Voluntary Summer Workouts

gangrene · July 6, 2007

I know UT held "voluntary" summer practices in mid-June on the roof of Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Complex. At the very minimum, strength and conditioning coach, Jeff "Mad Dog" Madden was coaching. I'll post the entire article from the Austin American-Statesman because they require readers to sign up Hazy days of summer don't make for lazy Longhorns:

LONGHORNS FOOTBALL

Hazy days of summer don't make for lazy Longhorns

Football team is in high preparation for this fall, although it's all unsupervised.

By Suzanne Halliburton

AMERICAN STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Summer's hot and hazy days are dead time for the Longhorns football team — technically. Coaches can't coach or force a player to practice or work in the weight room.

But the days between now and the start of fall camp Aug. 5 are anything but inactive. Many Longhorns are putting in almost as much time now as they will in fall drills.

Quarterback Colt McCoy, right, and other members of the Texas football team do resistance training on the roof of Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Complex at Royal-Memorial Stadium. McCoy says he is up to 210 pounds and expects to be more durable this season.

Texas football players improve their conditioning during a workout on campus. Coaches have limited contact with players, who have reported more participation in the voluntary practices than ever.

Take Nate Jones' schedule. The senior receiver is enrolled in 15 hours of summer school, which sets him up to graduate in December. He needs to be in Round Rock every morning by 8:30 for an internship at a middle school. He rushes back to campus by 11:30 a.m. to run with his teammates. He grabs a quick lunch, then it's off to 90 minutes of class and 90 minutes of weight lifting.

It's much the same for defensive end Brian Orakpo. He arrives at campus by 6:45 a.m. His day of classes, running and workouts ends at 2:30 p.m.

There isn't one game this fall that's driving the players this summer. Rather, it's the collective distaste of what happened in 2006 — a 10-3 season that ended with a victorious trip to the Alamo Bowl — that allows for a sunrise wake-up call.

"You've got to move on ... but those three losses were big losses," Jones said. "We never want that to happen again. We're moving on, but we just can't wait to play the teams we lost to. We're really looking forward to those games."

Like they started doing in the summer of 2005, the Longhorns are conducting twice-a-week scrimmages, although no tackling is allowed. Quarterback Vince Young organized the 11-on-11 scrimmages in 2005. His successor, sophomore Colt McCoy, is now in charge.

Texas quarterbacks always have used summer to bond with their receivers. Back in 2002, Chris Simms took his guys home with him to New Jersey. Young paid special attention to his receivers in 2005, knowing that the season before, the passing game hadn't been an offensive strength. But he also changed the format, inviting the linemen to join and beef up the 7-on-7 drills. In past years, the big guys had stayed inside the weight room,

McCoy looked like everyone's kid brother a year ago as he tried to take Young's lead. After McCoy's 29 touchdown passes last fall earned him national freshman of the year honors, his teammates are paying attention this summer when he text messages them or scrawls notes on the bulletin board.

"It was hard last (summer) to earn respect, because you had to do it on the field," McCoy said. "We've made lots of progress this year."

The greatest change for McCoy this summer is his diet. He's added 15 pounds by eating six mini-meals a day while dropping sweets and fried foods. McCoy concedes that he misses his usual snacks of milk and Oreos but knows that he's more durable at 210 pounds.

Players report more participation in summer drills than ever. For the first time in Mack Brown's decade at Texas, all players, including the incoming freshmen, are enrolled in at least one session of summer school at UT.

So there is much activity around the football offices, even though NCAA rules mandate that coaches have little contact with players in the summer. Coaches can make small talk but can say nothing about a zone read or blitz. There also can be no organized, X-and-O-type meetings. No coach can watch the 90-minute scrimmages.

Nor can they keep track of who is attending the voluntary workouts. Members of the Longhorns strength and conditioning staff and the team trainers can be on hand, though, to make sure no one gets hurt.

Players can talk to their academic advisers. And Cleve Bryant and George Wynn, who are in charge of football operations, can meet with players on procedural issues.

Coaches also are limited in recruiting. They can write, e-mail and text message recruits, but there is no off-campus visiting. They can initiate recruiting calls with high school seniors starting Sept. 1.

Brown will take off most of July on vacation, heading to the North Carolina mountains. There's a skeleton crew working in the coaching offices, with one coordinator and one assistant assigned to be on campus each week.

The players, meanwhile, are enjoying whatever down time they can find — such as the weekends, when the workouts and classes cease.

"I can just kick up my feet," Jones said, "and sit on the sofa."

More on this story - photo slide

shalliburton@statesman.com; 445-3954

Click on the photo slide link. If you are able to view the photos, you'll notice Coach Mad Dog in several photos...does that look like supervision to you???

Coach Urban Meyer did the same thing at the University of Utah: Meyer: voluntary workouts

I pulled a few highlights from the article.

He expects 100 percent participation by his players in the voluntary summer workout program that he says is the key to whether Utah starts his coaching tenure with the kind of bang he produced in his two years at Bowling Green, where he took over a 2-9 program with six straight losing seasons and went 17-6 with a No. 20 national ranking in two seasons. Through his years as an assistant at places like Ohio State, Notre Dame and Colorado State, Meyer, 38, observed the things that made those teams respected winners, and he fully expects Utah to reach that class.

"What's the difference between Arizona State, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, Washington, Ohio State and Utah?" Meyer asks. "In my mind, nothing.

"That's the mentality that we've got to have. We're going to train the same way they are. We're going to work the same way they are because that's our goal, to reach the upper echelon of college football."

That's the attitude and mentality we have to have as well.

untbowler · July 6, 2007

Arkansas has also been doing some voluntary workouts also. They were talking about it on the noise and paper earlier this week.

KRAM1 · July 6, 2007

Folks, lots of Big Time D-1 schools have "voluntary" summer workouts. Funny thing...when I was in high school...we had "voluntary summer workouts" that started in early July (nice and cool, huh?) and kept going right up until "official" start day for workouts. Nothing new here...BUT...is UNT holding such "voluntary" workouts? I'll bet if not, that there are plenty of the players working out in small groups "on their own"...anybody know what the scoop is on this? So, the question is....how serious are we about BIG TIME FOOTBALL? Better yet, how serious are our players about being the best that they can be? Pretty serious, I think...so, my guess is...some workouts of the voluntary sort are going on.....GO MEAN GREEN....buy season tickets and get your "thing" in the seat this fall...and, O.K., be in your seat BEFORE KICK-OFF! :lol:

gangrene · July 6, 2007

So, the question is....how serious are we about BIG TIME FOOTBALL? Better yet, how serious are our players about being the best that they can be? Pretty serious, I think...so, my guess is...some workouts of the voluntary sort are going on.....

That's my hope, but I haven't seen anything posted on GMG or Vito's blog. The U of Texas certainly isn't trying to hide the fact that they held their voluntary workouts and I doubt that TD would want to keep that information secret from UNT fans either. I'm just hoping we didn't drop the ball on the "voluntary" workouts because this team will need every last second to learn the schemes and timing of the offense. We won't have a lot of time to get back into "football shape" this fall.

Speaking of learning the offense...the fact that SLC has been executing the same offense from grade school to high school means that they should (and do) know how to execute the offense flawlessly by the time they are varsity starters. I have to admit, that does have me a little worried. How long do you think it will take the Mean Green to get comfortable with the new offense and learn to execute it the way SLC does?? I read somewhere that the team had 15 total spring practices prior to the Green/White game. If we start fall practice on August 2, that will give us exactly 30 days before we take the field against OU in Norman. Maybe someone that has the ability to create a poll can start a new thread about this...I'd love to put my fears at ease by hearing reassurances from my Mean Green brethren that our offense will be well-oiled and running on all cylinders by September 1, 2007.

greenminer · July 6, 2007

I thought I remember reading somewhere here on gmg.com that Vizza was seen slinging it around with the receivers.

GreenMachine · July 7, 2007

I thought I remember reading somewhere here on gmg.com that Vizza was seen slinging it around with the receivers.

Quoner is going to have a new best friend if you keep talking like that.

greenminer · July 7, 2007

Quoner is going to have a new best friend if you keep talking like that.

No doubt. Is it bad that Qunoer is the first person I think of before I click 'add reply'? Sometimes I choose to phrase a sentence the way I do just to see what he can do with it.

GreenMachine · July 7, 2007

No doubt. Is it bad that Qunoer is the first person I think of before I click 'add reply'? Sometimes I choose to phrase a sentence the way I do just to see what he can do with it.

I've used some Quonerisms in important business meetings.