Lawrence Okoye Thread of Epic Awesomeness

Originally posted by ninerfan52:
You critique is ever move, how did you observe his movement at the OTA's? Are you a professional coach? If not you sound foolish! Just saying.....

"professional coach?" i guess if you loosely define it, i am. i've been paid to coach track and field for the last 17 years. football fan and certified draft nut for 30+ years.
i love evaluating football athletes from the perspective of their raw, movement skills. i'm pretty good at it with football guys--but that's my opinion. but, it's been proven in track and field. so, i'm an arm-chair evaluator of sorts.

Originally posted by xcfan:

Originally posted by ninerfan52:
You critique is ever move, how did you observe his movement at the OTA's? Are you a professional coach? If not you sound foolish! Just saying.....

"professional coach?" i guess if you loosely define it, i am. i've been paid to coach track and field for the last 17 years. football fan and certified draft nut for 30+ years.
i love evaluating football athletes from the perspective of their raw, movement skills. i'm pretty good at it with football guys--but that's my opinion. but, it's been proven in track and field. so, i'm an arm-chair evaluator of sorts.

I hate it when people think all talented athletes will take 3 years to learn something because Alex took 7. This guy is going to get a lot of professional attention and his full time job will be to get good at football. An athlete like him, it won't take him long to pass people up who have been playing for years.

Originally posted by xcfan:
"professional coach?" i guess if you loosely define it, i am. i've been paid to coach track and field for the last 17 years. football fan and certified draft nut for 30+ years.
i love evaluating football athletes from the perspective of their raw, movement skills. i'm pretty good at it with football guys--but that's my opinion. but, it's been proven in track and field. so, i'm an arm-chair evaluator of sorts.

Where do you coach at?

Originally posted by ninerfan52:
Where do you coach at?

high school

Originally posted by cciowa:
not to be a hater but i think he will end up in the unemployment line after the teams first cut

man, I hope you are wrong, but that's damn funny!

Watching this video, had a few thoughts,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mhfGs3Bc

!, Okyoe should be ready for the speed and violence.
2, Football tackling is looking less like it did when I was a kid in the 79's-80s' and looking more like Rugby tackling.
3, If the league wants less injury, and more scoring, and a faster game, get rid of helmets and pads. (keep all the rules the same)

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Watching this video, had a few thoughts,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mhfGs3Bc

!, Okyoe should be ready for the speed and violence.
2, Football tackling is looking less like it did when I was a kid in the 79's-80s' and looking more like Rugby tackling.
3, If the league wants less injury, and more scoring, and a faster game, get rid of helmets and pads. (keep all the rules the same)

Great video! I loved playing both of these sports and both were very violent in their manner...can't say one was worse than the other. The main difference, in my experience, are the head first hits that happen in football--but are not suppose to happen in football. The NFL is legislating to remove these head first hits and I totally agree that going back to leather helmets would prevent the damage to ears (Rugby) and eliminate use as a weapon (football).

Originally posted by xcfan:

Originally posted by ninerfan52:
You critique is ever move, how did you observe his movement at the OTA's? Are you a professional coach? If not you sound foolish! Just saying.....

"professional coach?" i guess if you loosely define it, i am. i've been paid to coach track and field for the last 17 years. football fan and certified draft nut for 30+ years.
i love evaluating football athletes from the perspective of their raw, movement skills. i'm pretty good at it with football guys--but that's my opinion. but, it's been proven in track and field. so, i'm an arm-chair evaluator of sorts.

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Watching this video, had a few thoughts,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mhfGs3Bc

!, Okyoe should be ready for the speed and violence.
2, Football tackling is looking less like it did when I was a kid in the 79's-80s' and looking more like Rugby tackling.
3, If the league wants less injury, and more scoring, and a faster game, get rid of helmets and pads. (keep all the rules the same)

LMFAO.....TBPH, 90% of those hits are uncommon rugby (watch any typical rugby game, head-on, high speed, high-impact hits are an exception to the norm) and the more lateral, sideline -to-sideline action of the game means most defensive stops on ballcarriers are side-hits or more often than not, pulling them down from behind. if they are hit from up front, its usually getting stood up and pulled down by 1-2 defenders, and a lot of the time the ballcarrier has already relinquished the ball to a teammate so as to catch the other team offguard. the lack of forward passing also takes away any offensive players getting hung up to dry and defenders lining them up for a "whoo-hit". bottom-line it is rare you see players getting blasted in rugby, that video is a misconstrued representation of the sport.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Watching this video, had a few thoughts,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mhfGs3Bc

!, Okyoe should be ready for the speed and violence.
2, Football tackling is looking less like it did when I was a kid in the 79's-80s' and looking more like Rugby tackling.
3, If the league wants less injury, and more scoring, and a faster game, get rid of helmets and pads. (keep all the rules the same)

LMFAO.....TBPH, 90% of those hits are uncommon rugby (watch any typical rugby game, head-on, high speed, high-impact hits are an exception to the norm) and the more lateral, sideline -to-sideline action of the game means most defensive stops on ballcarriers are side-hits or more often than not, pulling them down from behind. if they are hit from up front, its usually getting stood up and pulled down by 1-2 defenders, and a lot of the time the ballcarrier has already relinquished the ball to a teammate so as to catch the other team offguard. the lack of forward passing also takes away any offensive players getting hung up to dry and defenders lining them up for a "whoo-hit". bottom-line it is rare you see players getting blasted in rugby, that video is a misconstrued representation of the sport.

Just as Whitner's hit in the NO game is not representative of most football hits? Rugby is a lateral game, literally...so the hits are not usually at as high speed as vertical runs, but how many big hits are there in each football game? I have read several comments about Willis "non-violent" tackles being more painful than the big hits of other guys. Why? Because he drives his guy to the ground...just as Rugby players are taught to do...shoulder in the hinge.

In Rugby, there are more twisted tackles, with multiple tacklers, because the goal is always to pry the ball loose. That happens up to the scrum, and then you have to watch out for all body parts if you are inside the scrum. It is a very violent game, with no pads, helmet...just a bit of tape around the head holding on the ears.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
I think he's an incredible athlete and lateral movement is probably something he can learn how to do rather quickly. I still think the big wildcard is the hitting. NFL offensive linemen are going to be slamming into him. They're just as big or bigger and just as strong or stronger. They're going to be hitting him at velocities you don't find in rugby. A player like Mike Iupati is going to pull out, slam into him and pancake him. The question in my mind is can he take that kind of punishment, get back up and continue to grind.

In other words, the question is, "Can he play football?"

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Watching this video, had a few thoughts,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py7mhfGs3Bc

!, Okyoe should be ready for the speed and violence.
2, Football tackling is looking less like it did when I was a kid in the 79's-80s' and looking more like Rugby tackling.
3, If the league wants less injury, and more scoring, and a faster game, get rid of helmets and pads. (keep all the rules the same)

LMFAO.....TBPH, 90% of those hits are uncommon rugby (watch any typical rugby game, head-on, high speed, high-impact hits are an exception to the norm) and the more lateral, sideline -to-sideline action of the game means most defensive stops on ballcarriers are side-hits or more often than not, pulling them down from behind. if they are hit from up front, its usually getting stood up and pulled down by 1-2 defenders, and a lot of the time the ballcarrier has already relinquished the ball to a teammate so as to catch the other team offguard. the lack of forward passing also takes away any offensive players getting hung up to dry and defenders lining them up for a "whoo-hit". bottom-line it is rare you see players getting blasted in rugby, that video is a misconstrued representation of the sport.

Those look like professional Rugby players to me. To my knowledge Okoye has never played professional Rugby, nor minor league Rugby, nor college Rugby. He has only played in 18 and under Rugby (the kid's league).

It's like me saying I played high school football and then bringing in a video of NFL highlights to show the types of hits I had to sustain.

You would think discus training would work balance, explosivity. Does twirling translate to lateral movement?

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:

i even got a good laugh out of that

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Great video! I loved playing both of these sports and both were very violent in their manner...can't say one was worse than the other. The main difference, in my experience, are the head first hits that happen in football--but are not suppose to happen in football. The NFL is legislating to remove these head first hits and I totally agree that going back to leather helmets would prevent the damage to ears (Rugby) and eliminate use as a weapon (football).

soft helmets and minimal pads will pretty much fix the concussion problem; the rate will go way down.
the problem is facial protection. i don't know how many nfl players will put up with getting there pretty faces roughed up.