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CanadianSU

CanadianSU

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Will Hicks.

Again, super nice guy and has a lot of pro ties however, if I was Shafer he would be the first man out the door. If Shafer wants to blame the season on injuries you might want to fire the guy that is head of strength and conditioning one would think...

The way our guys were dropping like flies was pathetic. Not the reason we went 3-9... But seriously, we had a damn player down every series...
 
Agree that Will Hicks should be fired along with Joe Adam. Cuse had 4 - 5 guys drop per game with Eskridge leading the pack.
 
I don't think Shafer has the ability to fire Hicks. Hicks works for the AD and is technically an Assistant AD, don't think Shafer could fire him even if he wanted to. That would be like Shafer firing Gedney or Frazier.
 
CuseOnly said:
I don't think Shafer has the ability to fire Hicks. Hicks works for the AD and is technically an Assistant AD, don't think Shafer could fire him even if he wanted to. That would be like Shafer firing Gedney or Frazier.
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If Shafer doesn't pan out, I hope that the next coach insists on bringing in his own S&C guy for the football program.
 
I have no idea if there is someone or something to blame for all of our injuries this season, or if it was just the most catastrophic luck imaginable.

But I sure hope we undertake a massive and thorough review of everything S&C related and make huge changes if warranted.
 
BKCuse said:
There was never a S&C issue before this season and Hicks has been here for years

It's just bad luck and Hicks isn't going anywhere
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Really? Every year there are threads about firing Will Hicks and every year people argue that we have more injuries than our peers do. It's happened enough that IB jokes about it from time to time. This is an issue that has been around for a long time. I don't know that I agree with it but there are at least many people that do.
 
Shafer could push to move Hicks out of football, but I doubt that will happen. SU should hire a ft nutritionist and add more trainers as they rely a lot on GAs. Injuries can also occur with an improper diet or players trying to play through minor injuries. I know there was an upgrade to the football training area a couple of years ago, but when you have players helping each other with rehab, it sounds like some additional staff would help.
 
BKCuse said:
There was never a S&C issue before this season and Hicks has been here for years It's just bad luck and Hicks isn't going anywhere
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That's not accurate. People are still writing off 2011 due to injuries. We started 5-2, but then we were so banged up we lost out to close the season.

Last year our whole secondary was decimated.
 
I think it's too complicated an issue to easily chalk it up to Will Hicks. He was also here in the 90's when our team remained quite healthy most of the time, wasn't he? With the players that were getting hurt were they using proper playing technique? Did the conditioning style change during last off season, a change that seemed to come from HCSS and McD from what I understand, contribute? Are we putting guys on the field with smaller frames than other teams (linebackers and secondary have both seemed to weigh less than peer schools for a while now)?

Without knowing his philosophy on strength and conditioning, it's hard to know how much of the injury problem is Hicks. I would love to see the types of exercises he uses and how he goes about teaching and progressing.
 
Will Hicks was pushed to train the entire team differently this season. If the adverse effects were due to that, how would you ever prove it? Not enough of a base to take results from. If it were to happen again next year, then you have a discussion.

There's a reason guys like Dwight Freeney and the Jones brothers come back every off season, and it's not the superb facilities. It's because they have the utmost respect for Hicks even after working with guys in the top of their profession.

Injuries are like thieves in the night, you never know when and where they'll strike.
 
anomander said:
That's not accurate. People are still writing off 2011 due to injuries. We started 5-2, but then we were so banged up we lost out to close the season.

Last year our whole secondary was decimated.
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Last year we had a couple of leg injuries and an elbow. Wighams injury will hicks could not have stopped.

You guys have revisionist history sometimes. The blame for the injuries this season can be attributed to McDonald IMO. go back to preseason interviews. McDonald forced a change in the S&C program to run more plays than ever in less time than ever. His edict was to lean out the boys without losing strength and speed. I believe he did that per the numbers from camp. That being said some of the seniors have had to go through three different kinds of S &C programs in their time here. Just my opinion.
 
HeaterCuse22 said:
Last year we had a couple of leg injuries and an elbow. Wighams injury will hicks could not have stopped.

You guys have revisionist history sometimes. The blame for the injuries this season can be attributed to McDonald IMO. go back to preseason interviews. McDonald forced a change in the S&C program to run more plays than ever in less time than ever. His edict was to lean out the boys without losing strength and speed. I believe he did that per the numbers from camp. That being said some of the seniors have had to go through three different kinds of S &C programs in their time here. Just my opinion.
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I'm not blaming Hicks, i'm just pointing out that we have suffered through this before.

Going to be interesting if the staff makes Hicks keep the same workout program? If Shafer is going use injuries as a crutch then this it should be mentioned he asked for the change.
 
hicks has been around since the 90s.. the guy must be doing something right to be one of the longest tenured people associated with the football team.
 
sufandu said:
I think it's too complicated an issue to easily chalk it up to Will Hicks. He was also here in the 90's when our team remained quite healthy most of the time, wasn't he? With the players that were getting hurt were they using proper playing technique? Did the conditioning style change during last off season, a change that seemed to come from HCSS and McD from what I understand, contribute? Are we putting guys on the field with smaller frames than other teams (linebackers and secondary have both seemed to weigh less than peer schools for a while now)?

Without knowing his philosophy on strength and conditioning, it's hard to know how much of the injury problem is Hicks. I would love to see the types of exercises he uses and how he goes about teaching and progressing.
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I agree with this. The types of injuries need to be looked at. For example, a lot of tendons, muscle tears, etc. can possibly be linked to S&C, but things like concussions, broken legs (Hunt) have nothing to do with training.
 
really hard to evaluate hicks, how am i supposed to know if he's good? just by looking at the guy, you can tell he's an old powerlifter. would feel a little better about the conditioning side if he was in a little better condition. it's not really fair but when you don't have much to go on, you have to wonder

how are you supposed to isolate hick's training, bad luck, and genetic lack of potential in some of our players? who knows.

i expect that the guys that have made it will swear by him but that might be selection bias. dwight freeney is a freak who made it - of course he's going to swear by him

i don't have any reason to think he's bad
 
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qdawgg said:
Really? Every year there are threads about firing Will Hicks and every year people argue that we have more injuries than our peers do. It's happened enough that IB jokes about it from time to time. This is an issue that has been around for a long time. I don't know that I agree with it but there are at least many people that do.
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I would guess over the years only Coach P was mentioned in need of firing more than Will Hicks has been. I don't know if he's any good. I know he's been here forever. There aren't a whole lot of secrets in his industry and the idea that a new S&C guy can come in and suddenly the team doesn't get injured as much is silly.
 
dollarbill44 said:
I agree with this. The types of injuries need to be looked at. For example, a lot of tendons, muscle tears, etc. can possibly be linked to S&C, but things like concussions, broken legs (Hunt) have nothing to do with training.
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Right. The mechanism of each injury would have to be looked at. For example, if we see guys lacking functional mobility and getting injured, I'd point at Hicks. Poor functional conditioning could even contribute to a broken fibula, if you notice abnormal movements through the kinetic chain, but none of us are studying that with any of these guys.

I would like to know whether we're strengthening guys with multiplanar activities in addition to power generating olympic style lifts. If we're only working guys through the sagittal and frontal planes we're doing them a huge disservice. Their 40 times may get better, but there are all types of movement patterns with their associated muscles that we'd be missing.

I'm hoping Hicks has kept up with the times and doesn't just rely on what was being done 20 years ago. Exercise science has grown by leaps and bounds in that time period.
 
cuseincincy said:
I would guess over the years only Coach P was mentioned in need of firing more than Will Hicks has been. I don't know if he's any good. I know he's been here forever. There aren't a whole lot of secrets in his industry and the idea that a new S&C guy can come in and suddenly the team doesn't get injured as much is silly.
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There aren't a lot of secrets, but there are a lot of old timers that don't keep up with current research. I'm not saying Hicks is one of those. I'm saying it's impossible to know without knowing what he does.
 
CanadianSU said:
Will Hicks.

Again, super nice guy and has a lot of pro ties however, if I was Shafer he would be the first man out the door. If Shafer wants to blame the season on injuries you might want to fire the guy that is head of strength and conditioning one would think...

The way our guys were dropping like flies was pathetic. Not the reason we went 3-9... But seriously, we had a damn player down every series...
Expand...

 
BKCuse said:
There was never a S&C issue before this season and Hicks has been here for years

It's just bad luck and Hicks isn't going anywhere
Expand...

Jamal Dumas' gut and Walter Reyes loss of speed beg to differ.
 
Silly post...Will Hicks is one of the most, if not the most, respected S&C coaches by NFL teams.

I think the injury issue we have goes well above Hicks. The talent here isn't as good as our peers, period. When you play a physical sport against someone larger, faster, and stronger than you on a consistent basis, injuries will happen.
 
kirbivore said:
Jamal Dumas' gut and Walter Reyes loss of speed beg to differ.
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85 players in and out all the time , there are always going to be some
 
CIL said:
Silly post...Will Hicks is one of the most, if not the most, respected S&C coaches by NFL teams.

I think the injury issue we have goes well above Hicks. The talent here isn't as good as our peers, period. When you play a physical sport against someone larger, faster, and stronger than you on a consistent basis, injuries will happen.
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Nova? I think we had a few drop that game.
 
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