Buffs Up And Running/Lifting Under New Strength Coach
January 22, 2016 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — New football strength and conditioning director Drew Wilson had one simple message for the Colorado Buffaloes when he first met with the team two weeks ago:
“I told them on Day One: 'I will respect you as a man and I believe you will listen to me and respect me as man,'” Wilson said. “I'm not here to baby-sit you. That is not my job. My job is to develop you. You are not going to leave here and one day look back and say our staff did not do our job in pushing you to the limit.'”
A plain-spoken message that Wilson believes was well-received, as the reaction after the first two weeks of lifting and conditioning has been “great.”
“It's been going very well,” Wilson said. “The guys are enthusiastic. There's a lot of energy, a lot of hard work going on down here. They're very receptive to everything I'm throwing at them and they're picking it up really well. I'm not putting in too much right away, but they're excited about everything. Overall, the past two weeks have been great”
The 37-year-old Wilson was named to the position in early January. He came to Boulder from Maryland, where he served in a similar capacity for the past five years. A graduate of King's College, he's also worked at Connecticut, Kansas and Florida State.
What Wilson has learned along all those stops is that while the path, strategy and technique may be different, every football coach always — always — wants the same thing.
“A football coach wants his guys bigger, faster and stronger,” Wilson said. “That's always the goal. What Coach (Mike) MacIntyre wants done and what my philosophy is on how to get there match up well.
“No doubt our program will progress over time, the longer I'm here. There are always different goals for different players, different positions. But I've never heard a football coach tell me a guy was too strong or too fast.”
But Wilson's role involves more than just developing weight training and conditioning programs for players. When MacIntyre announced Wilson's hiring, he stressed Wilson's ability to develop a strong relationship with players, something that is imperative with offseason work.
“He's a really knowledgeable guy in the strength world, and also very very personable with the players,” MacIntyre said. “He'll be able to rally those guys in that room. He'll be able to get them bigger and stronger and faster, of course, but be able to help them build even more buy-in and team camaraderie because he's around them all the time. It's extremely important that they believe in him and he believes in them.”
Indeed, what many people don't realize is that in terms of time spent with one coach, football players spend more time with the strength and conditioning coordinator than any other coach. It's why, Wilson said, developing trust and respect early are such key components of long-term success.
“We have to earn their respect and they have to know that we respect them as men,” Wilson said. “Truth is, we're a little bit of everything — cheerleader, disciplinarian, motivator. Sometimes we're a father figure. Sometimes we're an older brother. Sometimes we're the uncle they don't like.
“But through all those things, you have to be consistent. It's what I tell my staff: if you are consistent with how you teach it, they will eventually fall in line and respect everything you ask them to do. If you don't separate a kid that was highly recruited from a walk-on and you coach them the same, they see that coach respects everybody.”
Wilson's program is based on Olympic lifts. “We're squatting, we're pressing and we're pulling,” he said. “That's probably the biggest gist of the program right now.”
They'll continue to add more lifts as the offseason progresses, but Wilson is also making sure the players are also improving mobility to prevent injury. “Part of it is to get them stronger, but part of it is to get their body stronger to handle the lifts as we progress,” Wilson said. “We want to make sure we're eliminating instability if it exists.”
The current schedule has the offense and defense reporting at 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. It's early — particularly for college students — and Wilson knows it's his job to keep them motivated from the moment they arrive. A typical session has him bouncing from station to station, coaxing and cajoling, pushing and prodding, correcting technique — anything and everything with the goal of improving each day.
“You learn about every player, who they are, where they're from, what makes them tick,” Wilson said. “And they tell you every day who they are through their actions. If they're hard workers, it shows.
“What I tell them is this: 'When it comes time to talk to the NFL scouts about you, you've told me for three to five years who you are. I don't have to think too hard — you've told me who you are and I tell them what you've told me. It's that simple.'”
One thing that has put a smile on Wilson's face since the day he accepted the job is the Champions Center, CU's new state-of-the-art facility that includes a spacious weight room connected directly to the indoor practice facility.
“First class,” Wilson said. “They cut no corners when they built this place. It's top of the line. The kids are excited about coming in here every day. It's new, it's fresh and they love being here. When the recruits came in here last week, they were wowed by this place. It's a show-stopper.”
With spring ball now scheduled to begin March 4 and finish April 11 (with the spring game on April 9 at noon), Wilson now knows how much time he has to work with players until they begin spring practice.
“We meet every day as a staff and discuss what we need to do and what adjustments we might need to make," Wilson said. "But whether we were going to get five weeks or we go eight straight, the goal is still the same — bigger, faster, stronger.”
SPRING SCHEDULE SET: The Buffs have bumped spring ball back this year, with the first workout scheduled for Friday, March 4. The workouts will straddle CU's spring break (March 20-27), with the final practice set for Monday, April 11. The Spring Game will be held Saturday, April 9, beginning at noon.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu