Process Begins Anew As Buffs Resume Strength, Conditioning Regimen
January 20, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre had one overriding theme when he welcomed the 2017 Buffaloes back to campus for the spring semester earlier this week.
Last year is done. Finished. In the books. Those 10 wins, the Pac-12 South title and the Alamo Bowl bid will not put a single point on the board next fall.
Now it starts all over — and it begins in the weight room and on the conditioning field, the place where the 2016 Buffs may have made the biggest strides of all a year ago.
CU strength and conditioning coordinator Drew Wilson will be there to make sure the Buffs have every opportunity to do the same in 2017.
"It's like Coach Mac said in the team meeting — teams that were successful the year prior who are successful the following year do so because they understand they have to start all over," Wilson said. "You don't pick up from where you left off. You have to start the process over and climb the mountain for 2017. Just because we were good this past season doesn't mean it's automatically going to happen again. There are no guarantees."
The Buffs hit the weight room on Tuesday to begin five weeks of strength and conditioning workouts. They will then begin spring football practices on Feb. 22, with the annual CU Spring Game set for March 18. Then comes more conditioning work, a summer program and — finally — fall camp.
The players who have been through it before know the importance of the offseason work. Those who are going through it the first time will learn.
"The offseason is the most important time of the year," said Buffs quarterback Steven Montez, who went through his first offseason program a year ago. "The season is where you get your wins, but the season is where you display what you did in the offseason. If you didn't put in the work in the offseason, you're going to have a bad fall season. I learned last year how important that offseason can be."
It is up to Wilson, now in his second year at Colorado, to make sure the Buffs not only understand the importance of the offseason, but also ensure they are taking full advantage of the opportunity.
"Now they understand what's going to come, they understand what's expected," Wilson said. "We established some of those fundamentals last year. They understand how they're supposed to front squat, how they're supposed to press, how they're supposed to do a reverse lunge. You're still coaching them up as you go, but they understand the nuts and bolts. That allows you to focus a little more attention on some specifics."
But one real key of the offseason is continuing to develop the team culture. While that foundation was laid a year ago, the seniors who helped instill that work ethic are gone.
In that sense, it's just as MacIntyre said — the Buffs are starting over again.
"The base of your culture is established in the sense of hard work, what to expect when they come in the weight room, what to expect when we go out and run — but how we approach it is going to be different," Wilson said. "The personality of your team changes every year, depending on your leadership. We lost a lot of seniors, a lot of guys that we depended upon, so that all changes. Now we have to see who's going to step up, who's going to be the face of the program. Those leaders surface in the weight room. It doesn't happen in the fall."
Wilson is a strong believer in motivation and attitude. Division I football players are elite athletes, and the difference between winning and losing on Saturdays in the fall begins with those early morning workouts in the spring.
"I will always say it's more mental than physical," Wilson said. "These kids are physically gifted from a strength standpoint, from an athleticism standpoint. But the maturity and mental aspect of how you approach everything every day — they're not there yet. They're growing as they go. You have to nurture that part. You have to convince them that it starts with your attitude when you wake up. You can either say, 'Oh, man, I have to go work out,' or you can say, 'I have the chance to go get better today as a Colorado football player.'"
Wednesday morning, freshman wide receiver Johnny Huntley III had just finished his second offseason workout and he grinned when asked about his indoctrination into the process.
"I really never worked out too much in high school, so it's definitely hard," Huntley said. "But you can see everybody getting better, getting bigger and stronger. Coach Wilson knows what he's doing, no doubt, and I can already tell that this is going to be a big help when we start practicing again."
The Buffs' work in the weight room is an efficient process. Wilson and his staff will occasionally tweak the workouts in order to keep them fresh, but, "You always want to make sure you have that foundation in place that you trust."
In his first year, Wilson helped the Buffs take some significant strides, both in strength and speed. Coaches and players regularly referenced the offseason workouts during the season last year as being an integral part of Colorado's turnaround.
But equally important is the culture of accountability that Wilson and his staff try to build, one that will carry over to fall camp and beyond. When players lead, Wilson said, success usually follows.
"You have to coach them every day, get them to understand what we want done," Wilson said. "But they understand that I want a player-driven team, that I want them to take the reins of this thing and I just coach. You coach each other up. We stress accountability. From that standpoint, they've really bought in — and when that happens, you have a chance to be successful."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
