Nice Mata'afa article....

[Loyal Coug]

Couple of thoughts.

First, he's put on 20 pounds in the last year? Wow. Is that just another year of growing, or did WSU not train him properly, or, my opinion, there was no reason to overly beef him up in college. In the NFL, different story.

Second, his quote is pretty good:

“I haven’t made the 53-man roster yet and I haven’t contributed to this team yet,” he said. “I’ll just keep going out there, doing my job the best I can and hopefully I’ll be able to live up to those high comments. But the time hasn’t come yet.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jun/17/beefed-up-and-healthy-former-wsu-cougar-hercules-m/

 

[etowncoug]

Couple of thoughts.

First, he's put on 20 pounds in the last year? Wow. Is that just another year of growing, or did WSU not train him properly, or, my opinion, there was no reason to overly beef him up in college. In the NFL, different story.

Second, his quote is pretty good:

“I haven’t made the 53-man roster yet and I haven’t contributed to this team yet,” he said. “I’ll just keep going out there, doing my job the best I can and hopefully I’ll be able to live up to those high comments. But the time hasn’t come yet.”

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jun/17/beefed-up-and-healthy-former-wsu-cougar-hercules-m/

Amazing what training 24/7 without the academic responsibilities can do for your time to get in the weight room. My guess is Herc would have added 10-15 lbs of he would have stayed in college, but being able to work out as his full time job... Yeah, he's going to get bigger while being able to devote himself to maintaining his quickness.

 

[CrimsonDisciple]

Amazing what training 24/7 without the academic responsibilities can do for your time to get in the weight room. My guess is Herc would have added 10-15 lbs of he would have stayed in college, but being able to work out as his full time job... Yeah, he's going to get bigger while being able to devote himself to maintaining his quickness.

Precisely..... he’s working a job. He’s also needing to get his body ready to go up against men, not kids. He’s got a great head on his shoulders.

 

[Loyal Coug]

So......Loyal said that because of his ability to focus on weight training, Mata'afa gained 20 lbs in the past year instead of the 10-15 lbs that he might have gained at WSU....and you think that's worth picking a fight over? Alrighty then!

Actually, my supposition was that Hercules probably wasn't trying to put on extra weight as he didn't need (or maybe want) it at his position. Might have slowed him down? As opposed to OL, where the bigger the better. Now that he is in the NFL where everyone is bigger, that extra 20 pounds might be just what he needs. And maybe it is the ability to focus on working out more as a pro that facilitated the gain.

Can Hercules still dunk with all that added weight?

Now we are getting to the important questions!

 

[CougEd]

Can Hercules still dunk with all that added weight?

That and can he explode into the backfield like he did for WSU. He may be the 2019 version of Keith Millard for the Vikings....save the steroids.