I'm not a doctor, but I know a little about the subject. Anyone with more knowledge can feel free to correct me.
Connective tissue doesn't "toughen up to resist" injuries, due to harder practices. It can break down through overuse/under recovery, but the reports from camp were that the practices were less physical, so you can't go there.
Let's see... are our players stronger than ever? I'm not sure, but even if not, decreases in strength during training would absolutely be corrected, by anyone with even half of a brain. As much as Butch analyzes, you think he doesn't have their gym numbers in front of him, critiquing missed reps and drops in strength? Strength does not seem to be an issue, and connective tissue develops with an increase in muscle size.
Conditioning. Our guys don't get winded. They are in phenomenal cardiovascular conditioning.
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The fact is, the coaches took a less physical approach in fall camp, and no matter what you say, that really does not have any impact on the injuries, except in a positive way. As long as strength was not compromised in the gym, and thus, muscle loss, hitting each other only causes wear and tear, which is why you saw so many preseason injuries last year.
When huge, genetically elite players smash into each other for hours a week, 15+ weeks of the year, things tear, break, and break down. These are the facts, and we are simply seeing a statistically higher amount of injuries to key players than in recent memory. If you were to run statistical analysis over the past 4 years, you would likely see very similar numbers over all programs.
Last season, we were pretty dang healthy, this year, it's bad. Statistically, that probably washes out to average.
