HUNH, No Substitutions, Fatigue and Sports Injuries
- Thread starter IH8Orange
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Based on the writings of the man who originally developed the HUNH concept, the purpose is to take strength, size and speed out of the equation and replace it with fatigue management. His purpose was to create hydration deficiency and muscular fatigue. The result would be to remove those bigger, stronger, faster player from the ability to impact the game.
Loss of hydration causes a loss of elasticity in the structures that allow the joints to move and maintain stability. Loss of hydration causes the crainial structures the support the brain to lose elasticity needed to softly retard the effect of sharp changes in direction or speed of the brain within the skull. Loss of hydration causes the muscles to cramp and in doing so pull the joints out of ideal alignment.
In a violent collision sport any one of those items will cause a sharp increase of the likelihood of an injury.
Loss of hydration causes a loss of elasticity in the structures that allow the joints to move and maintain stability. Loss of hydration causes the crainial structures the support the brain to lose elasticity needed to softly retard the effect of sharp changes in direction or speed of the brain within the skull. Loss of hydration causes the muscles to cramp and in doing so pull the joints out of ideal alignment.
In a violent collision sport any one of those items will cause a sharp increase of the likelihood of an injury.
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How are the HUNH offensive players getting hydrated when they are on the field just as long as the defensive players because the offense isn't subbing either?
JMHO - the HUNH ain't going anywhere - it's entertainment and folks like to watch teams score. I think our staff is on top of this and they will adapt accordingly.
For starters, hard to end a question with "..." The reason I asked is that there have been several posters on here, but more on some other boards, who've all but called CNS a liar and said that he was just using injuries as an excuse because he can't defend the HUNH. I've relied on his experience and the fact that he's a pretty straight shooter. If he says it, he believes it...
No, I've got no doubt Coach Saban believes it's a safety issue but I really think his point of "is this what we want football to be?" is his bigger gripe with it. It's my biggest gripe and from most of the responses on here it's a majority of our fans biggest gripe with the HUNH.
Coach Saban is smart he knows that presenting it as a player safety issue is a better strategy than the style of play argument which would look self serving. He does a great job of selling his position in the press conferences I've seen, I just don't know enough to say what the injury impact is outside of the obvious more plays equals more opportunity for injury.
Understand that Saban was not trying to reduce the number of plays/game with the proposed rule change. That rule change would not have reduced the number of plays runs/game for any of the HUNH teams last year since none were snapping the ball with less than 10 seconds run off the clock anyway.
What they were doing is rushing to the LOS and then getting the play call. That kept defenses from substituting. By adding the 10 second rule you allow defenses to substitute without slowing the offenses. Make it 15 seconds and you slow the offenses - but that is not what was requested.
Saban was not trying to reduce the number of plays or the speed of play with his suggestion - he was trying to address the play under fatigued conditions that the offense creates.
IMO, Saban's biggest issue isn't safety, though I think he is legitimately concerned with safety. But rather the direction of the game itself and him having to recruit and basically change how he does defense. Because one thing has become very evident and that is when run right, the HUNH reduces Saban's defense to an above average defense and takes away the dominating elements of it. Which is his ability to substitute and play chess matches on the field. It takes away all of that.
Most of the Saban criticism around this comes from the belief that Saban's primary concern with the HUNH is the way that it undermines the strength of his defense.
I understand this offseason that was what he was lobbying for, but in previous years he has mentioned going to the NFL clock model where it doesn't stop on first downs etc. I think this is also largely based off of him being a defensive coach and because we are often in the lead and it is much easier to hold onto a lead with the NFL rules.
I'm with you I really don't understand why the 10 second rule turned into what it did, it just seemed like the spin doctors were able to twist what Coach Saban was saying into something that he really wasn't saying.
I have little doubt that is one of his primary concerns. It forces him to change from what he's been doing for so long that has brought him such great success. The specialized packages and confusing defensive looks is what has separated Saban's defense from others. Take that away and what do you have?
I'm not saying that Coach Saban is a liar or doesn't believe that the HUNH offense causes more injuries. I do find it disingenious to field a team with bigger, stronger, faster and harder hitting players than nearly every other team and then complain about an offensive style "hurting" more players. Couple that with the fact that defending this certain offensive style is one of his few weaknesses and it becomes even more clear. I'm just not buying it.
When the Veer and the Wishbone were unveiled in the late 1960's most teams' defenses were geared toward speed since the game up to then was a wide open aerial circus. Most of us probably know the impact of the Wishbone since it was introduced by Texas, TAMU, Alabama, etc. The type defensive player needed to be bigger and stronger to take the constant pounding from the run game. What goes around comes around?
It's a hard sell for me as well.
Bottom line, if the offense can run at break-neck speed and execute their scheme, then the defenses better be able to do the same. Adapt or get left behind ~ I have all the faith in the world in our coaching staff to do just that!
Agree. However, I don't think, like some here, that his concern with fatigue is an invention...
The HUNH results in more plays per game. More plays mean more injuries.
Baylor, as a team (both offense and defense), was involved in about 162 plays per game.
Bama, as a team, was involved in about 128 plays per game.
That's 34 more ppg. Over a 12 game season that's over 400 more plays.
Football is still a collision sport. Every play your team is either blocking or being blocked, tackling or being tackled. I'm no rocket scientist, but common sense tells me that if your team runs 400 more plays than my team, your team will have more injuries.
Of course that's football as we know it. The only way to run 400 more plays and not have more injuries is to play two-hand touch or flag football.
Baylor, as a team (both offense and defense), was involved in about 162 plays per game.
Bama, as a team, was involved in about 128 plays per game.
That's 34 more ppg. Over a 12 game season that's over 400 more plays.
Football is still a collision sport. Every play your team is either blocking or being blocked, tackling or being tackled. I'm no rocket scientist, but common sense tells me that if your team runs 400 more plays than my team, your team will have more injuries.
Of course that's football as we know it. The only way to run 400 more plays and not have more injuries is to play two-hand touch or flag football.
So we have scientific studies that I referenced earlier that state that fatigue contributes to connective tissue injuries and concussions.
The NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook states:
Given this, you have a HUNH proponent bragging about how fatigued and dehydrated opposing defenses are when facing his offense. So, really he is taking pride in endangering the health of his opponents.
Our style of offense also fatigues opposing defenses, but we allow them to freely substitute so if an opponent chooses to leave a player out on the field too long and allow him to become overly fatigued or dehydrated, that is their fault. We aren't running an offense explicitly designed to prevent substitutions in order to strand players on the field for the purpose of fatiguing and dehydrating them.
I don't think saban is making up the injury issue.
that said, as a lawyer, you know that the stated basis of a claim often isn't always the strongest basis of a claim but rather the most compelling basis.
personally, I think he's primarily motivated by his disdain for this kind of football but he knows that the medical issue is the most compelling argument to make.
I think he's making a strategic decision in going forward with the medical issue because he knows that no one is going to be swayed simply by "this ain't the way my granddaddy played football."
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