then do something else. I like that coach Franklin was up front about it. He would come to me on the sideline and be like, ‘Ben, what are you doing? You’re a better player than that. That just sucked. You just sucked. That entire series there, you just sucked.’ I was like, ‘All right, coach.’ At least I knew."
- Tate said new running backs coach Curtis Luper is similar in his straight-forwardness: "I know there were times in spring practice where I played up and he was like, ‘Dang, man. That’s good. That’s good. That’s how I want to see it.’ Then there were other times where he was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, coach.’ He was like, ‘Well you have one more chance.’ I would just do something dumb again and he would point to the sidelines and be like, ‘Just go sit down.’ I’d kind of be like, ‘C’mon coach …’ and he’d say, ‘No. Just go sit down and think about what you just did.’ He’s a straight shooter and he’ll just let you know that ain’t it – that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing. Coach Malzahn is the same way."
3 comments:
I like what I read about Coach Yox' emphasis on agility and plyometrics.
All too often the weight room turns into a mass producing factory. But big muscles are not always the strongest muscles. Proof of this is seen in a comparison between Mr. Olympia-style body building physiques and Olympic weight lifter physiques.
Those fast twitch muscle fibers need to be stimulated as well, thus the power cleans. From Tate's description, it is clear Auburn is doing things smart and we should avoid injuries this year.
Well, not long after I said we should avoid the injury bug this year, Tim Hawthorne gets a broken foot.
I know the privacy act prevents us from finding out how he sustained this injury. But I hope the coaches know and pay attention.
Plyometrics is not universally accepted, certainly not for really big guys. Hawthorne wasn't huge, so he falls outside the detractors weight range of concern.
Google plyometrics and you will see the arguments against it. Assuming Yoxall is training within the moderate range, this should lead to higher jumping and faster acceleration off the line, especially for WRs and secondary defenders.
On another blog, one guy keeps refering to the inferior quality of Auburn's practice field. It is specified in plyometrics that the landing area must be even and designed to absorb shock. Grass is okay, but it must be level.
Another guy refers to the inferior quality of the cleats/footwear adopted by our team.
Looking at the number of leg injuries last year, one can see a spike in events. Not just game day, but in practice. The latter is problematic.
Here we are in July and a guy breaks his foot. This needs to be addressed and remedied.
Tate appears to have a much larger role in setting up the offense between snaps... "I have to know fronts," Tate said. "That’s different and it also helps you out. I also have to make protection calls...."
After reading Chris Brown's latest article at Smart Football, I wonder if Auburn is contemplating a set of plays using a version of the single wing/wildcat formation. If so, Kodi would be good at quarterback with Tate and Fanin as tailback and fullback.
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