They’re going to pump you up

It's a team effort in the Rice weight room (Mark Anderson photo)
McKnight, Beauchamp work
to transform Owl physiques

That's the way the ball bounces.... ...Unpredictably, that is, as Rice head coach David Bailiff counsels one of his linebackers during spring drills (PTH photo)

By Mark Anderson

Yes, he is switching positions from tight end to defensive tackle, but that’s a minor transformation compared to the one that he has already undergone. Moss has been transformed physically, mentally, and emotionally by the Hans und Franz of the Rice coach staff – the strength and conditioning coaches Yancy McKnight and Adam Beauchamp.

Will Moss' transformation from a schoolboy to that of a Division I college football player started when Yancy and Adam were added to the Rice staff. "When Yancy first came in, we were a little too blubbery, I guess he thought," Will told us. "What he tried to do was strip is down to get us physically and mentally tough and hard. Once he had accomplished that, he began working on technique and making us powerful."

Moss pointed out once Yancy had accomplished that, the attention turned from getting in shape to increasing size. "This year, he got to bulk us up a little bit more," he added.

That would appear to be a rather modest assessment, because, as of today, Will Moss is one that Yancy points to as one of the strongest players on the team. When Moss arrived, he bench pressed 385 pounds, squatted 400, and power-cleaned 300 pounds. Today, Will squats 450 pounds, benches 407--the third highest on the team at the end of the summer session—and power clears 320 pounds. That’s an additional 92 pounds in those three areas for Will since Yancy arrived.

The benchmark for Yancy:  Power Clean

One standard used to measure strength for a football player for many years now is how much a player can bench press. According to Yancy, his standard of a player’s strength doesn’t come by using the bench-press as the benchmark. His standard is the power-clean.

While Moss may in fact be one of the strongest, McKnight measures who is the strongest not by how much weight they can lift, but first by the player’s weight and how much he lifts in comparison to his body weight. "I think that’s fairer," Yancy told us. Coach McKnight and Coach Beauchamp want to encourage each player to do their best in the weight room no matter what their body weight might be. Going by that measurement has some eye-opening results. By those standards, the strongest Owl, pound for pound, is Brian Raines.

This is rather surprising when you consider that Brian is coming off a shoulder injury that he played with all year in 2006. After having it repaired surgically in the off-season, many would not expect Raines to be rated the strongest Owl pound for pound at this point. It is a credit to Brian’s work ethic, and to the strength and conditioning staff that would bring Raines this far in the off-season. Raines has also added twenty pounds to his frame this off-season, and now weighs in at 225 instead of 205.

You might say Raines has been supersized—minus the Big Macs.

Will and Brian are not the only strong men on this team. Twenty-three players at this writing are able to power-clear 300 pounds. One of those twenty-three is punter/kicker Luke Juist. You read that right—Juist can power clean over 300 pounds. Take one look at him now, and as McKnight said, "He’s big enough to play linebacker." At 6’1" and 210 pounds, Yancy isn’t kidding, either. But as strong as Luke Juist is, he’s not in the top five, according to Yancy and Adam.

Another one who is impressive in the power-clean is Jarett Dillard. Dillard power-cleans 315 pounds—that’s 140 pounds more than he weighs. Ever wonder why defenders go flying when Dillard stiff-arms them? You now have your answer.

Players credit strength coach for last year's last-minute wins

When you talk to the players about last season, and the last minute wins over UAB, ECU, and SMU, the talk doesn’t turn toward the coaching staff that was here. Instead, pretty much to a man they credit Yancy McKnight and Adam Beauchamp for preparing them for those moments.

"Not only were we physically ready, but we were mentally prepared to handle whatever our opponents threw at us." Moss said. He added, "Whenever we got down to those really tough close games, we had been in those tough situations on the field with Yancy before," he pointed out. "They would put us through stuff every day that tested us and put us through the grind. When we got in those tough situations in a game, we knew that we’d been through tougher and we could come out of it."

"They’ve got us pumped up," Robby Heos, senior offensive lineman told us. "We’re a lot stronger, a lot faster. Half the team is power cleaning over 300 pounds now, and it’s exciting. We’re all explosive, everyone is confident about next year."

What Coach McKnight and Coach Beauchamp have done with this team goes beyond how much a player can bench press or squat, however. This team has what they refer to as agility. Players have to start from motionless to explosive in a single step. That’s where the other side of the strength and conditioning staff trains every player not just to move, but to do it quickly.

One of the ways that Coach McKnight and Coach Beauchamp accomplish this is speed and agility training on the field. Last Tuesday, for instance, there were four stations set up, with each station addressing a particular area. When you combine all four stations, every move that a football player makes on the field had been addressed.

"You’ve got to have that straight ahead speed," Coach Beauchamp said. He then asked, "How often do you run straight ahead for a long period of time? We spend a lot of time training that multi-directional speed."

These agility and speed drills have one other thing factored into then—reacting to a situation on the field. "It’s not about going from cone to cone. It’s about being able to react to a different set of commands," Coach Beauchamp said. If you are fast but cannot react, your speed is useless on a football field. "They have to be able to react and get out of those multi-movements into a different movement," Beauchamp said.

In the off-season workouts, however, agility and explosiveness are addressed in a number of ways. One drill that the players go through is starting by sitting still on a seat about knee-level to them. On signal, they go from that chair to a vertical jump—from 42 inches to some as high as 46 inches to land on a padded area. You would expect guys like Jarett Dillard to excel in this. But what about someone like veteran offensive lineman David Berken? David has increased his explosiveness by being able to do this as well. The rest of the offensive and defensive linemen have done the same.

Results of S&C seen on the field

Last year was unquestionably one of the most exciting seasons in many years on Main Street with fantastic finishes over UAB, ECU, and SMU. While the "x’s and o’s" had something to do with those finishes, senior Robby Heos credits those last second wins to the off-season preparation the team went through with Coaches McKnight and Beauchamp.

"Yeah, definitely, if it weren’t for them, those last second finishes wouldn’t have happened for us," Robby told the Webletter. "I think with that extra endurance, that extra boost of energy, just by having Yancy and Coach Beauchamp in there with us in the weight room, and keeping us going, it got us going all the way through the fourth quarter and even a fifth quarter."

Talent can only take you as far as your endurance level. The Owls were able to pull out fourth quarter wins because they had been physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared through the Tour of Duty that took place in mid-February through March, and a demanding summer program for the first time.

It is said that success is when preparation meets opportunity. Opportunity came knocking last year, and because they were prepared, they were able to go through the door of success for the first time as a team.

Coach Beauchamp, when told what the players said about the reason for the success of last year, smiled and said, "That’s great, and we appreciate that. That’s a great statement from our kids." But Beauchamp very quickly insisted, "Those kids are the reason we won games last year. What they invested, in the program in the winter to summer, and even into the season is a testament to those games."

"The groundwork was laid in January," Beauchamp said.

When Coach McKnight and Coach Beauchamp joined Rice early in 2006, everyone—the players, coaches, and fans—wanted different results than the previous year. It’s said that to do the same thing and expect different results is insanity.

Yancy McKnight and Adam Beauchamp are rational men. They knew things had to change. So how did they do it?

Coach McKnight pointed to changing the way things were done training wise as a key to the change. "What we expect out if them, as far as their effort, things like that, and by doing things right and being held accountable," Yancy said. "I’m not saying that’s what they weren’t doing before, but that’s how we do stuff.

"I think the kids’ work ethic was always there. I just think it needed to be amped up a few notches," said Coach McKnight."

"Amped up" might be a good description for it, especially if you ever walk in the weight room. "I think as a strength staff last year, that’s what we did," McKnight continued. "Training at a different intensity level, where the expectations are a little higher [of the players].

"Also, just including the summer program was obviously a big difference. I think that was evident going into summer camp," McKnight explained.

Coach Beauchamp added, "It’s the environment we set for these guys, whether it being the weight room, or out running, or whatever it is. We try to prepare them for a football situation, and it is an intense environment, and that’s what we try to simulate on a daily basis."

Frosh get introduction  to weight room

Jake Shaw and Kramer Lucio are just two of the incoming freshmen players for Rice this season. When asked about the effects that Yancy and Adam were having on them already, both smiled.

Kramer Lucio, a defensive lineman, talked about his introduction to Yancy and Adam. He smiled and said, "They push you pretty hard. They get you ready for the season." One thing that does happen is Coach Beauchamp works especially with the incoming freshmen to prepare them for a new world called college football. As Kramer put it, "They’re getting us freshmen ready, because we haven’t experienced college football yet."

Jake Hicks, an offensive lineman, noted several changes since he’s been on campus. "When we came in, we were used to the high school way of doing things, which is a lot slower, and a lot slower paced," Hicks told us. "They gave us about four weeks to get ready to join the varsity. And in that four weeks, we had to learn how to get directions faster, and learn how to move quicker and stay motivated."

When asked if he could tell a difference since he started in the summer, Jake said, "You can see the results within four weeks. You can see you start breathing harder later, and your muscles start to burn out a lot later."

Hicks isn’t the only one noticing results during the summer. Robby Heos has taken notice. "I’ve seen some big changes in the offensive line, especially with the new guys that are coming in. There’s a lot of guys that are already getting stronger. They’ve been here two months, so I can see a big change in two months," said Heos.  

Perhaps something hidden from view in all this is something that begins in the weight room and shows up on the field— in that weight room, these young men can better be molded into a team. These guys don’t have headphones on while they’re doing their weight-lifting. They’re paying attention and applauding the efforts and accomplishments that happen in the weight room.

This writer got to witness this first-hand last Friday as Marcus Knox was trying to set a personal record for bench press at 392 pounds. As Marcus lowered the weights down they hit his chest—and if you have ever had that happen with that much weight, you know how it hurts. As Marcus tried to press the weight bacjk up and lock his arms, it seemed that for seconds, neither the weight nor Marcus was moving, in a struggle to see who would be the victor.

As this struggle took place, teammates came to Marcus’ side. With Yancy and his teammates encouraging him on, slowly the weights began to go up until Marcus locked his arms in triumph, to the loud cheers of Yancy and his teammates.

Last year, there was a close bond between the players on the Rice football team. That bond didn’t happen over two-a-day workouts. It began in the weight room, working with Yancy McKnight and Adam Beauchamp.

"Our guys are going to come into camp, give great effort, and be motivated—encourage one another at all times, because that’s what we demand and expect from them every day in what we’re doing," Coach Beauchamp said.

All American? No problem....

Rice DB Chris Douglass (L) appears to have the angle on Owl pre-season All-American Jarrett
Dillard during the April 14 Blue-Grey Game, in which the defense out-pointed the offense, 26-18.
(Mark Anderson photo)