The problem with being a long-term cynic of sports in general, it’s that you never know when a story is true or just revisionism. Now let’s talk strength and conditioning. When Coach Wannstedt took over, the stories we heard was about how the team would get faster. Not just from recruits, but strength and conditioning would emphasize speed and slimming down. Stories were written about slimming down. How conditioning had picked up. Remember the bonding over the winter workouts?
Now, I like Buddy Morris. He’s colorful, but more importantly he gets results and has strong loyalty to the school and players love him. Having said all of that, my cynical side reared it’s ugly head at this story.
The former Pitt sprinter is a self-described “fanatic on the technical application of movement.” He speaks as passionately about the metaphysics of strength and speed training. Video coordinator Chad Bogard taped early sprint and weight-lifting workouts so Morris could correct players’ flaws.
Morris also is enlisting the help of Pitt’s resources within the UPMC Sports Medicine Center, from director of human performance Bob Robertson to sports nutritionist Leslie Bonci, to teach the Panthers about lifestyle habits.
“This is the single-most important thing they do, train their bodies,” Morris said. “They play with their body. They need to take care of them.”
Morris seeks perfection, which starts with uniformity. The players must wear matching gold tops, blue shorts and black shoes to workouts. The exceptions are those who don’t meet Morris’ standards and are subjected to wearing pink shirts that read, “I work out at Curves,” a women’s fitness center.
The Panthers were given freedom under Kent, but they now adhere to Morris’ strict regimen. Morris has separated the players in groups of two dozen or less, with workouts scheduled according to their classes, so he can give them personal attention and prevent malingering.
“It’s definitely a shock to me,” redshirt junior linebacker Scott McKillop said. “You have two different personalities. Coach Kent was more of a laid-back person; Buddy is more in your face. He’s basically breaking us down and starting us from scratch.”
I guess, we’ll have to wait and see the results on the field.
UPDATE: The article is wonderfully optimistic, and says all the right things, I know. I’m just feeling cynical about that sort of puffery. Coming into this past season there was all talk about how players were in better condition — LaRod Stephens-Howling or slimmed down (Shane Brooks).
When Kent was hired, it was with much acclaim that Pitt got the guy who helped build and condition L-Ville — and in fact he was a S&C coach who emphasized low body fat.
This might be amusing, following the beginning of the Wannstedt era, this from a Zeise Q&A.
Yes, Mike Kent and his assistant Darren Honeycutt were retained, which may have been the best news of all to come out of the coaching change. I thought these two did a tremendous job last year with the team and now that they’ve had a year to put their offseason workout and their weight training and conditioning program in place, the team’s level of strength and overall fitness should take off. There is no doubt that Kent is one of the best in the business at what he does and Honeycutt should be ready to take over his own program some day.
Things change. I think this change of S&C coach is more important for being a guy Wannstedt wanted more and may be more supportive of and get behind. I don’t think Mike Kent and his regimen was the reason for Pitt’s performance the past couple years.
“You have to find a way to instill toughness in the team off the football field,” Wannstedt said. “The No. 1 way is in the weight room, with the off season program. I like Buddy’s no-nonsense, tough-guy attitude. I know we’ll be a tougher team, a stronger team. I also know we’ll lose some guys, but the ones we lose will be the ones who surrender in the fourth quarter, when things are tough.”
Especially heartening to me is his saying “I know we’ll lose some guys…” This goes to the root of what some of us thought was a real contributing factor in last years disappointing team, the way you could see guys check out of the game mentally when we got behind. I’d like to see us be just as strong, mentally and physically, in the fourth quarter – regardless of whose is ahead – as we are at the beginning of the game. I applaud that’s he’s willing to separate guys off the team for not buying in.
Also, wholly agree with DW1945 above regarding the 30% body fat. This approach to get slimmer and stronger is in line with what Zeise reported in his Q&A two Fridays ago. Here’s what he wrote about DW’s recruiting O lineman over the past two recruiting seasons…
“…they have talent, athleticism and size. He’s taking a shot at guys who are 6-5, 6-6 and 6-7 with good feet (as opposed to 6-2 and fat) — which means the pressure is now on line coach Paul Dunn and strength coach Buddy Morris to coach them up and turn them into players….”
If this approach works out – and if we can do the one thing that I believe we really lacked last year, have some depth in the lines to be able to give the starters a breather and keep them fresh in the 4th quarter, we might see a marked difference in results. Imagine Hynoski or another back being able to pound it out in the 4th quarter behind a relatively fresh O line – ball control and first downs to seal the wins! (totally assuming LaRod Stevens does not play every down again – then we are just screwed).
The key, to me, is that DW has recruited different types of lineman – ones that can grow and support new muscle on their frames without sacrificing speed and quickness. The only guy I think should be a load (i.e. 30% body fat/immovable object) is the nose tackle if we deploy that type of defense – that guy can clog up the middle and let our DEs and LBs do their thing (assuming we can field DEs and LBs that are talented enough to have a ‘thing’ to actually do). Caragein might be that type of nose tackle with his wrestling skills down the road. Our O line must be able to get into the second level on a regular basis to spring the RBs. If McCoy suits up and does what we hope, maybe some of those LaRod’s 3-5 yarders can be LaSean’s 10-20 yarders. But, to be honest I’m still banking on Hynoski to come in and contribute right away – I’d love to see him do well and beat the crap out of the defenses.
So, ultimately you are correct in that this could all be puffery, and we have been subjected to a lot of that over the past two years, but it does give us topics of conversation.
I’m more anxious to see what the other coaching change will bring – hiring Ball to be DBs coach and getting Rhoads to concentrate on the line and LB play. Well, it certainly can’t hurt.
Still optimistic however, and getting excited about Signing Day and Spring Drills.
Not to be bitter.
Frankly this could also have to do with the old grizzled vets from the first Morris era getting into Wannstedt’s ear.
People will always argue with that issue – how good of a team DW inherited, but I think more and more we are coming to understand that fundamentally there were some real gaps in talent and attitude on the team Harris left. It SEEMS that DW is addressing this. We won’t know for sure until this and next season are in the books, but I have to say that I’m satisfied with the things he’s done off the field so far (i.e. just let Xavier Stinson go for academic non-compliance instead of waffling or bending the rules). And, he does seem to be recruiting better students and better athletes.
We also are scratching our heads at his keeping his D coordinator while making what appears to be minor corrections to the coaching staff, but sometimes all it takes to change the tenor of a team (or unit, or ship) is a few tweaks. These players will see the new strength and conditioning coaches probably more than their position coaches during their off season, spring and summer workouts. If a ‘laid back’ attitude pervades in the weight room when new recruits first arrive and get to work, then that’s what they will carry with them out onto the practice and playing fields. I think that’s what happened in the past, and I’m glad DW is at least cognizant of it and working towards a solution.
Enough of the BS that they need more time. It is their 3rd year and they better have a winning record.
IMO, it wasn’t just “quitting.”
I don’t remember anyone saying Harris’ teams quit – and to use the phrase “Wannstedt apologists” implies that he has something to apologize for. You know, its not like PITT has been a football powerhouse and in the running for a national championship every year before DW got here. His yearly record is one or two wins short of the best of the Harris years – and nowhere near the worst of the Harris losing seasons. Its not like we went into the crapper once Wannstedt got here. So, give him his time – he’s one game under .500 for goodness sake. You act like it USC coming off their wonderful undefeated years and going 1-11. It wasn’t DW that forced Harris out – Harris was obviously quite capable of screwing himself out of that job (and others it appears). I don’y buy for a second that Harris was let go because the administration thought he wasn’t capable of “getting to the next level” – that was total lipservice in my opinion. Harris was fired because he pissed off everyone he came in contact with, and it finally got to be too much.
And here’s a thought that will piss some other people off – who was stomping around and showing frustration more than anyone else on the team when things went south – Palko. You can say it was due to his emotional drive and desire, but I can also tell you a real solid leader keeps a cool head around those he’s supposed to lead – especially in the bad times. It didn’t help anyone to see the senior QB screaming at his receivers and lineman, and pouting on the sideline.
Which receiver basically quit on the team when he lost his starting job? – senior Del Sardo.
Which TE embarrassed the team and the university by flipping the bird to opposing fans? – junior Strong.
All were upperclassman and guys that should have had the maturity and sense to recognize their position of seniority and influence on the younger guys.
And as far as saying Harris’ teams didn’t have the talent – well that bolsters the argument that there wasn’t a lot of talent left for DW to field. He has recruited well and very few freshman get into starting jobs right away. This year, and next, those guys will be starting and should they fail on the field and in the won/loss column then we should start really questioning DW’s ability to coach, and discuss letting him go, and not until then.
You can’t blame Harris for the team quitting on Wannstedt two years in a row. I certainly think the worst is over for the football program and believe that the upcoming season will be a pleasant surprise, but I will not give Wannstedt a free pass for the last two years. This team started 6-1 and ended 6-6. That is not good and I don’t care what anyone says about talent. UCONN, Rutgers, and South Florida didn’t have more. In fact, many would say WVU and Louisville don’t have more. Pitt’s recruiting classes were almost always ranked higher that all of those schools. Wannstedt is an excellent recruiter and I am excited to see all of this talent on the field, but he proved he can’t do more with less the way Harris did.
You are correct that blame shouldn’t be leveled solely at Harris for the team’s attitude – I’ll put that on the senior player’s shoulders personally – but I do think you can point a finger at the way Harris left the team bereft of players along the lines. We might have had better ‘talent’ in some positions that South Florida, UCONN and Rutgers, but not along the lines.
I don’t want to wait until 2010 for success, but if you mean a national championship contender, well then you may be right. 2007/08 should tell us whether DW’s plan for success has a chance of bearing that kind of fruit – but, to me, a national championship not a realistic yardstick. Within the next two years we should be able to approach any game on our schedule with a reasonabl optomistic chance to win. That would be a major change from the past two seasons where we went into the tough games at the end of the season pretty much knowing we were going to get our asses handed to us.
As far as Paklo goes, I have admired him over the years, my criticism of him above is directed at certain aspects of his play and not his overall body of work, and I hope that he does well in his endeavor to play at the next level, but I also feel that less reliance on one position on offense will help us in the long run. And, I think DW has recruited well enough to put other players on the field that will lessen his loss.
