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Off-season & In-season Speed Training with Kyle Bolton, Oregon Football Director of Speed & Performance
128 Plays6 hours ago
In this episode, Les Spellman sits down with Kyle Bolton, Oregon Football Director of Speed & Performance, to break down how a top program actually builds, measures, and keeps speed all year long. They get into Oregon’s offseason blueprint, GPS and testing, how they balance Big Ten size with real game speed, and what NIL + the transfer portal mean for today’s strength/speed coaches. Kyle also shares what separates college speed work from combine prep and what athletes should be doing now if they want a shot at the league later.
The Universal Speed Rating is looking to partner with more elite training businesses around the country with their Speed Lab partnership. If you are interested in systemizing your speed training and growing your business, click here to schedule a call with our team.
Episode Timestamps
- 00:00 – Intro & Kyle’s path to Oregon
- 02:30 – Building Oregon’s offseason speed plan
- 07:15 – Testing, GPS, and making data actually useful
- 12:00 – Getting bigger for the Big Ten without losing speed
- 21:30 – In-season speed, “go” drills, and game-speed standards
- 35:15 – Fastest dudes on the team & what they’re hitting
- 42:25 – NIL, coaching future, and where the job is headed
- 55:25 – Combine prep vs college speed & advice to athletes
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Transcript
Sneaking into Oregon: A Personal Tale
00:00:08
Speaker
What up, dude? Hey, so we're just talking offline. Kyle's never invited me to so come see him at Oregon. You know, I've showed i've showed up. i just have it I just wasn't really invited. so i thought you had some ah i thought you had some pro guys here this past offseason.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah, but I wasn't invited. i just showed up with i just showed up. I pulled up. They didn't even let me in. i just i figured out how to get in through the back door because I remembered how to get in from 2017.
00:00:36
Speaker
yeah whole Hey, don't worry, bro. We're roll the red carpet this week. I told you. Yeah. send me ah Send me a letter in the mail. like i I've seen the recruiting letters, handwritten, signed. like um'm you know That's what I'm looking for right there.
00:00:49
Speaker
That's easy. That's done. Yeah. Done. All right. Well, where where are you right now? I just moved my new place. So ah you're looking at bare canvas. We got to hang up all of our panties and stuff. Nice. You guys have a bye week, huh?
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Ah, nice. Nice.
The Journey to Becoming a Speed Coach
00:01:04
Speaker
Okay. Well, well, tell me, how, how did you become speed coach to the number one team in the country? I know you guys aren't ranked one, but you will be.
00:01:12
Speaker
So where are you ranked one? Two. Two. Okay. Well, but you're, you're my number one team. I can't do so often, man. don't even know. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:25
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure everyone's heard this story. I've been on your podcast before, but, you know, I played ball in small school. Ended up playing you a st or a cup of coffee at the camp with the Minnesota Vikings. After that, the CFL. After that, the AFL. From there, went back down to San Diego to start training people with Ryan Flaherty of Polific Athletes.
00:01:42
Speaker
From there, ended up at Baylor as a paid intern. From Baylor, ended up back in my old school as a receivers coach and strength coach. After that, Arkansas State. Arkansas State's Cal Berkeley. Cal Berkeley at TCU. We were in the National Championship.
00:01:54
Speaker
From TCU, I did a Bill Walsh internship with the l LA Rams. And then ah just having good connections and knowing good people, um I got a chance to talk to Dan Lanning and then ah hit it off with him. And now here I am.
00:02:07
Speaker
No, i love that. What's what's like... What makes you guys so fast? It's such a broad question, but you guys you guys are killing right now. I watched the past couple games as a fan since I don't get tickets or anything. But, you know, I've been watching, man. You guys are rolling. like You guys got some obviously got some fast recruits, but what what is it? What's the secret?
Speed Strategy Success: What's the Secret?
00:02:28
Speaker
To keep it real, it is recruiting. um Everyone here pours into it. It's it's like a lifeblood of origin. um People want to talk about NIL and everything, yeah, but ah if you look it up, like we're not even at the top of the spectrum, even for the Big Ten.
00:02:41
Speaker
um What i truly believe is we have- What do you mean? Like like like in terms of recruiting? Or in terms, really? Who's the top? Ohio State. Hmm.
00:02:53
Speaker
makes one the big In the Big Ten. In the Big Ten. In the Big Ten. Yeah. Yeah. ah Makes sense. But I'll say that ah recruiting here is first. And ill i be ah I'd be lying to everyone if I said, i don't get to work with some of the top athletes in the country. You know what I mean? um That makes my job so much easier.
00:03:11
Speaker
ah The second part about that is you know ah Ben McKay is a great sports scientist. and well I think we have a really good department here. Jordan Trost was here before him. um And then the relationship we have with Coach Lanning and him buying into the dad that we're giving him.
00:03:28
Speaker
think that's what's helped us out a lot. And then seeing our process and sticking to the process, ah whether it's good or bad, depending
Role of a Speed Coach at Oregon
00:03:36
Speaker
on the outcome, right? Just sticking to our process and knowing that down the line it's going to work rather than keep always changing it.
00:03:41
Speaker
Makes sense. So like as a speed coach at Oregon, first of all, that that's not a role that existed. I mean, I know that Coach Rad was there for a while and did his thing, but like a standalone football only role at Oregon, what what do you actually do? What does a speed coach actually do at University of Oregon?
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. So obviously the biggest part is going to off season, right? ah Where we put everything in and get all the work is off season. In-season is going to be more, we can't take an NFL model where it's more maintenance and we still do speed checks. We still do drilling to make sure that in the off-season we keep it up. um we Coach Lane is huge on our top end days and making sure our guys are hitting speeds and making sure we're getting over 95%.
00:04:22
Speaker
But in the off-season where it's going to come to play is how do we structure it? And what I mean by that is everyone goes through um the normal processes. I've talked to a bunch of coaches lately and Everyone pretty much sets out their offseason the same.
00:04:35
Speaker
I think where we kind of separate ourselves here at Oregon, I'm going to say we because I think it's a team effort, not just me, but where we separate ourselves is how we adapt our offseason for what our players and coaches are looking for to optimize ah what the players and coaches also want to do in the field in the offseason. So you'll hear more and more times like – football is taking over more off season, right? Football coaches want to steal time. They want to do this. They want to do that. We also have to get guys bigger, stronger.
00:05:01
Speaker
right, well, where does faster fit in? Okay. We got to have more, they need to more agile. They need to quicker reacting. Okay. So how much time do we have to fit all this in? On top of that, we want to start fitting in a little bit more football. They want more seven on seven. They want more walkthrough or whatever it is, which player led in off season, right? Or even coach led at
Winter Training Regimen: What's the Focus?
00:05:18
Speaker
some at several points.
00:05:20
Speaker
The key there is getting ahead of it and figuring out where to push and where to pull and then how to set up your off-season to get the best out of everything. but I think that's been, ah for the two years I've been here, that's been our biggest thing. I think that's where we found a lot of places where we can improve.
00:05:37
Speaker
And I think we have improved on it. I think we've earned ah we're in a really good spot right now with it. So how, okay. So take, let's go through, cause I got like 7,000 questions off of that. So start like starting with the beginning, what's the layout for off season tip we look like? I know you guys are on a quarter system.
00:05:52
Speaker
Yes. It's a matrix and it's intricate, but let's just say like in the middle of it, what is the, what does the micro cycle look like for you? Yeah. So let's start like winter, right? So hopefully we end up, uh, hopefully we end up playing all way through January.
00:06:06
Speaker
So let's talk just this year. long So we ended up losing the Rose Bowl. Right after the Rose Bowl, we're training um newcomers the week after. so there's no time off. So we're training them. We give our vets about two weeks off and then we start rolling again.
00:06:21
Speaker
It's time to kind of get the body back. So we do a little bit of GPP, but within that GPP, we always keep the speed frameworks, right? We'll do more technical work. ah That's where we go back to our fundamentals. We hit some wall drills with some early A series stages and just mechanics during that GPP phase.
00:06:40
Speaker
After that, we kind of pursue more acceleration. We hammer acceleration. Our goal of this offseason in the winter was to get a big ah little bit bigger. So top end to me was kind of on the back burner, whereas we want to focus more acceleration based because our our top end was really good.
00:06:55
Speaker
Where we were hindered was our zero to five, zero to 10. Our 10 to 20 was really good too, but our zero to five, zero to 10, I thought could be a little bit better and our change of direction. So I really want to hammer that. Let me pause right there. So like, is that something that you're testing consistently? Like, is it, is it, uh, have a profile when guys come in? Like, what does that look like?
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah. So we run a normal profile. So, uh, we have, uh, radar guns. Um, I know everyone else has 10 days, but we have the gold standards. Ben calls it in radar gun. and But what we do is... um You should get some 1080. Never mind. We'll but let's talk about it. once far Yeah. ah Yeah. So we'll test 10s, we'll test twenty s and then we'll test flies.
00:07:38
Speaker
um And then we kind of, we test every week. But how we tested it, at first it was a struggle ah because everyone always got anxious about the test. They changed mechanics. um Everyone always did different things when they saw the lasers come out.
00:07:51
Speaker
So what we ended doing is it's not a test anymore. It's just a station. So the lasers are always out. Now we're like they're just accustomed to running through the lasers. Now it's just we're just training. It's not an actual test. And we get more data for feedback, right? Good day, bad day.
00:08:04
Speaker
And with sports science, we kind of took away like the good and bad. and We kind of found the average. And we saw where each position group was and where we need to affect it. So that's the acceleration portion. Deceleration portion, we did the, what
Spring and Summer Training Approaches
00:08:16
Speaker
was it?
00:08:18
Speaker
The 10.05. 10.05, yeah. Yeah. And we found a good but good side, bad side. Obviously, some people can game the drill. So we work on that. And and we work on like how hard you can work on deceleration, how fast you can get to it.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, same way as well. um Then we work curve linear sprint. And then the other one is we messed around with the 90-degree cut. I think that's the next one we're kind playing with right now. um And how we set those days up in the week. So acceleration day, obviously the fives, tens.
00:08:47
Speaker
um Then what we did for Tuesday, that's that's Monday. Tuesday, we want to get... more high intensity decelerations and less volume.
00:09:00
Speaker
So that's where we put our testing for our agility stuff. So it's a lot harder decels, a lot more taxing on the body, but you don't do as many of them. But that's where we tested all of our hard hinge directions. Wednesday, obviously top end or a Thursday top end.
00:09:11
Speaker
And then Friday would be more of our day where we want to get the volume for ah acceleration deceleration at the very end because we know like it doesn't have be super taxing because we already got that on Tuesday, but we just need the volume to get them ready for season.
00:09:24
Speaker
Okay, so that's winter. So, spring is spring kind of in-season for you? Like, is it an in-season flow or how is it different than than your actual season?
00:09:34
Speaker
So, I'll take a step back. So, in the winter, so we kind of use that model, like, throughout the year, but during that time, we also segment it and put it in times where, like, we'll do more conditioning base work.
00:09:45
Speaker
yeah um And is that to just build like the the chronic volume of those things? And no yeah, just build the base form. I think that a lot of people miss out on temple runs nowadays. um I think it's really a good way to want to recover while you're on the sidelines to get the heart back down and get the blood flowing to, and they get the tissue tolerance too. I think a lot of people are so one-sided with all their work that they want to push so hard to sprint and all this stuff where they miss the bottom end. Yeah.
00:10:10
Speaker
And a lot of like the tissue tolerance in you. But some that conditioning off feet too. So we do model rope, um med balls. so Metabolic stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So we that way the joints and the knees and the tendons just don't get all messed up. Right? Yeah.
00:10:26
Speaker
Another key part we found in that is we get our guys out of cleats. We're in cleats most of the time and we have a bunch of turf here. So what we do is just start the winter for a couple weeks. We're in our flats or our turfs, um just like the little nubs. Yeah. With our guys out with their feet and their toes a lot as well. And then we'll go barefoot on recovery days.
00:10:43
Speaker
i love it. Yeah. And then we'll do some different stuff. call it contact prep, but Coach Love calls it gladiator drill. It's a little bit man's thing. um I like it for the fact ah more of a fascial plane, whereas you're going to get some isometric work and different movement planes with that. um I find that...
00:11:00
Speaker
pretty decent. And then we also do a lot of bear crawling and rolling and then animal movements in that portion. We'll call that our contact rep just for learning how to do stuff like that. The oars of the tackling drills.
00:11:11
Speaker
So that's winter spring, obviously. So ah one, one second. So on the winter piece, like what percentage of like camp volume roughly, like, would you say winter is, is it lower? Is it significantly lower? Like, where's that ah and in terms of camp?
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, significantly lower. um I think we're probably sitting around like 50 to 70 range. Yeah. Nothing crazy because really our main focus this winter was getting guys bigger. And I think we accomplished that. So our goal was to put size on and we just want to keep make sure they're in shape and then touch some top end work. So when we got to spring ball, the hamstrings were still good. Yeah. But then focus straight on, we need to sprint all the time with them. Yeah. And is the is the bigger thing coming from like tactically how you guys want to play? fit like i I've watched all the like the ah episodes on YouTube, but like you want to be physical. You want to smack people in the mouth, right?
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you look at the Big Ten, um then the SEC, and you see how big those guys are. I think for us, the biggest challenge is to make sure we stay big throughout the season. And the way we can help ourselves out with that is to set ourselves up with a good base.
00:12:14
Speaker
Yeah. We're already recruiting fast, powerful athletes. So really it's just, okay, let's maintain their speed and power, but let's put a little bit more muscle on them and change their body count a little bit. I think that's one thing that I'm really proud of with our guys.
00:12:26
Speaker
is our speed and everything has improved and our body comps have cleaned up. that I think that goes back to our nutrition staff as well. Nice. I love that. Okay. Spring. where What does that look like? All right. So obviously you say we're a quarter system. So spring ball happens and then right in May, typically a semester school gets three weeks of May off.
00:12:46
Speaker
We don't get that. We're rolling right into it. But we just had a ah big spring, right? um Coach Lanny, obviously you get the days off in between, but Coach Lanny practices are kind of tough, especially in the spring. He likes to push it and see where guys are at.
00:12:58
Speaker
So in May, how we did it is we set it up where, again, i'm going to focus heavy on acceleration. We took almost all deceleration components out of it because we're going to start – we focus on getting in the weight room.
00:13:10
Speaker
So in the weight room, we start our phase with eccentrics, depth drops, isometrics. So I don't need to do as much on the field because I'm getting it in the weight room. So I think you came out with a model.
00:13:22
Speaker
ah You talked about – I was thinking, man, you know, how you set it up is so great. How you set it, right? Developmental, linear, right? Vector, then agility and then sports specific.
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I stole 80% of that from Damian Harper, but yeah, like I just added two more the rungs to the ladder, but yeah, one hundred percent. And I was like, dude, I was like, I've never said a lot about, but that makes so much sense. But that's how to so scale it back, right? So may our deceleration start to developmental and then a little bit linear.
00:13:52
Speaker
Right. So, so capacities and things like, yeah, it makes sense. these all We almost, it's almost like we do a complete rehab with the entire team on deceleration. We'll do snap downs. We'll do two-step decels, two-step get out to the left, two-step get out to the three-step, things like that, just to teach the pattern movements. And then like the lateral with a push, double pull, like multiple response, right. And then crossovers.
00:14:15
Speaker
Really teaching how to set your feet, how to balance up and work the angles that we're looking for and really harp on the teaching for these three, four weeks. knowing that the rest of summer we're going to be hammering it because of how much we're going to start ramping up going into fall camp yeah we work acceleration and top end speed where the volume is a little bit lower but we're just hammering it high intensity with high weight like heavy weight and then lightweight on the top end and hammering that but in the weight room working our eccentrics and isometrics uh i'll speak on the skill the skill we did basically like a triphasic training b block right yeah um for this off season
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah. So we start with Decentrics. We knew wanted get that in for the Sendin Health. The Isometric's obviously good. And from the Decentrics standpoint, are you guys looking specifically like tempo-based or ah like over-accentuated or like what are you guys doing?
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, so ah the other groups, um so I'll say that the combos and the bigs, Condé Weight Releasers on the Eccentrics, the skill, we did not. We just did great weight and then just went wrong with Eccentrics. I thought for us and the skill, it makes it a little bit easier to work.
00:15:22
Speaker
um And obviously with the renovations we're having, it's our weight rooms are a little bit smaller. yeah So our space that we're working in, with the limited amount space we have, I think it worked out a little bit better for us. No, it was okay.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. It was just a decision I made. We knew they were going to do that. And then for us, I just knew I want to pull back a little bit with that and just focus on clean reps in the weight room and just kind of be a generalist in the weight room. Yeah. is it First phase and then get more specific as we got closer to the season. Love that.
00:15:49
Speaker
Okay. So sprint. Yeah. So that's, you already gave you guys a blueprint of how Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday went. We kept that same model. It's just the, how much intensity and volume we did. were pretty low volume on the field um for the first four weeks. I think the last week of May, we got to 60% then we started ramping from there.
00:16:09
Speaker
Love it. Yeah. Okay. And then okay, so then post-spring game, you guys got a month, that right? Is it like three weeks a month? Yes. So that was, that was so what we just talked about post-spring ball.
00:16:23
Speaker
And then after that, so now I have June and July. Yep. June and July, now in the weight room, we focus more on concentric. And then for the last two weeks, we were peaking and we did like the triphasic jumps, like the French contrast, right?
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah. ah On the field. So it's almost think about like, and you work with the NFL team. So think about our summer, we took NFL model. call I'll talk to Griff and the Rams. Like an OTA minicamp?
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Cool. And we yeah and like I talked to the Broncos. So like phase one, May, strictly strength and conditioning. There's no football coaches around. Just strength conditioning. We're just whole.
00:17:02
Speaker
Right? Phase two, player-led stuff starts being introduced within the run session. So now I got to account for that during my run. yeah Now my runs have to be dialed enough to where, okay, I need to get all this work in.
00:17:14
Speaker
On the back end, we have player-led things. It's going to little bit of that. right Phase three, which would be like July, getting ready for camp. is going to be now I have all these runs, but now I have added in more football that has to get done. Yeah. i'm the So that's the three phases. I know it's not revolutionary, but that's how we kind of looked at it. And then we really targeted what do we want to hit and then how we're going to get there. And we laid it all out um and we undulated our volume and intensities throughout it to make sure we got to the point where we were felt satisfactory going into camp.
00:17:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. right, we got to take a second to talk about the universal speed rating because I literally just found this out and it blew my mind.
Universal Speed Rating System Milestone
00:17:54
Speaker
We just hit over 500,000 verified speed tests inside the USR software, half a million.
00:18:02
Speaker
That's coaches all over the country testing, tracking, improving athlete progress with the system. It's not just data. It's giving athletes confidence and giving coaches real proof of results. I remember running our first speed lab test back in 2019.
00:18:16
Speaker
and a closet that my uncle helped me build, now half a million. If you're not testing speed yet, or you're doing it without a system, this is your chance to check it out. Hit the link in the description, book a free consult, and see how the USR could work in your program.
00:18:31
Speaker
Now, from a a training camp perspective, like, obviously, it's your it's your highest workloads. It's your highest intensities and volumes. Like, what's your role during training camp?
Training Camp and Speed School Activities
00:18:41
Speaker
Like, how do you how do you move through? Are you still doing the speed stuff, still doing speed school, all that, or is it is it shifted?
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, we'll do speed school. It must be, like, in the morning prep as they come out. We'll still work on that. When guys want to get ready, we'll still work some potentiation, and then we'll still work mechanics. that My biggest role at that time would be helping out wherever I can with um return to play.
00:19:01
Speaker
So our really fought the return play role. Luckily, we had a really healthy fall camp. ah And then after that, would be breaking down practice with Ben and Coach Love to give to Coach Lanning.
00:19:13
Speaker
kind of Kind of structuring how we want fall camp to go. So we laid out, we talked to Coach and well in advance, like how we want the days to go. and then based on that, we kind of give him a feedback of like,
00:19:24
Speaker
how everything is going. And then he adjusts on his own. Sometimes he'll say, Hey, we got to push today, but I'll make sure we get on the back end. Right. So he'll push an extra hard day, but then knowing that later in the week, he'll pull back a little bit more.
00:19:37
Speaker
And basically we just let him know like, Hey, as you can push as long as one of these days is down. Now without giving away the secret sauce, but like what, what is landing like to see? Like, what does he want to see in a practice?
00:19:49
Speaker
Like, okay. So now I mean like from ah a metric standpoint, like you guys break practice down, you give them a report, just volumes, intensities. Like, is he, is he looking, is he looking for like specific things or do you guys just kind of tell a story with the data?
00:20:05
Speaker
No, we tell a story of the data. He's pretty good at understanding um player load and high speed running yardage and what's a lot for a certain position group. Got it. And I think that's a key part for anyone that's doing this is communication.
00:20:18
Speaker
How can you make, and I think i think you are someone that's been really good about this, but how can you make it digestible for a coach? Yeah. Let's know everything on the back end that we know. But here's a synopsis of things that are like taxing the players and that we need to keep an eye on.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah. and He has been elite about going to staff meetings and some position coaches like, hey, so-and-so is running a little hot. I want to make sure he gets some reps down. Only even we need this, that, whatever.
00:20:42
Speaker
Or like, hey, okay, our play load is getting high. it's really And he'll take a look at this. Play load is really high during Indy. I don't want it that high. Let's pull back a little bit. That way can be higher. Other points again, burn that. That's elite.
00:20:54
Speaker
That's elite. Elite. Yeah. And, you know, seeing that, I think it's helped our, I think our fall camp was phenomenal because of, I think we came out pretty clean from fall camp because of it. No, it's amazing.
Maintaining Speed During the Season
00:21:05
Speaker
When you get into season, like we all know that you gotta, gotta sprint, you gotta run fast week to week, but guys don't always hit it in a game. Like how are you getting your speed throughout the week and touching on those qualities?
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, we have a really good culture here where they bought in. um Coach Lanning made it. He talks about it team meetings. Use it or lose it. You know I mean So he wants to see us run fast in practice. He wants to see the guys go get after and practice.
00:21:31
Speaker
But he also knows we're doing too much. So we have targeted days where we want to get it. On higher days, we'll try and get on those days. But specifically on a Wednesday, we'll do a top-end day with a goat drill at the back end.
00:21:43
Speaker
What's a goat drill? That's from – oh, man. Cal Dietz. Cal Dietz. Yeah. Is that the visual one? Yes. yeah Yeah. So we added Go Drill. He added here actually before I got here um and he loves it. And I think like when we do it a high level, it actually works out for our guys.
00:22:03
Speaker
um So we'll hit a high speed and then directly go to Go Drill. And everyone's already lined up with their coaching the stations and they're using their hula hoops are out and we're using a tennis ball going around there. And then now used be just numbers they throw up.
00:22:14
Speaker
But now what coaches are doing are throwing up their play call signals and the players have to say the signal back to them they're doing this movement. So we're always working with that. The other part with that would be, you know,
00:22:26
Speaker
The speed aspect is Coach Lanning loves to get it even in game. And he pulls up the speed from special teams and says, like, this isn't fast enough. Really? It's my job. it makes my job easy. Damn. That's crazy.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's elite. On top of that, I think, you know, ah Coach Paff talked about um how in season, because they're coming from all different places stuff like that, we turn into more, like, maintenance and making sure they stay healthy and stuff like that. Right, right,
Injury Prevention and Recovery Techniques
00:22:53
Speaker
all right. right I spend a lot of time doing specific work with individual athletes to make sure that they feel healthy enough to go do I think one thing for me has been big is like helping out with like tendonitis, tendinopathy, more when to push and pull in the weight room.
00:23:09
Speaker
We go into their way there ah meeting rooms early to help make sure they're stretched, foam rolled, gain potentiation, whatever they need. Isometrics are done in there. Sometimes we can bring a bike in for them. ah In the meeting room?
00:23:21
Speaker
Yes. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Would you guys practice in the morning or afternoon? Yeah, we practice in the morning. So I think normally we're ah we're going like at 8.45 is when we start first whistle.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. so So you're in the building early then. Yeah. So breakfast, 6 After that, we have team meeting. From team meeting, they go to special teams. Special teams, they go to unit. Unit is indie, individual meetings. And then from individual meetings, straight to the field.
00:23:52
Speaker
And then they go to class after, after practice yeah or wait is a weight room after practice. Yeah. So we'll do weights for certain groups. We have a breakfast club. So some guys won to get in the morning beforehand. So we will end that for certain guys. Um, and then other guys want to come and hit it right after. so we'll have two groups on, on days. And then you have your, uh, vet group, like guys like high travel guys and then your non-travel guys. So it's kind split little bit like that.
00:24:16
Speaker
So what time are you getting in the building? Uh, depends, uh, either four 30 or five o'clock. Damn. Damn. And what time do you leave? I'm blessed. I get to get, I get to get cut out a little bit early. So once staff has done it for, I'm, I'm cutting out.
00:24:30
Speaker
Okay. Okay. So some, some coaches got in there like five o'clock and then like position coaches and stuff like that. Or an analyst, they're there at five o'clock they don't leave to like maybe midnight. What?
00:24:41
Speaker
um They put in work coach. I mean, it's a, there's a standard here and it's great. Um, I think Coach Lanning talked about it the other day. we had a team meeting and he was talking about your purpose, reason why.
00:24:53
Speaker
and he was saying that like he wants to pay it back to people who gave him a chance. And he feels like he'd be doing a disservice to the athletes in this room and the people that trust in him if he didn't give his best in the work he's been doing and put in his preparation and time.
00:25:06
Speaker
And that really resonated with me. Mm-hmm. you know, people give me a chance and like, I'm doing them a disservice. off I'm sitting back and I'm just like, Oh man, I'm at Oregon. We're number two. Like I have this great team. I've got to do shit because it's like, I have the bad.
00:25:18
Speaker
I want to make sure that, you know, I'm diligent with my time and learning the best, the most things I can to help this team in any way possible that I can. Yeah. It's um the culture there. I mean, I, I've sat in on a few Dan Lanning meetings and I was fired up.
00:25:36
Speaker
I'm like, what do i what do I need to do to intern for Kyle Bolton? Like, this is... God believe, bro. You know, when Watt's... Plus, my wife, like, every every time but we have a game and all my deals, like, Coach Lanning fires me up. His speeches and just get me hyped. And really, it's just... Yeah. It carries over to everyone here, right? It's not just him, but, like, all the position coaches get me fired up.
00:25:55
Speaker
oh And they show up with this nasty attack it every day, and they have a standard here. And is... It's an or that just vibes and rubs off on you. And now the players have it. The players will tell people that it's not the standard. The players will call coaches out if it's not the standard. Wow. Yeah. you know I've seen a couple of things on social media, like the standard, and it's like tagged a couple of people. I'm like, oh, okay. Like the Corey Moore, right? So I got on him one day about not having a water bottle.
00:26:20
Speaker
He's special. Special. da alcohol But now if I don't have a water bottle, regardless of where I am, because I don't see him for a draft prep, don't ever talk to me again. Don't ever speak to me again. These are long lines. going to be doing quick. Yeah, I got on him about not having a water ball, you know what i mean? i'm Not hydrating enough.
00:26:39
Speaker
And I told him every time I don't see you, it's up-down. He's like, all it's only fair for you, too. I said, okay, bet. To this day, that was a weeks ago. To this day, this guy's been getting me in the weight room. I walk in the locker room, he gets me. I walk in the meeting room, he gets me.
00:26:52
Speaker
So I got to keep a water ball. But that's the kind of sleep. He's that's not the standard. You know what i mean? That's the kind of stuff that I enjoy being around is these high-level guys just helping these guys achieve their goals. Yeah, rare. I was listening to Dan Campbell talk, and he was like talking about why you know the team is the way they are. And he's like, you when you have your best players holding the standard and putting in work, he's like, that just changes the game. it's not always That's not always the case. You know you guys have built a special culture. ri i've I've watched it you know, year by year, you see different guys come out and you see, you know, the standard being held. So it's pretty cool. I think this might be your best team now.
00:27:31
Speaker
It's no no shade to the previous guys because we had six of them. But no, I mean, they're, you guys look different, bro. I don't want I don't want to jinx it, but yeah, dude, like it's just, it's a good feel in here. And the guys know like,
00:27:47
Speaker
If it's not a standard of practice, you can feel the vibe. And the next day, everyone comes out and it's a really good practice. Yeah. mean, the guys stay after to work on the field forever. Like sometimes it's annoying because like you have a lift post practice that come on, dog. I need we need to get this lift. Come on. You know i mean? You got timeline.
00:28:05
Speaker
But they're just out there working. And I can't be mad. I forget I should work. Like today, we have lift today by week. We finished up and I have like half the defense is still in there working, doing extra like recovery stuff, working on their shoulders, working on their hips. Like we have recovery manuals where they have stuff that they've they've like to do and everyone is hitting something mobility. You know i mean? It's not just the normal formal stuff. It's actual like work where it's going to target something they need work on.
00:28:32
Speaker
Wow. so That said... what What makes your environment so so different, so so special at Oregon?
The Unique Oregon Environment
00:28:40
Speaker
like How do you get to that level? ah I think the coaches we have here, yeah um to be honest with you.
00:28:48
Speaker
ah Because, yep, it's almost like an NFL locker room to a sense, right? Because you have so many transfers coming in. And the trick is, how do you get everyone to gel and become a team?
00:29:00
Speaker
I think they've done a really good job here. I think you know connection is one of our ah team traits. I think the coaches here elite at making sure the guys connect. ah Guys go to Coach Lane's house. you know We take them on retreats ah out to Bend. um We do a bunch of stuff together. We go paintballing together. um The guys are always around one another.
00:29:22
Speaker
you know i mean and Eugene's not like a place where I mean, you've been It's not like Dallas where you're in. No shade if you're from Eugene, but but i I could never.
00:29:34
Speaker
But it's good, though, because you bring people here that love football, and then it makes everyone connect and be around each other because, like, there's not much around here. So you're going to go up to Portland or whatever. going to go with your boys, right? You're going to go be something in town. You're to go with your boys. Like,
00:29:49
Speaker
I want to go hang out. Well, there's not really any anyone to go hang out with. gonna go hang at the house. So now we're all committed little bit more. Oh, that makes sense. You, uh, you mentioned something and it made me think about going back to the speed side of things is like with the transfers and the rookies, like how do you onboard them into the, your speed world? Like how do you indoctrinate them in the, in the bolt philosophy?
00:30:10
Speaker
Well, great thing for, again, I'm gonna go back to this great thing for me is that, uh, ah recruiting steals like the best athletes and the best athletes finger bump through pretty quick. But,
00:30:23
Speaker
I think what we do here is is language is all the same. So we find out like the language is is good and then how we demonstrate things to get everyone on the same page is ideal. And like when they get here early, like I said, we can train guys earlier because we're in that quarter system.
00:30:37
Speaker
So they have extra time with us, if that sense. And the guys that we get are pretty special because they'll be asking questions already when they're committed here. So like I'll just talk to them about some of the speed mechanic stuff, if that makes sense.
00:30:50
Speaker
um And then when they get here, It's just a language barrier. I think everyone does speed now. I think everyone trains speed a certain way. I just think it's a language barrier of like, what do they call over there? How do we call it here? And then how do we coach it and then make it together?
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah. ah yeah Do they have a profile when they first come in? or like what is it what is the the test you have to get you know to see what they do? Yeah, so we'll do the onboarding, obviously with sports science, you do all isometrics on the four-seg norboard, the groin bar. um We do the push. Everything you got to cast all that. Then we do a functional movement screen test, like our own one that we have here with our own grading scale.
00:31:30
Speaker
Then we do... a mini mock like run through where we kind of film them run. So I know a bunch of people are working on this right now, but now we have technology where we film their accelerations, decelerations, change of direction.
00:31:43
Speaker
And then we you can hug your guys. yeah they're They're legit. They're legit. You go plug them. I've heard, I've heard other schools are doing it right now. I think Duke is one, but ah we have it filmed out now so that we see like the angles that they're at. And then we kind of put it together. Like,
00:32:00
Speaker
based on like their position, where they're supposed to be at like how they move, like we kind of grade them off of that. and then Obviously, their speed and power and strength. yeah not we out test but We do do a miniature test to see just where they're at Something small where won't get banged up or injured, um but it just gives a good little...
00:32:19
Speaker
segment of where we yeah are you allowed to talk about the the video side and and how because it's elite like when i when i talk to them but what is that in the the curvilinear stuff and all that like talk to me about that that system you just explained is way more intricate and it's deep and i don't want anyone to steal any ideas well i don't i don't want stop on them i don't want to do i don't want to like make it sound bad because i'm not as smart as them but So obviously we do, we're trying to make basically our own view motion um for acceleration, deceleration. That one's the easy one. The curve layer one is a lot harder to explain. Same deal with thick the curve. Trying to see the angles and the speed and the trajectory of getting out. And that's why we're talking about working the 90 degree cut.
00:33:01
Speaker
But then on top of that, I think they're working on something where we can just track plays and see how much force you're going in and out of a curve and speed with and acceleration on that as well. I got to get those guys on here.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Wizards. Ethan and X-Level. Ben and Danny are, every time I go in there, I'm like, yeah, I feel like I'm in the Matrix right now. I tried stealing them when I saw them, but it didn't work. It good fight that did didn't work. I'm like, are they taking care you out there? If not, you know, i'm up pi I'll pay you half the price. Yeah, I'm telling you, ah they have elite stuff and it's been really helpful for us. And the guy and that's what helped buy in from the players. So we'll take those videos and then we'll almost do a team meeting. What much love is pretty elite with this is before we go to Iran, say, hey, everyone's a team meeting room.
00:33:46
Speaker
We'll go to the team reunion room. We'll talk the schedule we have for the day. And this is like not all the time, but sometimes, right? And they're like, all right, Bolt, you got it. And so we'll throw up on the board, just like it would for practice, film from a run. Kind of like what you do for your combine guys um and how you break it down and send the film.
00:34:02
Speaker
We're organizing it by their player, by the acceleration, the day, stuff like that. So they go in and take a look at it and see the joint angles and stuff where it's supposed to be. So we talked about that. And that has helped give us a lot of buy-in with these guys as well for the speed and deceleration work. um And now it becomes a competition. We we rank everyone and post in. like Now everyone wants to be who's the fastest decelerator and re-accelerator, right? Who's top end, the best.
00:34:23
Speaker
um And then everyone wants their videos. So we have that in a database and people can go watch it. And ah they'll come in and ask questions and we'll sit down. Like Dylan Thinneman and Brandon Thinneman, he like the number one people had come in and come on. So...
00:34:37
Speaker
We broke that down for them and ah Dylan actually ended up from that film. I'm not saying it's from the film, but seeing where he needed to work, dropped his change direction drastically and became one of the fastest guys for his deceleration, reacceleration on the time.
00:34:53
Speaker
And then brave it Finney was able to see his mechanics and his acceleration because his top end is elite. He's track guy. His top end is phenomenal. But he's able to see his acceleration and see his knee drive and we switched that up just a hair and now he yeah he dropped his time.
00:35:07
Speaker
Who are the fastest guys on the team? Oh, man. If they hear this, go and get some stick. I'm going to clip it and then post it and then tag them. Okay. the No, but for real, you could say it. They're not watching it. and In no order. In no order.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah. Canyon Sadiq, tight end. ah Devin Jackson, linebacker. Wait, your the tight end is is one of the fastest guys? He's multiple time, 23 mile per hour with pads on.
00:35:33
Speaker
how How much does he weigh? At the time he did it, he was, want to say, in the two forty s He's 240 pounds running that. He's probably like in the 235 area right now. i he's But I mean, he he made the Bruce Roman freak list for Houston.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to DM him tonight. He's number one rated side end. I'm recruiting right now, but go ahead. Keep going. So, Manion, ah Devin, Malik Benson, wide receiver.
00:36:02
Speaker
DeCorey Moore, wide receiver. Is DeCorey running 23? He's right underneath it. He could get there if he pushed it a little bit harder. Yeah. He's ah he's a high 22.
00:36:13
Speaker
ah He's going to hit 23 soon. Easy. He'll yeah would he hit it this offseason. How much does he weigh? ah Just over 190. Yeah, okay.
00:36:24
Speaker
um Evan Stewart, receiver. um Trayming nut safety. Naeem Offord, corner. Yeah.
00:36:35
Speaker
These are all 22 plus. Yeah. All 22 plus. That's probably, yeah, it's probably the fastest guys on the team out there. That's a good group. They're, they're like, o bro. It's wild. What about in game? Like what these guys hitting twenty ones in games.
00:36:51
Speaker
Malik Benson, ah right now, fastest in-game. um Jane Candy is our and is our star, star nickel. He's pretty fast in-game. His game speed is pretty fast. um DeCorey Morris is 21. Kane, Sadiq. Yeah, so all those guys on that list can hit it whenever they want to, to be honest with you. Wow. You know, it's it's interesting to think about this, like,
00:37:15
Speaker
A lot of teams will be like, hey, we want to get bigger. we want to be more physical. And they they emphasize this the size part of it. And then you have other teams that are like, we're going to be fast and all that.
Balancing Speed and Strength Training
00:37:26
Speaker
And you guys have done both, which is incredible. Like, you guys are fast. You guys are big. You guys are physical. you you do all the above. Like, how do you marry up what you do with the weight room?
00:37:37
Speaker
And you explained a little bit of it. But like, how do you and and Glove work together on this project? Yeah, so Coach Love has a really good understanding of like the the balance of the scales, right? So sometimes the coaches here still say the same thing. like They're like, oh, well, want him to get faster, but I need him to gain like 10 pounds. I'm like, well, all right.
00:37:56
Speaker
Right. It's little tough, right, with the time we have. um So how we did it is obviously we take – the low rep uh i think it's been coming out now i know a lot strength coaches know it but just for people that don't know you can still get bigger like size wise and stronger by doing low rep just more uh sets on top of that we prioritize like the things are going to like we take out a lot of fluff on the field and we just hammer what we need to see on speed days Speed days here. Coach Love has done an elite job for me of keeping like the coaches, like this is sacred day, right? Do not touch. This is our speed day and everything we do. Um, coach Kinsey came in, uh, and they gets me from UCU, the head guy, UCF. He came in and helped fresh eyes on our program and gave us, okay, Hey, I think we could add this to help us get better.
00:38:46
Speaker
And I think it's helped us, uh, reach another level on top of that as well. Um, um, And let's double click on that. What is he, what kind of things he added?
00:38:57
Speaker
So he came from coach, Ryan Russell, who has similar to coach cause a coach roof ah background is like, they want to see you guys get faster, have a track, ah speed background, right? Track train track athletes.
00:39:09
Speaker
So the way they see the game and the way they see it on the field is a little bit more how me and you see it rather than ah a traditional strength coach. So he brought that to Auburn. He brought that to UCF. He had that at Tennessee. All those places have been historically fast.
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah. When he came in, I've been running it. We've been running this program. We use some of the stuff that, uh, coach love enjoys some of the stuff that I brought back. And then he brought an outside lens in just to say, Hey, I think where we could improve is let's do some ISO starts, right? I know you've you've done those before. Yeah. So you're not in ISO starts or,
00:39:45
Speaker
He'll come up and talk to the players and have, how do I say it, like different language and it resonates a little bit better with them, if that makes sense. Yeah. um Just a different way of saying it, saying the same exact thing that like we'd be saying, but just says it a different way, but it actually resonates with that.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah. And then the way he programs his lift for the mids, leans itself to be better for the run as well. Rather than just focusing on getting bigger, big and strong mids, they're more, uh, athletic and more, and like just tailored to be, okay, these are the field days.
00:40:21
Speaker
We're going to like emphasize that. And then the, the weight room is going to build off of it rather than vice versa. It's a field day, but we're going to come in here and get him cooked so hard that they can't run the next day. ah Um, um,
00:40:34
Speaker
And I think like that has helped us out a lot with that. And then like Coach Love did another good job by letting us separate our runs a little bit. So now it's like me and Coach Kinsey take ah the skill in mid.
00:40:46
Speaker
So we warm up together, do this. We do what we call a daily skill. So we warm up together. We call it daily skill. And it's basically drill work that we do is like maybe like offense, defense, or a small unit.
00:40:57
Speaker
for just a little bit of time of things that we're going to see within the run. So maybe that's like ah overhead A series, right? Wall drill, whatever it might be. Banded like A run, stuff like that, that we'll see as like technique work before we start using it in the actual session. That way the session itself is just the run and the actual work. That way we can take more rest time because we already knocked everything else out.
00:41:22
Speaker
And then he'll take, they'll take the bigs when we get to that point and they'll put them off to the side, like on the other field, and and then they'll do their speed work on there. So they'll push more prowler, little bit heavier weight, shorter distance and go from there.
00:41:36
Speaker
Quick pause here. i want to talk about the universal speed rating. So many coaches I meet are just overwhelmed. They're running sessions, programming, dealing with parents and trying to prove their athletes are actually getting faster.
00:41:48
Speaker
One of the reasons why we built USR was to take some of this stress off the table. One software solution to help coaches test, track, and show improvement without adding hours to your week. If you feel like you're guessing with your speed training or drawing, trying to make sense of your data, hit the link in the description.
00:42:05
Speaker
Schedule a free consult and see how the USR can help. Looking ahead, okay, the next like five years, where do you see speed coaching in the NCAA going? Like where where's it gonna grow and have legs?
00:42:23
Speaker
uh this tough right um i think we're it's kind of the talk the industry right now um how do say this so with the nil happening i think strength coaches and sports staff just need to be aware of like the trend that that could be shifting to us because of nil yeah and in right here i think you'll see uh because right now college has all the money and the resources for strength coaches, uh, specifically football, like you can pay a football strength coach, like really good money.
00:42:57
Speaker
I think that what it's going to end up being like is more like NFL. Um, and I think for the tough part is for some Olympic coaches, like you might not get a raise that you might see because of this stuff. So you're like, you right when you talk about where to, in five years, where to see like a speed coach or anything, there's still be around, um,
00:43:17
Speaker
I don't think it's going to grow ah way more than what what it kind of is right now. I think we're at like the top end. Yeah. Because of the, you know, and what do they have to pay the players. You can see almost now too with like facilities. People aren't, they don't want to invest in facilities anymore. It's almost like the NFL model now, right?
00:43:32
Speaker
Because they already have great facilities. Yeah. why spend so much money on this when we can just go like buy, like spend money on a player?
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. And I think that's where people need to just like be aware of like what could be coming is like, I think, so to answer your question, speed coaches will still be around. I think golden era right now, like speed coaches.
00:43:56
Speaker
Is he going to get any better? Probably not. ah Where there'll be more people that come out with more advanced things and do things a little better. Sure. But from that aspect, don't see like the pay raises. You're not going to see like a billionaire strength coaches anymore.
00:44:10
Speaker
That's not just, yeah. Well, unless like, well, what, what do you think about private equity getting in, in this space? Yeah, if you did that, I could see. Yeah. But mean, I think it then becomes a business model, right? Almost like the NFL where you're entry level. So you you have X amount of years. This is your pay. Okay. You move up.
00:44:28
Speaker
This is your pay. You get a new title. This is your pay. It's not going to be like, oh, well, I can get this coach and pay him X amount. And like oh we can just keep giving him a raise. Right? It'll just be like, this is what it is.
00:44:39
Speaker
Because we ah we're paying the players on the field. you know So do you see you see college strength coaches or speed coaches like leaving the industry or moving to the NFL or doing a private thing? Like where do you where do you see them going?
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i don't see him leaving. If you love college, ah I think you're going stay in college. You know i mean Going to the NFL, what I've found is through the different interviews and stuff I've taken is it's not really – you aren't really looking too much for a speed coach because you don't have much time. Right. Yeah, I mean, it's not – it's yeah speed. You kind of know speed, but you got – they're not going to hire you just to come in and make guys fast. Yeah.
00:45:19
Speaker
Correct. Because like you have more time with the NFL athletes than I would if I was an NFL strength coach. Exactly. Yeah. um So what they're looking more for is, and and we kind of touched on it, but like if I'm a field guy, it's return to play. So do you know how to set the session? Do you know return to play? Do you know like modalities help get them back? Do you know like how to rehab this? And then can you work with
The Evolving Role of Performance Coaches
00:45:41
Speaker
certain different groups? right And I think where a field or a speed guy comes in, on like where they can make that really good,
00:45:48
Speaker
Because if you can program speed like you talked about, right? The developmental linear um vector. If you can do that with your whole program, then you bring it all the way back down. That's your rehab program as well. Now, there's some... The nerd too, right? But...
00:46:05
Speaker
That's where I see it going. So if you want to be set out here in the NFL, you have to know your progressions, regressions, how to use GPS, catapult, how to do the force sick force frame, um read the data, test guys, and in the different modalities like VFR and things like that to get him back better. yeah um You know what mean? So what you're saying is like the speed coach has average value, but a performance coach that can do speed, but also all these other modalities is like,
00:46:33
Speaker
If find I'm in private equity, I'm investing into a team, I'm probably hiring a guy that can, yeah, he can do speed, but he he does all these other pieces as well. And ah yeah, that makes sense. yeah people like you People like you and ah you know people giving away all these secrets are killing the speed coach industry and strength education because now everyone just buy your freaking shit. I appreciate that. I appreciate that.
00:46:58
Speaker
I want to know how you force lots of profiling and let's just send you out the function. there Just do it. Yeah, it's fine. Let's go. Oh, yeah. yeah ah I had an old intern hit me about ah doing kindergarten. He's like, yeah, I'm looking at like, let's just stuff. This stuff. I'm like, great. I was like, no, like, fuck you. he's Yeah, it's all. Yeah.
00:47:18
Speaker
I think that's why you have to stay ahead of the curve. So it's more or less like, yeah, okay. Most these athletes um can get faster just by normal sprinting. Right. and being And training. Because a lot of them are the training age so well.
00:47:31
Speaker
Where going to find out the best is like, Where you can find those little pieces to improve each person, individual, is where it's going to pay off the most. And then develop them and keep building on the consistency. Right.
00:47:42
Speaker
If you're consistent with it um and you take breaks from and stuff like never going to get to a level where you could. Right. Yeah. It's interesting because it's like if you look back, there's probably a time period where like when Olympic lifting first got really hot, colleges were like hiring people to teach Olympic lifting technique. And it was like, all right, get better at this, get better at this.
00:48:02
Speaker
Obviously, it's a little bit different terms the transfer. But, like, then eventually it was kind of like, well, I want to hire a coach that can teach Olympic lifting but also do the culture stuff and also do the rest of it and also the conditioning part. And then now with speed, it's like – it's one of the things we talked about on the last podcast. I listened back to it It's like we've over-indexed on speed. And while it's important and while it's sexy and it also sells, it's like it's just a piece of the whole.
00:48:29
Speaker
And it's not – It's not everything. And also to influence speed, there's multiple things. Like you have to be able to connect with the nutrition side and the strength side.
00:48:39
Speaker
Also understand the tactical side of football, um you know, because the football side determines what kind of physical profile you need, you know. um And then the sports science side, because like, I don't know, like just hearing that if I'm in college and I'm like, all right, there's good there's going to be less available money in five years than now.
00:49:00
Speaker
well, there's three people doing this job. Can I do all three jobs? You know, I'm thinking like that. Like, you know, like, can I learn sports science? Yeah. And that's why I think where people just need to keep ah learning. Right. But I think hit it on the head. um One of my favorite quotes from Coach Lanny is like, it doesn't matter if you run a four, three, if you run the wrong direction.
00:49:18
Speaker
Right. So technically you got to make sure everyone's good at football. I'd rather take a really good football player and just kind of help them little bit faster than like the ultimate fast guy that the can't play football. Facts. Yeah. Um, but then that brings up a good point when you talk about communication and like ah where the whole spectrum, right. Is like, it takes a whole culture.
00:49:37
Speaker
I think one of the things we talked about last year, we talked about process. Um, and that coach landing talked about with me and like some of the coordinators and coaches is like, We might have seen like some our guys get like smaller and just like a little bit slower as the season went on.
00:49:51
Speaker
right And they felt conceived. So we talked about how we set up practices. And then what the reality I called them straight up was, after say after fall camp, the rest of the speed and their condition and how they perform is on the coaches. Not...
00:50:07
Speaker
what we did in the off season, right? Because so off season gets you ready for fall camp. What you do in fall camp can like help or hinder those first couple games. And then how you practice throughout the weeks and how you set that with your undulation, like not just like on a micro level, macro level, that sets up your season as a whole. And and how do you, do you have like influence into like talking with those coaches and saying like, is there times where we can open this space up or do less players or more bigger rest periods? Like, do you have that ability now?
00:50:38
Speaker
yeah Not out here. So I talked with Ben, and then um we just come from here. Ben, coach Coach Love, and myself. And then Ben and Coach Love go talk to Coach Lanning.
00:50:52
Speaker
And then that's where he's really elite this season where he's come back and like, all right, hey, we're doing too much during this indie period. Pull back. All right, hey, I don't want use XYZ guys right now because their load is getting too high.
00:51:02
Speaker
And that's what to kept us fresh as we go along. I think he's been really elite. Now, there's times where he does say like, We got to put. Yeah. so Yeah. don't what the numbers say, but we got to go. And she's won a lot of games, man. He's one of the best coaches in the country. So I'm not going to argue against him because he knows what he's doing and he knows like w risk versus reward.
00:51:20
Speaker
But then he's been an elite where he'll push really hard. And then later in the week, he'll pull back a little bit. you know what vice versa, you know, we pull back early and then he'll push you a little bit harder. Um, so I think our process has been working up, like keeping the coaches informed and understanding that like now at this point, yeah, we're trying to keep them strong and healthy and maintain their tendons.
00:51:42
Speaker
But really what you guys are doing at practice and the load you're putting on them dictates a lot of what happens on Saturday and moving forward. Okay. I got a couple more questions for the goat here since he's on a bi-week.
00:51:53
Speaker
Um, what would you change in a college snc model like what would you adjust it's good question um
00:52:13
Speaker
that answer your questions i would uh
00:52:21
Speaker
I think I like more time with the athletes. um I think that because we're hindered by time, so you have fit so much things in. But what people don't understand, right, is like, so like in offseason, you're given X amount of time throughout the week.
00:52:35
Speaker
So you have to divvy up your days correctly. It is very hard to get guys ready for however long of a practice within like an hour long run time.
00:52:48
Speaker
Are they hour-long run and hour-long lift? And sometimes it is very hard to cram all that in. And then throughout a week, if you don't do it correctly, you can lead to injury, right? It's like, okay, practice is and a half hours. You have an hour to get them ready for it.
00:53:05
Speaker
That's done. So I take think time, having more time would be something I would like. I like that. All right, last question. Why the hell don't more colleges do combine training?
00:53:19
Speaker
it It makes no sense. And like, hear hear me out. Cause like, I think this is important. If you're not a top 100 pick, if you're not, that means whoever's signing you from an agent perspective is probably losing money on you initially. So they're making an investment. They're spending money you to go to someplace that has about half the resources of a college.
00:53:41
Speaker
Now, like, there's there's places, like, obviously, EXOS, XPE, US, Sports Academy. You got, like, a couple facilities that, you know, that do really, really, really good job that have the resources, that spend the money and do everything.
00:53:57
Speaker
I'll be honest, like, on our side, it's not, like, financially the the best idea, you know? um But, you know, we make it work. Not only do we have...
00:54:08
Speaker
weightlifting sessions. Then we have um football practice, right? Then there's like other rehab sessions you have. So it's that and it could be time consuming.
00:54:19
Speaker
On top of that, I don't know how every college works. So you say you have all these but ah facilities, stuff like that, sure. But they might not be getting Like if they, you know what mean? They might not be getting the food anymore or a check anymore. i don't know how all the hell they work, right?
00:54:34
Speaker
So now it's like, okay, ah well, getting all that, I should just go somewhere else and train, right? Got it. Yeah. It's like maybe their coach, they don't have like a speed coach that's done this before and done combine training. Right. Where actually you right some coaches, see a the truth is some strength coaches are just actually lazy and just don't want to do it.
00:54:50
Speaker
which yeah it's Yeah. It's a lot. I feel you. It's a lot. It's foul. You know what I mean? um But to me, it's like they do offer it.
00:55:01
Speaker
um I just think like there's a lot of factors that go into it. And
00:55:09
Speaker
besides who we can, bro, everyone thinks they're a top 100 pick. so all way Everybody. They're all going to try and go somewhere and get whatever else they can. I don't get it. I've told so many dudes to just stay at their school. If you're not getting drafted, then it's best for you to stay where you're at and train and do your thing. and I know we've collaborated on a couple of players before, and it's been great, but, like, i think man, it's tough. I think also, like, if you look at, like, you know, um,
00:55:36
Speaker
Social media. So when Tomlin time comes around, bro, everyone's boasting about how fast they got people. And it's crazy. Like, I think some of it's really impressive. I'm like, it's exciting to see, you know, but then it's like, okay, so they did that for him.
00:55:51
Speaker
that means that guy's probably better at his craft than what I'm getting here. So why would I not want to set myself up to go learn from like some of the best? Yeah. And it's ah I'll tell you straight up, it's not true. Like, I mean, honestly, like we, we do a good job in our, in our field and there's, there's other people that do a really good job.
00:56:10
Speaker
You spend the first two weeks just trying to understand who someone is now, like for a top 100 pick, like, It makes sense. Like, it you know, there's other pieces to the puzzle that are are bigger than just running fast from interview prep and, you know, everything. You have a chef, have your house. And we can really dive in and get deep with those players, which, to be honest, like you guys won't have enough time to do.
00:56:34
Speaker
But outside of those top 100, you don't have as many resources out there in the wild. And I think like when I look at the space right now in college, like there's a lot of really, really, really good speed coaches in college.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like incredible. don't know. i think ah one of them too, it's funny because like some of the guys, like um they'll come back and talk about what the difference is. Right. And like the players here will talk about like, oh like, so they went into that, you know, are we doing the same? Well,
00:57:03
Speaker
No, not really, because I'm training you for a specific task, not to run a 40. Right. like i'm not I'm not teaching you to like, we're we're still going to run fast and do all those things. I'm not spending eight weeks working on one thing when you have spring ball or summer coming up. You know what I mean? like Right. no things got get hit Not only on top of that, but like their lifting is tailored to just run fast.
00:57:26
Speaker
Yeah. All the lifting is tailored more to get you ready for season and make sure you can take a hit and stuff like that. Football player, be a football player. Yeah. And like the, you know, some guys might get their body count better going to, um, a combine prep place where here it's like the coaches might want them to say to a certain weight where right like we need you at to stay around this weight where like you go to comment, right? Like, Hey, if you lose x amount of weight, you're gonna run faster. the guys lose it.
00:57:50
Speaker
And you know what I mean? And, um, I think that's been like uh, Not a challenge, but it's a good conversation that like some of the players ask. Like, okay, so they're doing that here because they have all the friends saying what they're doing and stuff like that. Yeah. You're like, do we do some of that here? Well, we'll touch on some of it. Yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
Like, we're going hit some the speed. We're going to some same exact training. But just understand the goals are separate. They're going to go run a 40. Right. You're going to go play football. Right. Complete difference. Now, with your time, you just want to have that, like ah you said, like – Once you're talking about that three or four years of being trained and having a training, that way when you go there, you can pick up and go fast. Because what I told all these guys, and um you helped me out with this, is if you do, if we do we're supposed to do, you go to national championship, that eats into your training time for the combine.
00:58:34
Speaker
You play the senior bowl, eats into training time for the combine. Because you have to take time off, do all this other shit, right? And then you break all the way down. Now you have a limited amount of time. So 16 days.
00:58:45
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. So now you need to six one you need to do everything you can while you're here in school to prep yourself. So if that's mechanics, if that's sprinting, if that's getting extra speed work, extra jumps, making sure like your body's healthy, eating correctly, hydrating to set yourself up.
00:59:02
Speaker
So when you go there, you're not a step behind everyone that season ended early and they've been with you for extra time. That's the key. it It's really you guys, like, especially now with with the changing landscape, it's, it's, there's only so much that we can actually do.
00:59:16
Speaker
i remember the Oregon guys we had last year, but we had 13 to 15 days. That was it. Of training. That was it. that It's not like, what what are you going to do in those? I mean, teach us dance. Yeah.
00:59:28
Speaker
you know, load them a little bit, unload them. And, you know, you know, my philosophy is more to do with the taper than, than anything else. Like whatever speed gains you're getting, it's, it's from the rebound effect of what you just did. Also, we had the benefit of not having to wear shoulder pads and play football and, know,
00:59:45
Speaker
do all the other things. So like you have that. um But yeah, man, it's, it's wild, but no, I appreciate you having this conversation, dude. I know you guys will be number one in a couple of weeks and you'll probably ignore my calls. So I'm glad I got it in now before you you get too big.
01:00:02
Speaker
know. I hadn't better luck getting you down to TCU than Eugene, Oregon, bro. So I gotta, it's also the hardest place in the world to get to. Man, if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure you had meetings with Phil Knight all the time. I've i've never met Phil Knight. I would love to meet Mr. Phil Knight. I would love to. But I heard ah Phil has got you private jet, so I'm glad to, you know, if you can do if you want to send it for me. it's not for me, I'm still waiting on it, bro. All right, it's coming. But I appreciate you, bro. This has been great. Yeah, I appreciate it, brother.