A few things I do know and a few that I’ve heard only rumors about. The s and c side of things was focused upon more this off season than ever before- 7 and 5 seasons have a way of doing that for you. Rather than give the players nutritional advice of eating as much pizza and pop tarts as possible to bulk up(not kidding on this one), the team is finally being told to keep their bodyweights in check and being given pretty solid nutrional advice after years of bad advice from Gittleson-this despite employing a team nutritionist for years.
Though the players are(I’ve been told) to monitor their bodyweights, there have been no monitoring of body composition-okay but could be better.
Many players have lost weight-usually a good thing. No doubt bodyfat but also at the expense of some muscle mass primarily due to their archaic method of weight loss and “speed development” of running (an average distance) of 3.5 mile runs on the nearby golf course-that’s right everybody, 300 lb. linemen included. This method was employed despite the fact that most conditioning programs even in the 20th century did not involve such madness for D1 programs.
It has been rumored that the team actully utiilized some true speed development/plyo training this off season but that has not been confirmed. If so, it could help to explain why the distance runs were not as big a negative factor in slowing the whole team down. There has also been a change of philosophy defensively by new D coordinator Ron English of being more aggressive and making the game plan simpler for the players. Former coordinator Jim Herrmann(now l.b. coach for the Jets) was a super schemer-gave players too many reads, assigments preventing them from reacting defensively and instead made them slow to move and adjust to offensive schemes.
It was asked yesterday on a UM fan website, if the " s and c haters" were now satisified and had more faith in the program?( given the stated changes that have been made and of course, primarily, because the team has started the season 4-0 crushing ND on the way to a #6 ranking). Many people said no. We are certainly pleased that changes have been made but it shows that extreme changes were needed long ago. Why is this “cutting edge” info of keeping your weight down just now reaching UM s and c? Why is there not a system in place to frequently monitor(by the team) bodyweights and body composition? They have had issues before where they have had to ask 4th and 5th year seniors to cut significant bodyweight before their senior years, why not keep them from every getting to that point? Don’t let it happen and then you don’t have to go back and make corrections to something that could have been prevented?
It was also pointed out how poorly UM players perform at the combines in terms of verticals, slj, and 40y dash times, particularly when compared to fellow big ten rival Iowa-a team that is unable to recruit, on average, the type of quality athletes that UM can yet they are full developing their guys athletic potentials(largely attributed to Chris Doyle-Iowa’s outstanding strength coach).
I pointed out that given the level of recruits that come to UM, and though generally pleased with the direction the program has taken this year, there is a big difference between getting MORE out of your players than in the past(this year) and actually optimizing the performance of your players(where we should be every year).
With regards to HIT protocols I’ve heard that MIGHT have been some changes to MORE of a free weight protocol but I have doubts about this due to the stubborness and the research avoiding HIT proponent-Gittleson. I just don’t know. In the past UM guys would bench but not squat(leg press) and “dangerous lifts”(I am quoting here) like cleans are strictly forbidden. I am unsure of the changes, if any, to the HIT protocol. Hope this helps to some degree.
