Texans continue coaching staff purge

January 7, 6:43 AMHouston Texans ExaminerAlan Burge

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Dan Riley (Houston Texans)

All of a sudden there are five - count 'em - five openings on the Texans coaching staff.

While the Texans decision to not renew the contracts of strength and conditioning coach Dan Riley and head trainer Kevin Bastin won't generate the buzz like the firings last week, this move at least begs the simple question "I wonder why?"

The move seems to indicate a change in philosophy in the Texans approach to strength and conditioning because from most accounts, Riley and Bastin were well liked and well respected by those who came in contact with them.

I'm not qualified to offer an educated opinion on the various philosophies in terms of what's best for NFL players in the weight room but I have read the opinions of other self proclaimed experts and can safely conclude that there is no consensus.

The irony of this move is that everyone was questioning Riley's approach to strength training two and three years ago when the Texans led the league in players on the injured reserve list. 

And now coming off probably the healthiest year the Texans have ever had as a team, Riley gets whacked. 

But it doesn't take a PhD to know there's not always a direct correlation in strength training and game injuries, as guys like Charles Spencer, Fred Weary, Kailee Wong and Dunta Robinson would most likely attest.

My only direct observation of anything philosophy related about Riley was during training camp back in July '08 when I noticed, along with many others, that the Texans changed their pre-practice routine from stretching routines to warm-up routines.

It was odd because for six years prior, we had always seen the Texans on the ground stretching before every practice.

It seemed so odd to me that it prompted me to ask Riley this question (through Nick Scurfield of the Texans):

"...what's behind the change in the stretching routine? We're used to seeing them on the ground and now they're line dancing. Is there a particular reason for this?"

Here's what Riley had to say in response:

"There are more than 360 studies done to determine if stretching prevents injuries. Stretching before practice or games will not prevent injury. Our players need to be warmed up before a game or practice. The literature states that for an exercise to be considered a warm-up, the core tissue temperature must be increased two degrees or break a sweat at room temperature. Stretching does neither. The next best warm-up is active stretching where the athlete moves and takes his muscles through an active range of motion. Those are the types of activities our players perform in the three lines before practice. The best warm-up is performing the position specific skill patterns our players perform on the field gradually performing them at faster speeds until they are eventually practicing at game speed. We only have a seven-minute period to warm them up. The activities we use are best for the allotted time. The time to stretch is after exercise, not before." 

Riley also provided a link to this report on the stretching debate.

Again, I'm not a kinesiology major or anything but what I found odd about Riley's response was his comment about "the time to stretch is after exercise, not before," when in fact he had been doing just that (stretching before) for six years prior to making that change. 

I wondered why a seasoned professional like Riley would make such an abrupt change in philosophy over what seems like such a fundamental (simple) concept of physical training after doing it a different way for so many years.  I left it as maybe there was an emerging trend throughout that industry that was behind it.

Or maybe all that means nothing because another thing to remember is there's a bunch of coaches twisting in the wind about 880 miles northwest of here, so keep the names Rich Tuten and Greg Saporta in the back of your mind just in case we're in for another wave coming down from the Front Range.

And what this all means for Ray Wright is unknown to me.  Maybe he assumes a larger role, or maybe not.  We'll just have to wait and see on this one.

Cast your vote:

• Steve Slaton is one of five finalists for 2008 NFL Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Year.  The Pepsi ROY is a fan vote and even though Matt Ryan is likely to run away with it, I think Steve deserves as much recognition he can get for a fine season.  You can cast your vote here.

If you haven't been able to read the defensive coordinator series, here are the links:

•  "Texans defensive coordinator search: Part I,"                
•  "...Part II."                                                                         
• "...Part III."                                                                               
• "...Part IV,"                
• "...Part V."                                                
• "Could Larry Coyer be a piece in the Texans defensive coordinator puzzle?"