Injury tendencies

[tweeterhawk]

During an ESPN "On the Board" segment on the Colts, Trent Dilfer made an interesting comment about injuries. The discussion was about the team's needs to fill positions vacated due to injuries, and a point was made by one of the panelists that Indianapolis always seems to be dealing with injuries at key positions.

Dilfer commented (paraphrasing) that Colts are more prone to injury because the team tends to draft smaller, faster players. Bob Sanders' name was among those that came up. Dilfer said Indianapolis needs to put more emphasis on size during the draft to reduce the tendency of losing players to injury.

If that's true, would that also apply to Iowa and what seems like an annual rite of patching together a roster at several positions, especially running back and the defensive secondary?

Kirk & Co. are known for finding hard-working but possibly less-talented athletes and turning them into solid D1 players, with some each year having a chance to compete at the next level. As good as Iowa's strength and conditioning program is reputed to be, is there only so much that can be done over three or four years to get them in condition to stay relatively healthy over the course of 12 or 13 games? Because Iowa tends to not get blue chip athletes, will we always be more like the Colts when it comes to losing key players?

 

[latrans]

I can't honestly say that I know how our defensive secondary compares size-wise to other B10 teams but our RBs are pretty comparable so I don't know if I agree with this conclusion.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I think you're confusing less-talented, or not-as-highly-recruited...with smaller.
Our guys aren't significantly smaller. And as you mentioned, Doyle is as good as any at getting guys ready physically. Just a few years ago we were known as "the bullies of the Big Ten". That's not a name a smaller, less physical team gets.

But I DO, wonder what's up with the running back position. We seem to have an unusual injury pattern there...all the way back to 2004.

 

[tweeterhawk]

I think you're confusing less-talented, or not-as-highly-recruited...with smaller.
Our guys aren't significantly smaller. And as you mentioned, Doyle is as good as any at getting guys ready physically. Just a few years ago we were known as "the bullies of the Big Ten". That's not a name a smaller, less physical team gets.

But I DO, wonder what's up with the running back position. We seem to have an unusual injury pattern there...all the way back to 2004.

I guess I would wonder whether the difference is between more gifted athletes with better physical frames (bones, muscles, tendons, joints, etc.) conditioned over years of playing at higher levels, taking hard hits, versus the type of athlete more likely to come to Iowa. I don't think Iowa's running backs were necessarily smaller than those on other conference teams but certainly seemed to come from less-heralded programs and to suffer injury at higher rates than those at other schools. Shonn Greene being a notable recent exception to the Iowa injury bug.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I guess I would wonder whether the difference is between more gifted athletes with better physical frames (bones, muscles, tendons, joints, etc.) conditioned over years of playing at higher levels, taking hard hits, versus the type of athlete more likely to come to Iowa. I don't think Iowa's running backs were necessarily smaller than those on other conference teams but certainly seemed to come from less-heralded programs and to suffer injury at higher rates than those at other schools. Shonn Greene being a notable recent exception to the Iowa injury bug.

Interesting question.