As spring football starts to wrap up at Syracuse, there’s been one noticeable area of improvement in the offseason: strength and conditioning.
Players are looking bigger and faster, showing that their hard work in the offseason has paid off.
Coming from the University of Georgia, Jackson Meeks knew what hard work is. But he was surprised to find out the work is even tougher at Syracuse.
“When I came up here, I had the thoughts that, 'OK, it's not going to be Georgia, it's not going to be that hard,' " Meeks said. "But I got smacked in the face. First workout, I was breathing hard. I was sweating, I'm like hanging like, 'OK, I see how we come.' We really trying to hold a standard and get better.”
Led by Chad Smith, the strength and conditioning staff is getting creative, mixing high-intensity workouts with Olympic and power lifting. With safety in mind and testing the workouts beforehand, they’re pushing the players to their limits.
“Can you take any physical, mental or emotional pain and use it as a powerful tool to overcome your breaking point?" Smith said of the approach to offseason workouts. "So we had to take them to that point. And a lot of guys are scared to do that. A lot of coaches are afraid to train their players, but we can't do that because you can't find out who somebody is until you put them in a hard situation.”
It’s been met with open arms. Players have transformed their bodies with the goal of dominating other teams this fall.
“We all just walk different now," defensive back Alijah Clark said. "Everybody looks a little taller, a little broader, walking with their chest out. It's pretty much builds a lot of confidence."
“I believe big people beat up little people," head coach Fran Brown said. "So we just try to get bigger. We want to have big guys. You want to be able to compete, especially up front in the trenches, you know, and if you can get bigger guys and the skill wise, they're bigger than the other guys. There's a reason LeBron James is one of the best athletes in the world: He's that big and he can move like he was a little guy. So, you know, just trying to get bigger guys that can do athletic things.”
The time in the weight room has bonded players of all backgrounds.
“Pain doesn't care the color of your skin, doesn't care where you're from, what city you're from, but it can bring the oddest groups of people together," Smith said. "And so when guys start sharing their pain, their why. We believe in the dark times, like they're making you great if you use it the right way.”
“What I believe Coach Brown is doing is a psychological advantage," Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Stack Williams said. "We do a lot of things that of majority coaching isn't going to do, so we do it like that on purpose to try to get that advantage for ourselves, our young men, to be tougher. We talked about transferability, all of this is transferable to become fathers and husbands and pillars of their community. That's what it's all about.”