I like constraint based physics, and phase-space/Lagrangian/Hamiltonian methods are very useful both for solving difficult mechanical problems, as well as, seeing connections with QM, optics, etc. However, for most freshmen, the math is simply beyond them in their first year. Unless you can delay until multivariate, partial differentitals, and at least ODE... it won't stick. On casual examination SICM looks more like a substitute for Goldstien's Classical Mechanics, but perhaps it is better. Nominally, I'd recommend that in the late 2nd or 3rd undergraduate year.

One thing that I'm quite happy with in my physics education is that the faculty went to quite some effort to make sure that the math and physics tracked each other so that you would see the theory and practice twice and intertwined.

One thing that was missing (as other's have mentioned) was numerical methods and programming techniques, which I think could also be covered in a parallel track.