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Dan's full interview with Clawson

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DCDeacon

Ricky Peral
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Still finishing it, but an interesting read nonetheless.

I still simply don't understand how the strength of our players was so poor when Clawson showed up. Not new, but every time I read something like this

When we first got here, we tested all the guys in the bench, the squat and the power clean. And I’ve said it many times, what we inherited was as weak a football team as I’ve seen, even at the I-AA level.​

I just shake my head. I don't understand. Full interview starts here, links are at bottom of each page to jump to subsequent pages.

http://www.journalnow.com/sports/wf...cle_126cb26a-9d31-11e4-8d1d-0fcf41c7b4cc.html
 
Sheesh. Unless he signs another QB or two(which he says he hopes too) we'll have just two QBs on the roster rolling into spring practice.
 
Spring practice is not going to be a problem- you don't run the zone read where the QB pulls the ball and you don't let the D hit the QB on pass plays and you are fine. In fact, it will be great to have Wolford and Hinton get all the reps.

The fall is where we need to have a 3rd qb, and it would appear the staff is trying to get one.
 
I'm willing to give Clawson a lot of slack building this program. Not only was it severely decimated when he got here, but of all Wake coaches I've seen he has the most coherent and detailed vision of what he wants to achieve and how he's going to get there. Grobe might have accomplished something unthinkable, but he had no vision of elevating the program to any higher level, being resigned to running an academy-level operation and thinking his management style was the difference maker.
 
I guess it can wait until fall camp, but i'd have liked Dan to ask what the on the field expectations are for next season. I think we'd all love to see a bowl/any bowl, not sure if Clawson will sign up for that or sandbag expectations
 
Boy, this gets dumped right smack in Ethan Reeves's lap, eh ? Can anyone revisit the 'Pump-up for Piccolo' records for Grobe's final 2 years ? AIR, twas some LB's or DE's who jacked the most.
 
Henry Chinaski said:
I guess it can wait until fall camp, but i'd have liked Dan to ask what the on the field expectations are for next season. I think we'd all love to see a bowl/any bowl, not sure if Clawson will sign up for that or sandbag expectations
Click to expand...

We aren't going to a bowl next year.
 
While the numbers probably aren't where they should be, one has to keep in mind over half the team were freshmen or redshirt freshmen. How strong are these guys really expected to be?

Don't think it's fair to shovel all the blame to Ethan Reeve, as our athletes have continually done very well at the combine (Nikita, Camp, T-Bo, etc.)

It was an alarming issue last year though - we got pushed around in the trenches a lot. The guys, mostly the OL, were not equipped with the skills needed to do what they were being asked.
 
Back to the interview....

Clawson's clarity on his mission and his ability to articulate it to a listener/reader is quite impressive. Once he gives you the overview, you then get tidbits of the underlying details. Can you picture staff meetings with Clawson ? This guy gives the clear impression that he doesn't waste a minute on the job. The transition from the Grobe way to the Clawson way must have been a manmouth shock to most of the players.

I'm not gonna guess how many 3 or 4 star recruits we'll sign or how many W's we'll get next Fall but I KNOW we'll be better with Clawson in charge.
 
I wonder how much of the strength problem has to do with OL talent evaluation by Lobo and Himebauch the last few years.
 
DCDeacon said:
Still finishing it, but an interesting read nonetheless.

I still simply don't understand how the strength of our players was so poor when Clawson showed up. Not new, but every time I read something like this

When we first got here, we tested all the guys in the bench, the squat and the power clean. And I’ve said it many times, what we inherited was as weak a football team as I’ve seen, even at the I-AA level.​

I just shake my head. I don't understand. Full interview starts here, links are at bottom of each page to jump to subsequent pages.

http://www.journalnow.com/sports/wf...cle_126cb26a-9d31-11e4-8d1d-0fcf41c7b4cc.html
Click to expand...

Part of the reason is that Bench, Squat don't necessarily translate to Football strength. The Power Clean, being a much more active/athletic lift, does.

I'm shocked he included Power Clean. I was in Grobes 2nd recruiting class, first full one. Ethan Reeves had the same thing to say about Caldwell's players, but in Olympic lifts. After 4 years, EVERY guy on the team cleaned, both hang and power, and snatched much more than when they arrived, or when Grobe arrived. Ethan emphasized doing every lift we were going to do on our feet, because football is played on your feet. He didn't try to get guys numbers up to the 300s in bench or 400/500 in squat. instead, he thought that making guys more athletic, flexible, and focusing on core strength made a great football player.

I think there is probably a lot of methodologies that work. But the guys I played with certainly appreciated Ethan's strength program and saw benefits from it. There were definitely a few guys that were disapointed with what Ethan was doing. Because they weren't seeing bench and squat maxes skyrocket. That's probably what all of us have been taught since we started lifting. But I think there was a lot more depth to Ethan's program than Maxes.

Weak in terms of numbers? sure, I'd believe it based on what Ethan's philosophies are/were. However, we maxed once in 3 years while I was in the NFL. Your high number is not as important as your conditioning, flexibility, core strength, etc. Clawson may be a little outdated focusing on Max numbers, IMHO.
 
SDeacz said:
Part of the reason is that Bench, Squat don't necessarily translate to Football strength. The Power Clean, being a much more active/athletic lift, does.

I'm shocked he included Power Clean. I was in Grobes 2nd recruiting class, first full one. Ethan Reeves had the same thing to say about Caldwell's players, but in Olympic lifts. After 4 years, EVERY guy on the team cleaned, both hang and power, and snatched much more than when they arrived, or when Grobe arrived. Ethan emphasized doing every lift we were going to do on our feet, because football is played on your feet. He didn't try to get guys numbers up to the 300s in bench or 400/500 in squat. instead, he thought that making guys more athletic, flexible, and focusing on core strength made a great football player.

I think there is probably a lot of methodologies that work. But the guys I played with certainly appreciated Ethan's strength program and saw benefits from it. There were definitely a few guys that were disapointed with what Ethan was doing. Because they weren't seeing bench and squat maxes skyrocket. That's probably what all of us have been taught since we started lifting. But I think there was a lot more depth to Ethan's program than Maxes.

Weak in terms of numbers? sure, I'd believe it based on what Ethan's philosophies are/were. However, we maxed once in 3 years while I was in the NFL. Your high number is not as important as your conditioning, flexibility, core strength, etc. Clawson may be a little outdated focusing on Max numbers, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Spot on.

There are a number of ways to win. You can throw the ball around the block, or you can run the triple option. Everyone has what works in their system.

The same goes for strength coaches.

Coach Clawson puts an emphasis on these three lifts. He feels like they are the necessities for his team to win. The prior coach and staff didn't share that same thought. That's why I'm getting tired of the "we're so weak" thing.

Coach Clawson will get his guys into the program. They'll excel in the lifts he wants them to. They won't be weak in his mind, and we'll (hopefully) win a lot of football games.

He wasn't lying when he said this wasn't going to be a quick fix. We'll get there. It will take some time for him to get his ducks in order.
 
I won't pretend to know S&C theories. I do know that for all but 2 seasons under Grobe, we had a particularly difficult time finishing games and finishing seasons. Lack of strength and overall training probably had something to do with that.
 
TexasDeac10 said:
I wonder how much of the strength problem has to do with OL talent evaluation by Lobo and Himebauch the last few years.
Click to expand...

Lobo after signing up to be the WSSU OC:


“I’m very happy with our talent level,” Lobotzke said. “The guys that we are projecting as starters are every bit as good as what I saw in recent years at Wake Forest. I think our top two quarterbacks (Rudy Johnson and Phillip Sims) could have easily played for us at Wake.”
 
CHillDeac said:
“I’m very happy with our talent level,” Lobotzke said. “The guys that we are projecting as starters are every bit as good as what I saw in recent years at Wake Forest.
Click to expand...

So, they sucked monkey balls?
 
Phillip Sims maybe could have played at Wake coming out of HS if he had half a brain. Hell he was one of the top QBs in the country coming out of HS. Thats why he want to Alabama, where he flamed out, and Uva, where he flunked out.
 
it's also possible he's blowing a little bit of smoke. sure they may not "max out well" according to some numbers but lowering their level of competence/talent/strength etc lowers fans expectations a little and gives them a little more room for improvement.

who knows? i am pretty confident the staff will get the team where they want it.
 
I think the number of 18 and 19 year olds on the Team have something to do with those strength numbers. . .
 
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