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Football Strength and Conditioning (via GamecocksOnline)
Over the past decade, the Penn State fan base's favorite Internet punching bag after Jay Paterno has been the strength and conditioning program, led by long time Strength & Conditioning Coach John Thomas. The basis for the complaints was Thomas' HIT (High Intensity Training) program, which from what I've gathered (and I am no expert on strength training, mind you), placed an emphasis on lower weights and more reps. Many of the message boarders have considered this to be an outdated program, as more and more Division 1 programs have adopted the Olympic-style weight training methods and especially given how many seemed to think PSU's players had lost that ability to overpower opponents like they routinely did back in the 1990's and earlier.
When Bill O'Brien was initially hired, it was announced that Thomas would be staying on board. Naturally, this was cause for major disappointment in Message Board Land. However, in somewhat surprising fashion, it was announced that Thomas would not be returning and shortly thereafter, South Carolina's Craig Fitzgerald was named as Thomas' replacement. Naturally, this led to the rare unanimous rejoicing in Message Board Land.
Playing Experience: Fitzgerald was a three-year letterwinner on the University of Maryland's football team from 1994-96.
Coaching Experience: Fitzgerald started out as the first ever Director of Strength & Conditioning at The Catholic University of America, a position he held from 1997-99, before heading to Arizona State, where he served as a graduate assistant strength coach for six months. He followed his position with the Sun Devils with a trip back to his alma mater at Maryland to serve as Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach.
During his stint at Maryland, Fitzgerald was responsible for overseeing strength training for men's basketball, men's lacrosse, wrestling, and women's volleyball. His time at Maryland also happens to coincide with Maryland's basketball's back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2001 and 2002, winning the national title in 2002. Fitzgerald moved on to Harvard in 2005, where he was the Director of Strength and Conditioning, overseeing all 41 varsity teams at that school. In 2009, he was hired as South Carolina's Director of Football Strength & Conditioning, a position he served up until PSU snagged him the other week.
Doppelganger: Rob Riggle. Here's to hoping Fitzgerald drops a few random POWs during his interview with Tony Manusco for GoPSUSports.com.
What To Expect: If the YouTube video above is any indication, lots of tire work, sledgehammering, and other assorted crazy workouts that quality S&C coaches come up with. Fitzgerald seems to put a heavy emphasis on 'core' workouts which apparently helps keeps players upright and on their feet more. There's also this 12-minute long interview by the Strength Performance Network in which he goes far more into depth about what he brings to the table. It's well worth a view if you have the time. From all that I've read on the Internets, particularly from Gamecocks fans, PSU's S&C program is in really good hands. Hopefully, this means a return to the smash-mouth variety of football, with linemen who can dominate in the trenches and running backs who can stay on their feet after a couple of hits, much like the PSU teams many of us grew up watching.
0 recs | 62 comments
Why do I get the feeling that Gerald Hodges
is about to go beast mode on the rest of the Big10?
psuwxman - January 30, 2012
This might be BOB's best hire, really.
Chris Grovich - January 30, 2012
Stan Hixon rofl's
But really, him or Fitz, yeah
ICEICETHATGUY13 - January 30, 2012
What, we havn't gotten the obligatory F yet?
For the record, I gave the hire an A.
smh244 - January 30, 2012
just had to give it a few more minutes, it’s there now. looks like a good hire from the start on this one, hopefully he can keep up the same kind of programs as he’s run recently.
willisJ - January 30, 2012
I get the F vote
its supposed to be a joke, but why the D votes? If you’re going to be an ass and pick a bad score to mess with people, you take the F as that makes it look the worst, but D is just kinda weird. Like, are you still trying to be an ass but can’t quite commit like F guy can? Or maybe there are just some BSD fans out there with OCD and every grade needs at least 1 vote.
skarocksoi - January 30, 2012
I'm down with the OCD thing
That I could at least understand. I’m the type of person that gets agitated anytime one of my “accepted routines” is interrupted or forcibly changed.
smh244 - January 30, 2012
A D is the equivalent of
other polls’ “I have no opinion”. Yes, you are the dumbass that doesn’t have an opinion, yet you have the time to read the article and vote that you do not have an opinion.
rahpsu92 - January 30, 2012
I would have thought
that would have been a C.
Paige2PSU - January 30, 2012
Paige
Are you inflating grades over there? ;)
jls83 - January 30, 2012
Absolutely not.
Just in a 5 point likert-type scale, the middle number (3) is usually the no opinion or neither agree nor disagree option.
Paige2PSU - January 30, 2012
I think a C grade giver has actually
given some meaningful thought behind behind their choice. The D just wants to be part of the group.
rahpsu92 - January 30, 2012
His tenure at South Carolina
coincides with top-25 finishes and a division title built around a power running game. Now, Lattimore’s natural talent has a lot to do with it, but someone has to be strong enough to open the holes.
PSU Mudder - January 30, 2012
I couldn't vote
I just don’t know enough about him to be honest. I have never heard of him being mentioned with other strength coaches. Jury is still out in my eyes.
NJDeadhead - January 30, 2012
then just give him a C, that is what others do that don't know anything about the hire!
BMAN13 - January 30, 2012
I don't want sledgehammers and tires, I want STEROIDS
spakajewia - January 30, 2012
yeah I didnt want to be the guy to bring that up
but werent there a lot of whispers about Maryland and roids around that time?
skarocksoi - January 30, 2012
That's actually been a rumor about Iowa for some time.
Baseless? Yeah. But it exists.
Chris Grovich - January 30, 2012
A dozen guys going down with kidney failure at the same time
is completely normal. They just work out harder than everyone.
hbeach08 - January 30, 2012
I see what you did there
jman07 - January 30, 2012
It is not a tumor.
Pentimental - January 30, 2012
So you're saying
there’s no Angry-Iowa-Football-Player-Kidney-Hating-God at work here?
icavalera - January 30, 2012
It was Rhabdomyolysis
due to, you got it, working out at an extreme intensity to the point that your body starts breaking down muscle tissue and releases into the bloodstream and then ruins your kidneys.
If Iowa players are doing steroids, then these might have have been the players not doing steroids and working out as hard as everyone else, but their muscles could not handle it without the steroids. Not the other way around.
TJM5054 - January 30, 2012
i'm still voting for Angry-Iowa-Football-Player-Kidney-Hating-God
smh244 - January 30, 2012
Or the common reference of
AIFPKHG
jls83 - January 30, 2012
yeah, I know all about rhabdo
just never have seen it affect a dozen kids at once before
not saying they are all juicing, but something was going on there. Kirk Ferentz himself could sit in my office for the next hour and give me his best sales pitch, and he would not be able to convince me otherwise
hbeach08 - January 30, 2012
creatine and dehydration
BMAN13 - January 30, 2012
I'll buy that before I buy
“Iowa works out harder”
I’m guessing slightly shadier than creatine tho. Coulda just been somethin funky from south of the border.
hbeach08 - January 30, 2012
El Creatine
WorldBFat - January 30, 2012
Well what we do know
is that Iowa obviously works out extremely hard to induce rhabdomyolysis to 12 players. So even if they were juicing or taking creatine, they still worked out hard enough to induce this serious condition (with juicing being less likely as it would work to retain muscle and not break it down to release myoglobins into the blood stream).
TJM5054 - January 30, 2012
juicing is healthy!
letsgopsu - January 30, 2012
So that one workout was that much harder than all the others in that it induced rhabdo in a dozen kids?
I just don’t see it.
OR, those kids were taking something that brought on rhabdo quicker. I find that easier to believe. That’s just me.
hbeach08 - January 31, 2012
it's not just you.
Cari Greene - January 31, 2012
I just remember guys like
Merriman, Vernon Davis, and a couple other guys coming out and putting up some ridic numbers. Maybe it was mostly baseless, but theres still Merriman, who obviously wasn’t. I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin is all.
skarocksoi - January 30, 2012
Yeah, but a lot of those guys
go elsewhere for training leading up to the draft. Remember all the rumors about how Maybin put on all that lean muscle in, like, 4 months leading up to his draft?
psuwxman - January 30, 2012
Steroids in major college FB programs? Unpossible
SweepTheLeg - January 30, 2012
I hadn't heard anything about those whispers
I’d just like to see some creative strength and conditioning measures taken.
spakajewia - January 30, 2012
I agree with liking the creativity
And I dont know if Fitzgerald’s time at MD corresponds with it, but I remember people raising some eyebrows at the guys coming out of there. Maybe it was just that a school like Maryland chanced into a couple of freakish athletic guys, but it seemed like they had 1 or 2 combine freaks every year for a few years while not really pulling in quality recruiting classes. Maybe it was baseless as Chris said, I just always found it odd, and Shawne Merriman didn’t help their cause either.
That being said, I’d give it a B+ as I like the idea of some of the non-traditional, almost MMA style exercises. I’ll wait to see if it pans out on the field before claiming it a complete success however.
skarocksoi - January 30, 2012
Gave it a B
I don’t know enough about the S&C programs, to be honest. Maybe a feel-better situation would be this: will his new program not only beef up our big boys, but also extend the reps for our skill guys (looking at you, WR/DB/RB/LB/…)
I don’t mind a 270-lb LB laying the boom to a meat-FB on running plays up the gut in the 1st quarter. But what I do mind is a LB who can’t keep up at the end of a 16-play no huddle drive in the last minute of the 4th…
Anybody with any particular expertise that can say the new program is as good as HIT (which, if i understand it, was designed on playing ok longer, rather than really good until burnout, then pfft.)?
afields16 - January 30, 2012
This was the easiest A, even easier than LJ.
Every single thing I’ve read, including every article by someone who has spoken with players, both current and former, speak nothing but high praise for this guy. He’s young, energetic, brings a new system, and has players buzzing. Sean Fitz had an article at Lion247 ($) about Fitzgerald today as well (and no, we didn’t plan it that way, just weird timing) where he spoke with players and ran down Fitz’s past, just like Tim did here. Sean ended the post with a comment that said “This guy is a rock star in the strength and conditioning world.”
Jeff Junstrom - January 30, 2012
I commented in the thread about his hiring that he is an A-plus hire.
Neither myself nor my Gamecock brethern were sad to see John Butler go…that is not how we felt about Fitz.
Uhaul - January 30, 2012
Wow interesting
Good post Jeff – thx
NJDeadhead - January 30, 2012
The post was all Tim.
Unless you’re referring to my comment above. That was all THISGUY.
Jeff Junstrom - January 30, 2012
Other new strength guys
One of the other new strength guys has the last name of Williams, and I want to figure out who he is, he’s the last one I don’t know. Does anyone here have a clue??
bonham43. - January 30, 2012
I still want Indian Clubs.
Although, the sledgehammer fondly reminds me of Willie Stargell and Dave Parker in the on-deck circle.
SubLime - January 30, 2012
I've always personally felt that olympic-style lifting
is way better than using machines, at least for real-world strength. I’m no lifting expert, at all, but I’ve always gotten the impression that if you want to get big and defined, you isolate more with machine work. If you want to get big and strong, you do free weights more. Not to say that you should do one and not the other, but that there are different ways to focus your lifting methods.
Also, love the emphasis on core strength. So much of your power, in any situation, comes from your core. If only I could have gotten my dang throwers to buy into that.
psuwxman - January 30, 2012
The players seem to be excited about it
based on twitter posts. So I shall differ to them about the higher since there is absolutely nothing about me that would suggest that I know anything about S&C.
amandakt - January 30, 2012
Any indication on how the players like the new S&C so far?
Haven’t seen much on twitter
Artiefufkin10 - January 30, 2012
BoB had a rule
That players can’t talk about practice and stuff about football on social media. Got that from someone else, didn’t see it myself. So not sure if S&C is involved in that media blackout for players.
AriesGD - January 30, 2012
Good rule.
avoids the “I can’t wait to unleash the WildLion at OSU this weekend” tweets
Artiefufkin10 - January 30, 2012
This guy went from USC to PSU
and that intrigues me.
You could argue that USC has access to higher caliber players with the SEC recruiting resources. And SC has emerged as one of the better programs in the SEC East, and I’m sure by no coincidence due to this guy.
I don’t know, I just like the fact that he would commit to “lowly” Penn State right now. Might mean he really likes PSU.
Artiefufkin10 - January 30, 2012
I think it might have to do more with BO'B
BO’B seems to bring people he knows and trusts. I think the people that he brought also trust him as a HC so I think this guy really likes and trusts BO’B.
jetskijoe - January 30, 2012
And he's a Philly native.
Chris Grovich - January 30, 2012
100 percent chance he gets a nice raise
The Defensive Back coach also has a very similar background: they were both at South Carolina last year; both from Philly; both went to Catholic; both were at Maryland and Harvard…
I guarantee they paid for this guy, though, otherwise it just doesn’t make sense for him to leave. I ahve no idea what a S&C coach earns, but I bet his near the top of the heap now for college coaches.
spakajewia - January 30, 2012
He's from Philly & received a $100k raise.
It has almost nothing to do with BOB.
Uhaul - January 30, 2012
I'm good friends with a relative
They happened to mention that his salary about tripled and that it was a “no-brainer.”
Money aside, he’s VERY excited to come aboard.
MillerBoi - January 30, 2012 via mobile
Offensive Line
I guess my question is what are realistic expectations for the offensive line this year? Previously I posited that a Wisconsin-esque offensive line dominating in the running game would be the high end here, but that was when John Thomas was still the S&C coach.
Here’s are some statistics I compiled to gauge offensive line proficiency.
South Carolina 2008 (Pre-Fitzgerald)
Yards Per Rush: 2.9
Passing Plays (Att + Sacks Against) Per Sack: 12.6
Rush Yards Per Game: 94.1
South Carolina 2009 (Year 1)
Yards Per Rush: 3.6
Passing Plays Per Sack: 12.9
Rush Yards Per Game: 121.2
South Carolina 2010 (Year 2)
Yards Per Rush: 4.1
Passing Plays Per Sack: 13.9
Rush Yards Per Game: 154.4
South Carolina 2011 (Year 3)
Yards Per Rush: 4.5
Passing Plays Per Sack: 11.6
Rush Yards Per Game: 192.1
For comparison purposes, here are the stats for Penn State 2011
Penn State 2011
Yards Per Rush: 4.2
Passing Plays Per Sack: 27.8
Rush Yards Per Game: 164.4
LionInTheWeeds - January 30, 2012
Even before November hit, my tailgating buddies and I were talking.
We all knew this was Joe’s last year anyway. But we were talking about who we wanted to keep on the current staff. I said LJ, Vandy, and I would hold open the door for everybody else.
Granted, Bradley and Jay have shown nothing but class, honor, and character in the mess that November brought. However, this is not a popularity contest, and we are in this to win football games (The Penn State Way, of course; Success With Honor), and with the exception of LJ and Vandy, I thought our future was brightest with a complete purging of the staff. I was not impressed when John Thomas was originally kept, but seeing since he’s gone now, I got just what I wanted: Vandy and LJ, with a complete purging.
The next five years will prove the B’OB and I have one thing in common: Either we’re both geniuses, or we’re both total idiots. I’m looking forward to a fun ride, though.
Ab4PSU - January 30, 2012
Can't wait to see what Billyball is gonna look like!
Nectir - January 30, 2012
I just hope its no mercy pedal down for 4 quarters.
Not sure if that fits in with “Success with Honor” but each week is a beauty pageant and if your not blowing out your opponents to impress the voters you end up suffering in the polls. How many times did Joe call off the dogs, the 4th string gives up 14 in garbage time and all you hear is how we barely beat (insert name of lowly opponent).
psu85 - January 30, 2012
I sure hope we drop 105 on Wisconsin next season.
And another 63 on Ohio State.
I’d be happy with just that.
misdreavus79 - January 30, 2012
Just a note
You can have olympic-style lifting programs where you don’t get close to lifting your maxes. It’s more about the type of exercises than anything else. More free weights, bigger lifts, etc.
Truck O'Saurus - January 30, 2012 via Android app
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