Thursday, September 20, 2012

Weary Boilers?

This article in the J&C gives me great concern. It reminds me of the feeling I get whenever the coaching staff admits they didn't have a plan for something or didn't know what they were going to do if a given situation happened... it just makes my eyebrows go up involuntarily. 

Danny Hope says he's happy for the bye week, as his players are showing "signs of fatigue." Hey, it's hard work kicking Eastern Michigan's ass.  A quote from Hopey:

“Focus in practice, energy in meetings,” the fourth-year coach said Sunday. “I tell one of my good jokes and some of them didn’t get it.”

I, for one, would love to hear some of Danny Hope's good jokes.

But seriously, being focused for a few weeks tires guys out? I mean, yes, I know staying focused over a course of a season is indeed tiring and requires tremendous discipline. But it's just worrisome and odd to make such a statement now. It's almost like Hope feels the need to talk up everything that's ever related to the program. A bye week? It's a good thing for us! We'll rise to the challenge! By lying down and taking a nap!

It only gets better, too.

“They should be tired,” he said. “I think our staff is tired. Everybody works long days and seven days a week. Fatigue set in some but the end result was we scored 50-something points and had 600 yards of offense and shut them down with our first-team defense. They did a good job of sucking it up and pushing themselves but I know they’re all looking forward to the off week.”

I might beg to differ on whether or not they "should" be tired.

Coach was then asked if he has concerns over playing the next nine straight weeks, which is a fair question given what he's just said about fatigue. The answer....seems unclear.

“Traditionally, most football teams struggle recovering from camp. I think we did a better job of managing our football team during camp,” Hope said. “We gave them a little more time off during camp and tried to shorten the practices."

I don't see how this answers the question of if he's concerned about this team being tired over the next 2+ months. 


"I think the way this football team pushes themselves from an effort standpoint, a focus standpoint and we practice hard and when I say we practice hard, they practice hard. We have shortened the agenda but they extend themselves more.”

Oh, please stop talking, Coach.



15 comments:

MrAnonymous said...

Um, ok. Seems like you're really stretching to find something now.

Nothing to see here. Move along...

MoB said...

Maybe Hope's been pushing them extra hard in Practice?

J Money said...

MrAnon -- Okay, we'll post nothing then.

Oh, and if you don't have an issue with this sort of nonsensical stuff, that's fine... but we think it's dumbass talk.

Purdue Matt said...

Danny Hope is a moron. Can't wait for him to be gone.

KevinB said...

Geez. I guess Hope can't say anything without getting hammered down.
What exactly is he supposed to say? "We don't need a bye week. We want it later in the season. Our guys aren't tired at all."
Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I remember a couple years back we had a bye week the first week of the season. That sucked. That might have even been the year we had to play Hawaii for the extra game.

jbrunner said...

I'm not sure if I understand the premise of this post. With all due respect, J Money, it really seems like you stretch things sometimes to find faults with Coach Hope.

Vandarth said...

I'm starting to feel that way too... With all due respect to J Money and his opinion, the constant negativity is reallly starting to bother me. I loved this blog when I first discovered it several years ago, but I am almost to the point of going back to just watching the games because I feel like I'd enjoy football season better without hearing some of this stuff. I hope this doesn't offend the author because I've been reading this site for a long time, but I think it is bothering some of us more optimistic fans enough that feedback on the subject is necessary. Do what you will with it. The team actually has a chance to contend this year and this stuff could potentially undermine what the team is trying to accomplish. This team looks really competitive, yet attendance still sucks because fans have taken this attitude towards Hope's teams and cling to it. We're either going to have to accept a few decisions and enjoy the fact that the program is generally getting stronger, or we can keep hindering it. I am convinced that if we as a fan base keep this up, there WILL be more negative consequences somewhere, whether its continued poor attendance, frustrated players, or even losing recruits. What do they think when they see this stuff constantly? If they're on the fence between two teams, they might end up picking the team with the more supportive fan base.

Personally I was also frustrated that Marve didn't start the 2nd quarter, but I don't have a problem with anything else that has happened, and when Terbush converted that ridiculous 4th and 10, I didn't care about that decision as much anymore. I can't play the what-if game especially since there were plenty of other things that could have won the game for us. Like if the receivers didn't drop some of those easy passes in the 1st half. Yeah, that situation sucked, but there were plenty of things I hated about Tiller. Like when we had a lead tried to run the clock out by running an RB straight up the middle 3 times in a row resulting in no yardage at all. We lost a couple games that way by giving the ball back to the other team with 2 minutes left.

Everybody is banged up right now, so of course they're tired. Many of the starters have struggled with injuries lately. Johnson, Allen, Marve, Russell, Shavers, I thought I even read that Short had some minor injury bothering him in the last week or two. It seems like everybody has something, and as a former athlete, it's easy to get hurt or burnt out when you start pushing harder than what you've done in the past. These guys definitely seem to be pushing harder this year, so I really don't think the comments are anything to be concerned about. They obviously need some rest especially if they're going to stay healthy.

This is probably the last time I will express my feelings on this issue, so take what you will from it. Again, I do not mean any disrespect by it. Over the years I have generally enjoyed this blog, but you do have an influence over fan opinion and in my opinion it sometimes hurts the team. I just would hate for us to shoot ourselves in the foot when we finally have a chance to have a competitive season.

BoilerPaulie said...

Well, in all fairness, I'M exhausted after just a couple weeks of school. Granted, I'm one of the busiest people I know at Purdue, but still... these guys *should* be tired if they're working like they have a break coming. At least they have the bye week to recharge and regroup. Let's see how they are doing at the end of October.

Anonymous said...

I think I am closer to J's position. Hope says some odd things. Maybe the answer is to get him a spokesperson. A Boiler Babe possibly. It would be hard to be any worse.

Purdue Matt said...

I dont think it's too much to ask for a head coach to make sense when publicly speaking. When Hope isn't spouting cliches he is talking straight nonsense. He's an idiot, I expect more from a CEO type position, especially at my alma mater.

J Money said...

Fellas -- it wasn't exactly a "Fire Hope" kind of post. Given my remarks in it and the photo chosen, I would have expected ya'll to take it a little more of the rueful humor it was intended.

Vandarth, appreciate the thoughtful comments and no offense taken. If you have opinions, no need to make this the "last time" you post here. And if we've seemed negative lately, that's just an indicator of how we've been feeling at times... probably borne more out of frustration than anything else. As we've tried to explain, we do love Purdue and want nothing but success -- which should be obvious, one would think, with roughly 3000 posts and 70-ish podcasts in the bag.

We've always prided ourselves on giving you all honest opinions. If our opinion differs from yours, that's fine -- and good, even. But we're not going to simply wave the pom-poms when we don't think it's warranted.

This program has been heading in a bad direction for a very long time...budgets show it, attendance shows it, and so forth. It's worrisome because it took many years to get back to respectability and the Joe Tiller/Drew Brees combo was lightning in a bottle. A program like Purdue is always on the cusp of being Vanderbilt or IU. It worries us that we may be closer to that than the 2000-2004 era.

jbrunner said...

Purdue isn't anywhere close to IU bad. Sure, we've been down for the last half-decade, but this years team is starting to show signs of life. Here's to hoping our boys break through.

Vandarth said...

Hey J Money,
I didn't mean it would be the last time I post on the site, I just meant regarding that particular issue. I only said that because I have commented to defend Coach Hope on several other issues recently and at this point, I've pretty much expressed all of my thoughts on that subject. I realize the fanbase is split on this issue and it's controversial. I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, it is what it is.

The budget is a pretty big concern. I didn't realize how far behind the assistant coach salaries were until earlier this year. I know Hope is trying to get a raise for the assistans, hopefully they give it to him. That was a big deal to Painter too. I think the biggest sign that something was up was when we hired an assistant coach for like two weeks and then he jumped ship for Wisconsin. I like what I have seen from Tibesar so far. I hope they are able to make the salary adjustments happen because having a coaching staff that stays together for awhile would probably make a big difference too.

Mark said...

Morgan Burke is the biggest hinderance to Purdue football. Unfortunately, we've passed a prime opportunity...and it wasn't Drew Brees.

It was BTN. All of that revenue started flowing to B1G schools before other schools were seeing money of this magnitude. Instead of investing on football first, we choose to revamp Girls golf, swimming, as well as other non-revenue, non major sports.

Now contracts are becoming common place, and that advantage is lessening. Opportunity for better coaches, better marketing, etc. for football completely squandered.

The plan should've included those other sports but LATER!!!

U-P Boiler said...

Bottom line - mentioning fatigue three games into the season is a mistake.
Some coaches are X's and O's and terrible with media. Some are great at recruiting and terrible on game day.

I think Hope is a very positive guy, probably a good recruiter, but the jury is still out on the X's and O's part.

Along with his sense as to how he comes off with the media.