I will add one additional comment to my above thoughts. As someone that was born and raised in Nebraska, I am well aware that Nebraska twice rose to the top of college football, both times for a period of 2-3 years. In neither case was in a coincidence. Besides athletes and coaching, they had other factors that contributed. In the early 70's Nebraska rose to the top because they were the only team in the country with a year round weight program. Now that is standard practice everywhere, but back then it was radical because everyone "knew" that weight training made you muscle bound, bulky, and slow.
Nebraska repeated their rise to the top in the mid 1990's. What many may not realize is that in part that rise was because they were the only team with a professional dietician on staff, and that had the team eating complex carbs year round. I had the privilege during that time to eat at the training table once, and the food was great, and healthy. Yes, you could still get a burger there, but it was only the coaches eating them; the players were loading up on salad with low fat dressing, pasta, and chicken.
While weight training has become a given everywhere, professional dieticians have become more common, but not all teams have them. Therefore a team that eats right still can have an advantage over many of their competitors. I'm not sure how Ohio can utilize this, without a training table, but perhaps there are things that can be done.
By the way, there are some here who have blamed the conditioning staff for significant incidence of cramps in games, but I personally have long suspected that the real problem was dietary.
Last Edited: 6/21/2011 12:43:58 PM by L.C.