Fourth and Long podcast

[Stone]

I finally got around to listening to the Fourth and Long podcast from last week. Intersting listen. Lots of topics were covered in a way that one doesn’t usually hear.

I found their perspective as to why the football team has not finished strong in the regular season particularly interesting. They suggested that it might be a result of the draining spring and summer conditioning schedule. My thought, however, was don’t all teams have similar conditioning requirements? Why would Utah be more drained than other teams?

I can see their point that it would probably be helpful to make the conditioning schedule more efficient (i.e., not spreading it out over the course of the day), but I imagine that there may be valid reasons for wanting the players at the facility for much of the day (for example, team building and keeping kids out of trouble). They mentioned that USC and BYU perhaps had more streamlined approaches. I can also understand their point of wanting more autonomy with their workout schedule and watching film (more of an honor system), but I think a system like that would be hard to regulate and would likely lead to disputes about favoritism. Tom spoke of how the Jets did their conditioning and that if a player didn’t workout, he would likely get cut. That works in the pros, but with scholarships in college, it wouldn’t work out as well.

I guess I felt like, aside from making the conditioning schedule more efficient, their suggestions were probably not realistic. Nevertheless, there is no question that the team has struggled late in the season the last few years, so it is worth considering changes to avoid that. I wonder if Andy or Tom would be comfortable now that they are not on the team to sit down with Kyle and talk frankly about their thoughts.

Sounds like the team also needs more indoor practice space.

[KiYi-Ute]

I agree with pretty much everything you said. I didn’t feel great about their idea for players to earn “veteran” status and have autonomy over their own workouts. It’s important for teammates to be viewed as equals, and I agree that it would open the door for a lot of potential favoritism/animosity between players.

Andy was also one of the most mature players on the team. I went to high school with him and knew him pretty well (he’s one year older than me). He’s always been a mature individual. I think a lot of the regulations that he didn’t feel were necessary, probably weren’t necessary for him. He was going to show up and do what he was asked regardless. But he’s 27-28 years old. A lot of the young guys on the team can really benefit from the structured/regulated practice system.

[Utemachine]

What bothered me about the workouts is Andy saying his legs weren’t fresh because of the leg workouts days before the game. Seems like a kicker knows his legs best and what should be done to them to keep fresh.

I also thought it was hilarious how they would not tell Kyle because they would be seen as a pussy. I wouldn’t either! Whitt would cause most grown men to fold like a cheap suit.

[noneyadb]

Conditioning advice from kickers?

[Anonymous]

Yeah he was pretty porky last season.  I remember he talked about making cookies for all of the guys, looked like he was eating most of those cookies.