Chip Scoggins column: For U football, grit of winter is needed for glory of fall

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Ouch! This also means they need to stay away from the keg beer and dessert cart. That would probably hurt worse! Go Gophers!
 

So Chip, is this a new approach? Is this different than the approach taken under Brew or Mas?

Or is this also a dreary mid-winter filler story that that is pulled from the achives and updated with current names?
 

When Adam Weber admitted he had not been near the weight room till before his senior season, this was only paid lip service by Mason and Brewster. This is the real deal, it is competition 365. The idea of teams and chosing sides, heck that is as old as dirt. Coverage of the Gophers, pointing to the committment and not bashing the program is news.
 

husker70 said:
When Adam Weber admitted he had not been near the weight room till before his senior season, this was only paid lip service by Mason and Brewster. This is the real deal, it is competition 365. The idea of teams and chosing sides, heck that is as old as dirt. Coverage of the Gophers, pointing to the committment and not bashing the program is news.
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Did he really say he didn't workout in the weight room his first few years or was it that he wasn't working out nearly as hard as he could and didn't take it serious? I just find it hard to believe that the coaches wouldn't have been all over this. Either way, it's not a good thing.
 


Wouldn't it have been possible for him to dig a little deeper and find out who the leaders are for each group? Gray and Rallis were mentioned earlier, and this article says Ed Olson is another one. For a staff that didn't name captains for the entire season, it would be interesting to see who they view as the future leaders of the team.
 

John Galt said:
Wouldn't it have been possible for him to dig a little deeper and find out who the leaders are for each group? Gray and Rallis were mentioned earlier, and this article says Ed Olson is another one. For a staff that didn't name captains for the entire season, it would be interesting to see who they view as the future leaders of the team.
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Perhaps he did and the coaches declined to mention them all. Or more likely, he or his editors didn't feel the need to include that level of detail. It's not like the wider STrib audience is as obsessive about those details as those of us on this board.
 

husker70 said:
When Adam Weber admitted he had not been near the weight room till before his senior season, this was only paid lip service by Mason and Brewster. This is the real deal, it is competition 365. The idea of teams and chosing sides, heck that is as old as dirt. Coverage of the Gophers, pointing to the committment and not bashing the program is news.
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I recall an article about Weber working out with the runningbacks in the offseason after his freshman season to prepare for taking hits in the running game.
I know he was a weight room guy out of HS, so I doubt he was simply absent in the weight room, that's not true.
I do also recall he RE committed himself before his senior year.
He was a hard worker who also went through quite a few injuries not publicly discussed.

I DO believe there is a stronger sense of team discipline at work under Kill, instead of relying on individual work ethics, he has developed a team based approach to getting kids to motivate each other.

There's no doubt things are more intense now, and good for it!, but Weber wasn't a dog in the offseason like you say.
 

I think the focus of the S&C program is different than under Brew. The Brew program was all about getting bigger. Now we run an Olympic lifting program with some nuances added to avoid losing flexibility. The other main difference is around accountability. You have to show up now. The competition is just way to have the players police themselves. A slacker can endure the coaches disapproval, but not his peers.
 



Ahhh yes.. Hopefully we get videos again this year.. otherwise this offseason will feel like it's hella longer than the privious years'..
 

It was on the coverage from the Big 10 Network. He was asked by either Howard Griffith or Coach DiNardo. Their expressions when he said it told the story. He was I think he was a three time Captain and ducked the work outs. Then was then. This is now.
 

husker70 said:
It was on the coverage from the Big 10 Network. He was asked by either Howard Griffith or Coach DiNardo. Their expressions when he said it told the story. He was I think he was a three time Captain and ducked the work outs. Then was then. This is now.
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I'm really not interested in hijacking the thread for yet another Weber debate, so i'll take your word for it. I have no doubt things are looking up in the weight room now for the team.
I know from speaking to his HS coaches and neighbors he worked very hard while at the U.

It's possible he wasn't as dedicated as a lifter his first few years, but his durability and relative health under alot of pressure and hits along with alot of rushing attempts early in his career would seem to indicate he kept his body somewhat prepared for the punishment.

He was an accomplished lifter coming out of HS in most of the olympic lifts and posted good numbers for a HS kid(300+ power clean)

Klein intrigues me as a strength coach because he certainly has his own style, dissimilar to the previous strength staff, and his background includes stops as a strength coach of entire schools across all sports and as a throws coach himself. That kind of diversity in dealing with athletes lends itself to out of the box thinking, which is good.
The "bend" mantra of increasing functional flexibility while also working on olympic lifts and other functional strength exercises like kettlebells, sledgehammers, tire flips, etc will make our athletes not only stronger, but also help with their balance and change of direction speed.
NIU rolled us physically when they came in here 2 years ago with very lean(but big) athletes. Clearly Klein has proven himself at other levels of competition to be a great strength coach. his comment on dealing with "Big ten athletes", basically larger linemen, makes me think he has had to adjust a bit to accommodate or at least transition in the big monsters left over from the last staff. I'm betting the recruits they bring in on the lines going forward are better suited for Kleins' program and will be fully immersed in it from day 1 unlike the guys he took over last offseason.
 

There is no doubt Klein is making a difference. I am excited to see the results on the field, particularly when it comes to the "monsters" we are creating all along our o-line. I think you will find that, within a couple years, our o-line won't have to take a backseat to any team in the conference. Along with all the increased size of lesser-heralded players like Christiansen and Foster Bush, has anyone seen how big Jimmy Gjere is lately? I mean, the kid is now weighing in at 340 pounds and, by the looks of him, he could still get even bigger. Trust me, this team will be in pretty good shape if we can translate all this increased size and strength to performance on the football field.
 



WillieBurton said:
There is no doubt Klein is making a difference. I am excited to see the results on the field, particularly when it comes to the "monsters" we are creating all along our o-line. I think you will find that, within a couple years, our o-line won't have to take a backseat to any team in the conference. Along with all the increased size of lesser-heralded players like Christiansen and Foster Bush, has anyone seen how big Jimmy Gjere is lately? I mean, the kid is now weighing in at 340 pounds and, by the looks of him, he could still get even bigger. Trust me, this team will be in pretty good shape if we can translate all this increased size and strength to performance on the football field.
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I spoke with Chip last night at the hoops game about his time with the team and he specifically mentioned Gjere, 'Shede and Campion as guys who really added size and look every bit the part of a big time BT athlete.

Go Gophers!!
 

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